Acclaim makes list of top guerrilla marketers [Joystiq]

[DP ServBot]

Filed under: Culture (http://www.joystiq.com/category/culture/)
http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2007/06/acclaim.jpg (http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/06/acclaim-lands-o.html)Magazine Mental Floss has listed the the Top 10 greatest guerrilla marketers, and publisher Acclaim Entertainment made the list. If you need a quick refresh, guerrilla marketing is pretty much anything not normal advertising. It can be some guy using a new product you've never seen before in your local Starbucks who's a plant, it could be a comment troll in a forum or an ARG, like what Halo 3 is doing (http://www.joystiq.com/2007/06/20/halo-arg-sends-300-calls-to-unwitting-college-student/). Acclaim made the list (http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/06/acclaim-lands-o.html) for having some of the more insane marketing stunts in gaming. They include:

Offering cash to the first five UK citizens who'd legally change their name to Turok, apparently 3,000 people offered.
Shadow Man 2 they offered relatives of the newly dead to put promotional ads on the headstones of their recently deceased. They pulled that one.
Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance they apparently considered "bloodvertising," which would have bus shelter ads seep a red liquid onto the street.
And finally, offering to pay all speeding tickets in the UK the day Burnout 2 released. They had to retract this one also because of the potential danger.What's the lesson to be learned from this? If you can't make good games, at least have good marketing.

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[Rob2600]

DP ServBot, I posted something similar two weeks ago in this thread:

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=101522&page=2

To promote Burnout 2: Point of Impact, Acclaim offered to refund the fines of any driver caught by speed cameras on the day of the game's debut.

To promote Turok: Evolution, Acclaim offered $10,000 to people who would name their newborn babies "Turok." Acclaim also offered $500 to up to five adult gamers who would change their name to "Turok" for a year.

In another stunt to promote Turok: Evolution, 25-year-old Jason Read claimed he was planning on breaking the world record for the longest time standing in line, beginning on July 18, 2002, and ending six weeks later with the debut of the new Turok game. He was equipped with a tent, game console, TV, and portable generator, all supplied by Acclaim. Newspapers had covered the story and the next day, Jason Read was gone.

To promote Shadow Man: 2econd Coming, Acclaim offered to pay for the funerals of the recently deceased in return for the right to place small billboards advertising the new game on their headstones.

[Jorpho]

And those are just the high profile ones. Remember the UK posters for that other Turok game that read like an endangered species PSA? Or the vertical Internet banners featuring various bleeding ears, noses, etc?

I'm so glad they're gone.

[Push Upstairs]

They'll always have "Mortal Monday".

[mailman187666]

I never knew Acclaim was so insane. Just imagine if they had made the Grand Theft Auto series, pay for everybody's bail for stealing someone's car and getting it on tape wearing a GTA T-Shirt.

totally off topic, I know a tattoo parlor that will give you a free tattoo if you put one of thier promotional bumper stickers on a cop car and take a picture. I could probably get away with that, but wouldn't wanna try.

[Gapporin]

And I thought it was just because Acclaim was run by a bunch of monkeys.

[ubikuberalles]

So, was veronica_marsfan on that list of top guerrilla marketers? :D Oh, wait, probably not since he would have had to be successful at it. Getting banned from various forums because of his viral marketing posts is not the mark of a successful marketer.