Just as with TV and movies, video games provide otherworldly experiences for many people to enjoy and the advertisements they create must reflect that. Marketing has become a very niche market in that specific strategies must be used to attract the desired audience. Names like PlayStation, Nintendo, and Xbox have made it their mission to create unique ads that attract gamers from all over the world. Here are five of the most creative ads for games and what made them special.
Sega and Nintendo Rivalry
Sega leaped where Nintendo wouldn’t and ran an ad featuring Joe Montana and Michael Jackson called “Genesis does what Nintendon’t”. Sega needed something fresh to beat the popular Super Mario game and came up with Sonic the Hedgehog. The ad did incredibly well to put Sega on the map during the early 90s and Sonic soon became a favourite among young gamers. What made this ad ground-breaking was that it introduced
16-bit graphics instead of NES and Mario’s 8-bit.
Double Life
This fantastic revelation came from PlayStation with its iconic idea of leading a double life when you’re a gamer. Games are filled with fantasy worlds and experiences most people will never have in real life. This ad did a phenomenal job by showing how people of all ages, genders, and races can command armies and lead nations when they are playing PlayStation games. Games that promote a narrative of fantasy islands and zombie apocalypses also include casinos like
Ruby Fortune casino where the ads show unrealistic lives of avatars.
Xbox’s Mad World
Gamers often become so encapsulated by a game that it feels real. Games like Gears of War 3 are action-packed with soldiers fighting all kinds of creatures. The game itself will give you goosebumps and make your heart both race up and speed down by using specific music during gameplay. The ad for this game is from an action scene but shown in slow motion with Gary Jule’s
Mad World playing.
Halo 3: Believe
An interesting perspective, the ad promoting Halo 3 showed no moving gameplay or audio. Each shot was a still image showing massive explosions and shootouts between soldiers with anguish and pain on their faces. This ad hit home for many gamers by capturing the
consequences of war and pushing your emotions with a beautifully played piano piece.
Microsoft’s We All Win
This heart-warming ad showed the life of a young gamer with
Escobar syndrome, and how physically disabled people can connect with friends through video games. This ad was to introduce Microsoft’s Adaptive Controller in which bigger and more accessible buttons could be customised to different functions to act like the usual controller. This product was revolutionary for the physically disabled and showed that gaming can be for everyone. Microsoft has made amazing efforts like this to include every type of person.Advertising has become a competitive market and all game and console producers try their best to get the most attention. These ads are highly popular due to the creative methods used to include celebrities with cameo appearances and targeting their audience’s emotions and showing a world where they can escape from reality.-