1. The Promotion and Marketing of Video Games
GCSE Media Studies Set Topic

2. Top Ten Video Games 2012 Call of Duty: Black Ops II – Activision
FIFA 13 - Electronic Arts
Assassin's Creed III – Ubisoft
Halo 4 – Microsoft
Hitman Absolution - Square Enix
Just Dance 4 – Ubisoft
Far Cry 3 – Ubisoft
FIFA 12 - Electronic Arts
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Bethesda
Borderlands 2 - 2K Games

3. How are video games promoted and marketed?
In a word doc, list as many strategies and methods for promoting and marketing video games as you can think of.

4. How are video games promoted and marketed?
print advertisements
large posters/billboards
trailers
television advertisements
websites
use of social networking
merchandise
press releases
previews/reviews
public appearances/premiers
celebrity endorsement

5. The Key Concepts Key Concepts Media Language Representation Audience
Institutions

6. Applying the key concepts to a promotional campaign
Just Dance 4 - Ubisoft

10. Video Promo

11. How does the Just Dance 4 trailer use media language and representation to promote the game?

12. How does the Just Dance 4 trailer use media language and representation to promote the game?
Features of media language
Representations?
Camera
Angle
Shots
Movement
Mis-en-scene
Editing
Sound

13. Iconography – the Just Dance brand

14. Planning your answer Focus on one key point in each paragraph
Ensure each paragraph refers back to the question
Ensure each paragraph uses media terminology
Use specific examples from the text

15. Feedback from Just Dance 4 trailer analysis
How does the Just Dance 4 trailer use media language and representation to promote the game?
All of you explained what the media language was
Most of you explained what the representations were
Some of you explained how the media language and representations helped to promote the game

16. Feedback from Just Dance 4 trailer analysis
How does the Just Dance 4 trailer use media language and representation to promote the game?
All of you explained what the media language was
Most of you explained what the representations were
Some of you explained how the media language and representations helped to promote the game

17. Appealing to audiences
Audience theory in relation to video game promotion

18. Uses and Gratifications Theory
This theory states that audiences are attracted to media texts that are USEFUL or which provide them with some GRATIFICATION (pleasure)
Blumler and Katz (1979) theorised that these uses and gratifications fell into four categories:
Diversion – something to pass the time
Personal Relationships – something which allows you to make more productive friendships, for example by giving you something to talk to your friends about
Personal Identity – something which allows you to define who you are
Surveillance – something which allows you to find out about the world around you

19. Uses and Gratifications Theory
David Morley (1991) argued that there were five types of uses and gratifications:
Cognitive (learning – the text helps you find out something)
Affective (the text affects you and provides emotional satisfaction)
Tension Release (the text allows you to relax or let off steam)
Personal Integrative (the text helps you to define your own personal identity)
Social Integrative (the text helps you with social interactions e.g. by providing a topic of conversation or way or interacting with others)

20. Richard Dyer’s Utopian Solutions
“Utopia” is an imaginary ideal world
Richard Dyer argues that “entertainment offers the image of ‘something better’ to set against the realities of day-to-day existence.”
This is the idea of “escapism”
Inside the world of a video game your existence can be “better” than in the reality of day-to-day existence

21. Richard Dyer’s Utopian Solutions
Real World Problem
Entertainment World Utopian Solution
Exhaustion
Dreariness
Boredom
Fragmentation/Loneliness
Scarcity/poverty
Energy
Intensity
Excitement
Community/companionship
Abundance/wealth

22. The idea of aspiration
Aspiration is the idea of wanting something better than what you have
Advertising, marketing and promotional material will often present an idealised representation of the world – a Utopian Solution – as audiences will aspire to that lifestyle and its trappings

23. Idealised representations in Just Dance 4

24. How does the Just Dance 4 trailer use representations to appeal to its audience?
Use audience theories in your answer
What uses and gratifications does the trailer suggest the game offers?
What utopian solutions does the trailer suggest the game offers?
Give examples of idealised representations that create audience aspirations