Giles Palmer, CEO, Brandwatch, explains how his team monitoring the buzz around the launch of Tour of Duty: Black Ops and other games, to enhance marketing impact.

1. THE IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
MONITORING IN THE VIDEO GAMES INDUSTRY
May 2011
Giles Palmer | giles@brandwatch.com | @joodoo9
© 2011 Brandwatch | www.brandwatch.com 1

2. OVERVIEW
• How we approach social media monitoring
• Our work for Activision
• Insights into how timing and nature of content can drive
conversation
© 2011 Brandwatch | www.brandwatch.com 2

3. APPROACH
1) DEFINE
Brand, product, title
Agree, competitor set
2) CONFIGURE
Create ‘test’ query
Configure and
clean
3) COLLATING DATA
Report on: volume, topics,
media mix, top sites,
sentiment, competitor
context, share of voice, 4) ANALYSIS
mentions over time Analyse results for
trends and provide
insight
5) RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on analysis and
insights – in line with other
proposed activity
© 2011 Brandwatch | www.brandwatch.com 3

4. PURPOSE
REPUTATION MANAGEMENT
By continually monitoring what is being said about your brand
online, we can actively engage with customers and manage your
brand’s reputation online.
INFLUENCER CAMPAIGN
IDENTIFICATION TRACKING
We deep dive into An important part of any
conversations about campaign is how people
your brand, to see who respond to it. With
is talking the most, and social media monitoring
the loudest, and who is we can determine what
the most influential so impact your campaigns
that we can target them are having in social
in our campaigns. spaces.
BUSINESS INSIGHTS MARCOMMS INSIGHTS
Listening to what is being said We can learn a lot about the
about you and your competitors’ target audience just by
brands can provide great insight listening to what they are
into the market place and can saying online. This can help
help direct important business produce effective campaigns
decisions. that are grounded in insight.
© 2011 Brandwatch | www.brandwatch.com 4

5. WHAT WE DID
We produced reports for Activision’s key titles in at least
5 languages
• Star Wars: The Force Unleashed • Goldeneye
• Guitar Hero 6 • Call of Duty: Black Ops
• DJ Hero 2 • True Crime
• Tony Hawk: Shred • Blur
• Transformers
These reports include an overview and analysis of what is being
said about the titles, where its being said, and also recommended
activity for the titles.
© 2011 Brandwatch | www.brandwatch.com 5

6. HOW WE DID IT
• Created search-strings and query-groups
• Bespoke dashboards to mirror report format
• Over 80 users
© 2011 Brandwatch | www.brandwatch.com 6

7. GAMES MARKET
• Every game is different, but they follow a pattern
• Issue for the industry of pre-owned sales
*DLC means downloadable content
© 2011 Brandwatch | www.brandwatch.com 7

8. CALL OF DUTY BLACK OPS
• Burst campaign
• Massive launch
• Multiplayer focus
• Video clip sharing
© 2011 Brandwatch | www.brandwatch.com 8

9. CALL OF DUTY BLACK OPS
Game released
Jeep Wrangler
COD Edition
Various general
game conversations
Single player
‘Wager match’ ‘First Strike’
Multiplayer trailer
mode announced DLC announced
Trailer
Prestige edition 3DTV support
announced announced
© 2011 Brandwatch | www.brandwatch.com 9

10. HALO REACH
• Longer burn campaign
• Multiplayer focus
• Video clip sharing
© 2011 Brandwatch | www.brandwatch.com 10

11. HALO REACH
User reviews and
general conversations
Game released
DLC map pack
Forge World map editor announced
and limited edition Halo:
Reach Xbox 360 Slim
announced General conversations
Cinematic trailer
Black Friday
E3 Cinematic trailer retail deals
© 2011 Brandwatch | www.brandwatch.com 11

12. CALL OF DUTY VS HALO
© 2011 Brandwatch | www.brandwatch.com 12

13. ASSASSINS CREED BROTHERHOOD
• Single player, introducing multiplayer
• Well-structured DLC calendar
• Trailer heavy campaign
© 2011 Brandwatch | www.brandwatch.com 13

14. ASSASSINS CREED BROTHERHOOD
Game released User reviews and
(US then EU) general conversations
General conversations
Multiplayer open
BETA and trailer ‘Animus Project
1.0’ free DLC
released ‘Animus Project
New ‘Enter 2.0’ free DLC
Story line trailer
Rome’ trailer released
PS3 DLC
Announcement of
announced
collectors edition
7 Minute demo
trailer released
© 2011 Brandwatch | www.brandwatch.com 14

15. CONVERSATION STAGES
Pre-release Release Post-release
• Acquiring and sharing information • Ownership high • User reviews
• Enquiries • Sharing experiences
© 2011 Brandwatch | www.brandwatch.com 15

16. LEARNINGS
We now have a clearer picture of what drives conversation around a
game’s launch and how content strategies can be used to
maximise it’s impact:
• Content format
• Timing of seeding
• Defined target audience
• Genre of game
• Format of game
© 2011 Brandwatch | www.brandwatch.com 16

17. INFLUENCERS – AMPLIFYING THE MESSAGE
© 2011 Brandwatch | www.brandwatch.com 17

18. INFLUENCE IS ABOUT THE NETWORK
© 2011 Brandwatch | www.brandwatch.com 18

19. FOR BLOGGERS INFLUENCE IS TOPIC CENTRIC
Search Social Inbound
Site Rank ranking Traffic linking links type supplier
londoneater.com 71,493 46 377 19 29,609 Commercial No
chocablog.com 69,641 17 1,456 11 15,060 Mainstream No
helengraves.co.uk 62,780 14 54 14 29,103 Individual No
cheesenbiscuits.blogspot.com 62,269 14 322 2 14,566 Developing No
cottagesmallholder.com 61,657 21 4,730 3 15,248 Commercial No
londonist.com 57,777 24 330 51 254,301 Mainstream No
innocentdrinks.typepad.com 55,858 6 64 1 5,751 Commercial Yes
jamieoliver.com 54,904 81 180,899 0 79,633 Mainstream Yes
bbcgoodfood.com 54,892 49 183,740 0 29,252 Mainstream No
kalynskitchen.blogspot.com 54,697 7 134 19 83,218 Developing No
goodtoknow.co.uk 54,651 380 60,564 0 17,645 Mainstream Yes
viewlondon.co.uk 54,532 31 13,804 0 62,643 Commercial No
mydish.co.uk 54,279 14 21,776 0 2,454 Mainstream Yes
minimins.com 54,089 179 1,677 0 689 Developing No
europealacarte.co.uk 53,848 20 36 12 2,082 Commercial No
barbecue-party.com 53,693 13 469 140 414 Developing No
godine.co.uk 53,692 24 8,324 0 27,176 Mainstream No
deliaonline.com 53,521 19 55,094 0 9,364 Mainstream Yes
allaboutyou.com 53,296 48 1,879 0 43,405 Commercial No
sofeminine.co.uk 53,198 9 3,954 0 89,730 Commercial No
foodstufffinds.blogspot.com 52,802 11 0 11 2,154 Individual No
aspoonfulofsugar.net 52,668 5 101 2 132 Individual No
startcooking.com 52,579 1 320 11 8,960 Commercial No
cheaphealthygood.blogspot.com 52,512 14 7 16 24,654 Developing No
simplyrecipes.com 52,432 27 4,556 21 414,608 Developing No
glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com 52,056 7 540 119 50,780 Commercial No
allotment.org.uk 51,995 15 4,094 0 5,554 Developing No
cooksister.com 51,988 23 1,151 19 17,956 Commercial No
thegidietbreakthrough.com 51,942 7 636 2 80 Commercial yes 19

20. THANK YOU
giles@brandwatch.com
@joodoo9
Presentation developed with the help of: Nick Owen from
fivebyfive
© 2011 Brandwatch | www.brandwatch.com 20