Advertising options

[David]

Ideas for a Capitalism II expansion:
Offer more advertising options (internet-based media for example) in addition to television, radio, newspaper

How do you think the current advertising work in the game ? If you have any ideas of improving it, please post here.

Here are the two primary means of Internet advertising:

1) search keyword advertising - e.g. paying for showing your ad. next to Google search results.

2) content-based advertising
type 1) e.g. banner ad. that charges on impressions
type 2) e.g. Google text ad that charges on click-thru

Anybody think of other means?

Do you want to make it simply by just allocating an amount to Internet advertising in Cap2, like TV and radio advertising. Or you want a more sophisticated advertising system for Internet that allows the player to opt for search keyword advertising and/or content-based advertising ?

Any other ideas to make the advertising system better?

[JML0328]

I know this may seem obvious, but I just want to throw it out anyways. If Internet marketing is available, players should be able to buy Internet companies just like they would TV, radio, etc.

As for internet marketing strategies, I support either method David presented.

Another idea might be to implement some sort of coupon mode for products available in the supermarket. Maybe the coupon method could be implemented the same as the labeling system, so that players have to trade-off fewer products for the market share increase of those products.

[adj_boy]

Please correct me if this feature already exist in-game:

Can we have the option to momentarily (or for a short period of time) boost a brands's brand awareness (like a launch campaign of a new brand) similarly to the option we have to momentarily increase skill level of employees?

Of course, the price should for such an undertaking be proportionately high.

[Alan Doyle]

Hello all.

Sponsorship

How about sponsorship as a method of advertising? For example,

1) civic sponsor - pay money to the city to sponsor a park, a swimming pool, gardens, new statue, museum etc.
2) sports sponsor - pay money to a local sports team (short term = single match, medium term = single season, long term = several years). Random success of the team could modify the brand awareness gained?

Both methods would result in increased brand awareness over time with option 1 being the less expensive option.

Advertising reach

Can the city be zoned so that advertising can either be localised or regional? That way

1) local (cheap) - you could focus on your supermarket, say, and gain increased brand awareness in the zone in which the supermarket is located. This would (may?) increase sales in that store and have a reduced affect across all your stores across the city

2) regional (expensive) - as implemented with existing television/newspaper methods.

[David]

Please correct me if this feature already exist in-game:

Can we have the option to momentarily (or for a short period of time) boost a brands's brand awareness (like a launch campaign of a new brand) similarly to the option we have to momentarily increase skill level of employees?

Of course, the price should for such an undertaking be proportionately high.

In Cap2, the skill level of employees are actually increased permanently.

Currently, brand awareness gets increased when you advertise in media and it drops automatically if the advertising does not sustain.

If you want to boost a product's brand's awareness, you can now spending a lot of money on media advertising. This is supposed to simulate the launch campaign of a new brand as the brand awareness increase quickly with the large sum of money you spent on advertising.

[David]

Hello all.

Sponsorship

How about sponsorship as a method of advertising? For example,

1) civic sponsor - pay money to the city to sponsor a park, a swimming pool, gardens, new statue, museum etc.
2) sports sponsor - pay money to a local sports team (short term = single match, medium term = single season, long term = several years). Random success of the team could modify the brand awareness gained?

Both methods would result in increased brand awareness over time with option 1 being the less expensive option.

This is an interesting idea. But how do you see it different from the effect of media advertising. I mean if the player can already promote a brand using the existing options of media advertising, what are the incentives for doing sponsorship ? Any suggestions ?

[David]

Hello all.

Advertising reach

Can the city be zoned so that advertising can either be localised or regional? That way

1) local (cheap) - you could focus on your supermarket, say, and gain increased brand awareness in the zone in which the supermarket is located. This would (may?) increase sales in that store and have a reduced affect across all your stores across the city

2) regional (expensive) - as implemented with existing television/newspaper methods.

The product brand awareness rating in Cap2 covers the entire city. You were referring to customer loyalty to a retail store, rather than a product. So we will need to add a new simulation component to the existing engine for that.

So we are effectively talking about adding the variables of brand awareness and brand loyalty to each retail store.

So there will be brand awareness/loyalty for products and brand awareness/loyalty for retail store. Do you think this added complexity will overwhelm the players?

[Jero]

Do you think this added complexity will overwhelm the players?

Depends on your target audience I guess, if you wanna sell this as a "Serious Game" to business schools and corporate training. Me I like games like Dwarf Fortress, Victoria Revolutions, and Eve Online so the added complexity is usually a plus.

[Alan Doyle]

Hello all.

Sponsorship

How about sponsorship as a method of advertising? For example,

1) civic sponsor - pay money to the city to sponsor a park, a swimming pool, gardens, new statue, museum etc.
2) sports sponsor - pay money to a local sports team (short term = single match, medium term = single season, long term = several years). Random success of the team could modify the brand awareness gained?

Both methods would result in increased brand awareness over time with option 1 being the less expensive option.

This is an interesting idea. But how do you see it different from the effect of media advertising. I mean if the player can already promote a brand using the existing options of media advertising, what are the incentives for doing sponsorship ? Any suggestions ?

Advertising is currently driven by the player in that you choose to either advertise or not. Sponsorship could be offered randomly and periodically by the city.

Perhaps, "<city name> seeks sponsorship for a new park. The successful sponsor will be guaranteed an increase in brand awareness of (at least??) X for Y months"

The sponsorship could either be at a fixed price stated by the city or companies could be invited to submit sealed bids (with a guide price to help out!) so a rival could beat you to the deal.

[adj_boy]

Please correct me if this feature already exist in-game:

Can we have the option to momentarily (or for a short period of time) boost a brands's brand awareness (like a launch campaign of a new brand) similarly to the option we have to momentarily increase skill level of employees?

Of course, the price should for such an undertaking be proportionately high.

In Cap2, the skill level of employees are actually increased permanently.

Currently, brand awareness gets increased when you advertise in media and it drops automatically if the advertising does not sustain.

If you want to boost a product's brand's awareness, you can now spending a lot of money on media advertising. This is supposed to simulate the launch campaign of a new brand as the brand awareness increase quickly with the large sum of money you spent on advertising.

But that still requires internal staffing of initially untrained marketers and "connecting" a product to the marketers somewhere on the grid, doesn't it? I was thinking more like the "train staff" button in the headquarters building, only for individual products.

But if you feel the current setup allows for a considerable boost to brand awareness in a short timeframe, I guess a boost button would be redundant. I just thought it would reduce the hassle of setting up grids somewhat.