How well do you think Splatoon is being advertised?

[WaifuRaccoonBL]

With the recent reveal of the "mess fest," I thought it would be only natural to discuss our thoughts on how Splatoon is being advertised.

Do you think it has been good? Do you think it has been bad? Do you think they should focus more on one type area of the game they haven't been talking about much?

I personally think it has been excellent. With them being included in nintendo directs, mess fest, and we even have an official Splatoon tumblr. They have their own slogan of "go ahead, make a mess," as well.

 

[Yaezakura]

It's hard to judge how effective it'll ultimately end up being, but it's more advertising oomph than Nintendo's put behind a game for a long time. Especially for a new IP. Heck, on top of everything you said, they've been doing stuff like livestreaming people playing the demo at conventions, and struck a deal with GameTruck to paint a bunch of their vehicles in Splatoon ink splatters and logos.

I say if we get a dedicated Splatoon Direct sometime next month before launch, it'll be really hard to say they didn't give it everything they've got. Considering how a bunch of bigger titles have been getting dedicated Directs lately, and the force they're putting into promoting Splatoon, I'd say it's looking pretty likely that we'll see one.

 

[mininut4]

I personally haven't seen a whole lot of advertisement aside from demos that youtubers showed and E3 (unless you count twitter posts). maybe I'm just being oblivious, or just plain forgetting, but I haven't seen a lot of advertisement.

 

[SuperMii3D]

Nintendo has been heavily advertising Splatoon. Id give some links, but too lazy to do so :p

 

[Lightzeaka]

I'd like to see some TV Commericials.

 

[DigDeep]

Nintendo has been doing a fantastic job advertising Splatoon. Much more than I ever thought they would invest into a new IP. The Mess Fest is a great idea and if they pick the right celebrities will do a good job to get the word out.

They've been taking Splatoon to a lot of events, pudding up advertisement in stores, and come May I'd expect some great commercials emulating the sheer lovable embarrassament of the " Play it Loud!" campaign.

 

[Actilide]

I think they're doing a pretty good job but I really want some CGI animated commercials.

 

[Kris]

I only learned about this game April 25, 2015. From an email I just happened to read from Nintendo. Most times I just auto delete most of my emails. Since learning what it is, I'm hooked. I'm glad I learned about ti this late as opposed to much earlier. I only have to wait 34 days. That's not a terribly long wait.
I personally can't really speak how well they are advertising this game. I don't really visit sites that get ads for this. I only check on the companies Every so often to see if any new games have come out/coming out.

I'm more involved in the anime world than the video game world.

 

[Geistbox]

I've been seeing a lot of ads on Twitch. It's.. incredibly surprising. The Mess Fest thing is also pretty incredible to see. I didn't expect Splatoon to get a space for itself on Edge's front cover as a feature story either, and the Japan push has been awesome. The Splatoon Tumblr has been a pretty big hit on social networks. Hell they even tweeted a "one month to go" image on Nintendo's twitter.

They are definitely trying. More than I'd expect them to. I suspect Nintendo kind of found lightning in a bottle with this as the demand for an interesting new AAA IP from them has been building up for some time. I'd suspect that's why certain news about communication and such stings a bit more because of how inflated the amount of feedback has gotten. I figure they suspected Splatoon would need a pretty big booth when it was first shown to accommodate players but judging by how much info was held back at the E3 presentation it seems like they never expected the game to grow so big, especially when it was originally a small team.

Presumably they saw the heaps of positive feedback and it all ramped up from there. I'd say they're doing a great job in keeping the pace up. Every time a major info dump comes it's usually been to great positive feedback. I'd like to see this taken to the home stretch. This last month will be important.

 

[theblackbird]

I've been seeing a lot of ads on Twitch. It's.. incredibly surprising. The Mess Fest thing is also pretty incredible to see. I didn't expect Splatoon to get a space for itself on Edge's front cover as a feature story either, and the Japan push has been awesome. The Splatoon Tumblr has been a pretty big hit on social networks. Hell they even tweeted a "one month to go" image on Nintendo's twitter.

They are definitely trying. More than I'd expect them to. I suspect Nintendo kind of found lightning in a bottle with this as the demand for an interesting new AAA IP from them has been building up for some time. I'd suspect that's why certain news about communication and such stings a bit more because of how inflated the amount of feedback has gotten. I figure they suspected Splatoon would need a pretty big booth when it was first shown to accommodate players but judging by how much info was held back at the E3 presentation it seems like they never expected the game to grow so big, especially when it was originally a small team.

Presumably they saw the heaps of positive feedback and it all ramped up from there. I'd say they're doing a great job in keeping the pace up. Every time a major info dump comes it's usually been to great positive feedback. I'd like to see this taken to the home stretch. This last month will be important.

Honestly, I think this is the crux of it right here. They needed a big booth, but that was just because of...y'know...physics. I honestly don't think they at ALL expected the game to get the reception it did, and when they noticed, they ramped up everything as best as they could. (Partially, I think that's also why we've been getting this smaller Animal Crossing stuff, but don't think we'll be getting an announcement at E3- they probably expected at first to kinda finish this up without much notice and then shift to heavy AC development, but then once Splatoon got on people's radar in a big way, they shifted development from whatever their AC plans were and went full bore into Splatoon. The cards, I feel, are a stopgap that was intended to be PART of the major game, but aren't anymore.)

 

[Niliks]

I have thought it was generally good so far. The coverage I have found has been informative and shown a fair variety. The only thing I have not liked was some of the vague answers we have gotten to some questions. For example, I made a whole thread about trying to figure out if weapons had only one possible loadout (I knew they were fixed on purchase, but not if they had multiple possible arrangements.) Maybe this was done on purpose to keep us guessing, but I think it may not have been.

Though, as someone looking forward to the game, maybe that's a biased thought.

 

[Yaezakura]

I have thought it was generally good so far. The coverage I have found has been informative and shown a fair variety. The only thing I have not liked was some of the vague answers we have gotten to some questions. For example, I made a whole thread about trying to figure out if weapons had only one possible loadout (I knew they were fixed on purchase, but not if they had multiple possible arrangements.) Maybe this was done on purpose to keep us guessing, but I think it may not have been.

Though, as someone looking forward to the game, maybe that's a biased thought.

I wouldn't say it was done purposefully to "keep people guessing", so much as developers have to be very guarded about what they say. Everything a dev says about a game is taken as a promise of feature--and if it ends up being different in the final build than what the dev said, then it's viewed as a broken promise. Even if the final product is better for the changes.

One need only look at the ordeal surrounding Mass Effect 3 to see how it ends up. Players were promised their choices would have a meaningful impact on the ending. They didn't. And fans flipped their collective lids--with good reason in that case. While an extreme example, you don't have to look hard to find smaller outcries about promised features not showing up in the end product.

For that reason, smart devs have to be very careful about what they say before a game is launched. Unless a feature is already finalized, they'll be reluctant to talk about it, as the things they say may end up changing before the process is done.

 

[Niliks]

True, true. People do get quite riled up over things they think are a developer lying. I suppose keep people guessing was not the right phrase, more that they hadn't discussed the significance of weapon branding yet. At least I don't think they have. That's where it came from.

 

[Undr]

Fast paced in-game footage on a television commercial would be ideal. Appealing to children doesn't really appeal to children as much as not appealing to children does, lol. Of course in doing so you appeal to older demographics as well.

 

[Ryuho]

I've been surprised by how much they are pushing this game. Though I dont know if the thing with having girls at playboy play it was a good idea or not. But yeah outside of having commercials for it I think the advertising for this game has been pretty good

 

[Lyn]

It's.. alright, I mean it's mostly videos on YouTube and Nintendo Directs I believe? I think they should get TV Commercials out there and push it towards other gaming outlets more.

 

[Inari]

Maybe they'll run some commercials soon and they should gives us a Splatoon direct

 

[Yaezakura]

It's.. alright, I mean it's mostly videos on YouTube and Nintendo Directs I believe? I think they should get TV Commercials out there and push it towards other gaming outlets more.

There's also been the day-long stream events... the deal with GameTruck (a company that rents out trucks to parties, the trucks show up stocked with video game systems and TVs for people to play) to cover their trucks in Splatoon decals... things like the Mess Fest event on the 15th in California...

TV commercials will be coming, but putting those up too early just costs them money for no real benefit. Seeing a TV commercial for something you can't buy for another two months just pisses people off if they like the content--we're the hardcore, the ones that actively search out information early. TV commercials will likely be starting soon, since we're officially within a month of the launch.

Honestly, I'm starting to feel like Nintendo's market strategy for Splatoon is showing a rather marked increase in understanding of their audience. While Nintendo's history with Youtube is... spotty, to say the least, they've been reaching out to famous Youtubers to play the game and talk about it, which is definitely a major step in the right direction. Things like the Tumblr account were a stroke of genius, and whoever they got to do the writing for it definitely feels more like a fan than a paid shill. Yes, we all know he is a paid shill, but his enthusiasm for the game comes across as genuine, which really helps drive it. These kinds of low-cost endeavors really help put the game in the minds of the more hardcore gamers.

The big-budget media campaign, with TV commercials and paid ads on websites and such, will likely start picking up any day now, now that we're closing in on release. Up until now, their efforts have been focused on people like us--the kind of people sitting on a forum dedicated the game over a month before its release. The kind of people TV commercials and website ads wouldn't affect anyway. They know we want gameplay footage, we want opinions from personalities we trust. So that's what they've been giving us.

 

[theblackbird]

I have to agree with that. Commericals are HELLA expensive, and they only get moreso depending on what channel and when you want them to air. I think we'll be seeing some, but I wouldn't have guessed more than a month out.

 

[Xon Suprimes]

Well, I saw a youtube ad for Splatoon.