.. with the cynical cover of the Leonard Cohen classic 'Hallelujah'. As of Monday the 17th, the winner of the ITV karaoke show X-Factor will release a cover of the aforementioned song as part of the annual strategy to convert the success of the show into the sale of musical units. Now, I'm sure Cohen isn't too bothered about his song being transformed into a highly polished and compressed equivalent of a musical turd by this year's winner, Alexandra Burke, after all there are royalties at stake here. However, there already exists a quintessential cover of the track by the deceased legend, Jeff Buckley - listen to it in full here.
I suggest that if you are going to buy the Hallelujah track this Christmas, you buy the Buckley version, which is sublime. Cohen will get the royalties from this track too so it's a win-win situation for him (and he needs it after his ex-manager stole about £5 million from him - good job he converted to Buddhism to transcend the confines of the material world).
There's a live version of the Buckley version here. Sony won't let the official video be embeddable over on YouTube:
I know I'm not alone in deploring the cynical attempt to bag the Christmas number 1 as there have been numerous Facebook groups setup. It's a fairly standard marketing ploy used by the show's creators over the past 5 years. Some feature petitions against the stunt which are going to achieve little. One group has decided to help do something affirmative by linking to a few online shops where you can purchase the Buckley version, which I will attempt to improve upon here:
7digital - £0.89 for the 4 min 15 sec abridged version in high quality 320kbps mp3 format
Tunetribe - £0.49 for the 6 min 52 sec full album version in WMA format, loaded with DRM (no good for iPod/iPhone owners)
iTunes - £0.79 for the 6 min 52 sec full album version in AAC format, also protected with DRM (but iPod friendly-ish), encoded at 128 kbps.
Amazon - £0.79 for the 6 min 52 sec full album version in 256 kbps mp3 format with no DRM restrictions.
Play - £0.65 for the 6 min 52 sec full album version in high quality 320 kbps mp3 format
HMV - £0.69 for the 6 min 52 sec full album version in high quality 320 kbps mp3 format
Go on, do yourself a favour and discover a wonderful version of the song. Don't forget to wait until Monday the 15th to buy it in order for it to be chart eligible.
I'm sure Alexandra Burke can sing and I wish her all the best for the future, I just object to the Cowell machine doing this kind of thing year after year. Stop Cowell being the Grinch this year!
Showing posts with label marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label marketing. Show all posts
Sunday, 14 December 2008
Thursday, 23 October 2008
Far Cry 2: marketing strategy or missed opportunity for retailers?
Tomorrow is the day. Yes, it is THE day. The day that Far Cry 2 is finally released. This is a game which I have been looking forward to for a long time. At least since I discovered one of the lead developer's (Clint Hocking) blog last year. In that blog Hocking told of his aim to implement a new system of narrative planing that would take the immersive dynamics of the game to a whole new level. I've blogged about this before somewhere, and Paul Abbott even went so far as to come up with a Narrative Manifesto in praise of this type of development. The game promises a lot and has the weight of expectation on its shoulders (not least since the overall design meant that the production and release of a playable demo was impossible).
Suffice to say, I'll be purchasing the game tomorrow. I haven't pre-ordered the game (more on that in a moment) despite several retailers offering extra 'exclusive' unlockable content if you pre-purchase, which is unusual for me - I tend to be a sucker for these types of strategies. It happened with CDs and DVDs - why buy the 'standard' release when you can purchase a 'rare' version in a digipack or a release with bonus features for a marginal cost?
Many CDs come in different packaging for the collector out there - I purchased Sasha's Invol2ver album in the 'special' packaging at an increased cost because it looked unusual. Better living through design? Perhaps, perhaps not (the CD case has been nominated for a People's Design Award), but there is something both appealing and irrational about good design and the assumption that you are getting something unique. I'm sure Walter Benajmin might disagree with me. However, there are two interesting promotional strategies being employed here:
Firstly, offering people something which seems like a bargain (in this case the 'exclusive' content) is a great tool for enticing people to part with their cash, especially if they were willing to do so already. Now, they feel they are getting something extra. HMV's exclusive deal might mean that customers will opt to purchase the product at their store for a fee of £39.99 instead of going to a cheaper retailer like Shopto (£36.99) or a simlarily priced one like Play (£39.99). It's worth noting that Play is offering a different exclusive to HMV - a 'Steelbook' case. Nice to look at, sure, but not really that much of a gameplay enhancement. Not to be outdone, Shopto are offering a 'Collector's Edition' (£52.99) where the serious gamer gets the following for the additional £15:
I've already touched on the second aspect, namely that preventing gamers from getting their hands on the game in advance of its release prevents them from forming negative opinions about the gameplay mechanics. Lots of game companies release playable demos to Xbox Live or PSN in order to wet the appetites of gamers, but Far Cry 2 was different, or at least so we were told. Talking to Eurogamer about the open nature of the massive 50 km2 environment, Hocking explained:
The rub
I want to go back to the reason as to why I haven't fallen foul of the HMV pre-order strategy. This is mainly because the Internet has allowed for a good deal of flattening when it comes to the relationship between retailers and consumers looking to secure brand loyalty (I make most of my online purchases on the basis of cost and whether or not stores are affiliated with consumer co-operatives like QuidCo). It took less than a minute for me to Google the term "far cry 2 extra missions exclusive" and find a Sony page with a code on it allowing anyone to unlock the so-called 'exclusive' content. In case you can't read the code from the image it is: 6aPHusewe
If a company really wants to secure customer loyalty then it might have to do a little more than what HMV are doing in this instance. What makes this an even more bizarre scenario is the simple fact that Sony made their games machine region free when it comes to purchasing games titles. There's nothing stopping consumers bypassing the inflated European prices and buying direct from Asia at a 30% discounted price. Although, that last option make mean longer delivery dates and that tomorrow is not THE day after all
[EDIT]I unlocked extra machete skins by registering with Ubisoft. The code I mentioned above didn't seem to do anything on the PS3 version I own. However, these codes unlocked extra missions via the Promotional Content menu (although I think they do the same thing!): 2Tuw5esw and 96CesuHu
Pause the game, and display the "Map Legend" menu. You will see a new envelop legend labeled "Special Mission". Successfully complete the tutorial and a few missions. You will eventually get a phone call from a distorted voice that sends you on your "predecessor's tracks". Go to the envelop map legend location to find an old bus that is now a shack, and continue.
These are also dud codes:
SpujeN7x
tar3QuzU
Suffice to say, I'll be purchasing the game tomorrow. I haven't pre-ordered the game (more on that in a moment) despite several retailers offering extra 'exclusive' unlockable content if you pre-purchase, which is unusual for me - I tend to be a sucker for these types of strategies. It happened with CDs and DVDs - why buy the 'standard' release when you can purchase a 'rare' version in a digipack or a release with bonus features for a marginal cost?
Many CDs come in different packaging for the collector out there - I purchased Sasha's Invol2ver album in the 'special' packaging at an increased cost because it looked unusual. Better living through design? Perhaps, perhaps not (the CD case has been nominated for a People's Design Award), but there is something both appealing and irrational about good design and the assumption that you are getting something unique. I'm sure Walter Benajmin might disagree with me. However, there are two interesting promotional strategies being employed here:
- Offer added value to the consumer
- Stimulate demand by restricting supply
Firstly, offering people something which seems like a bargain (in this case the 'exclusive' content) is a great tool for enticing people to part with their cash, especially if they were willing to do so already. Now, they feel they are getting something extra. HMV's exclusive deal might mean that customers will opt to purchase the product at their store for a fee of £39.99 instead of going to a cheaper retailer like Shopto (£36.99) or a simlarily priced one like Play (£39.99). It's worth noting that Play is offering a different exclusive to HMV - a 'Steelbook' case. Nice to look at, sure, but not really that much of a gameplay enhancement. Not to be outdone, Shopto are offering a 'Collector's Edition' (£52.99) where the serious gamer gets the following for the additional £15:
- "The Art of Far® Cry 2" Artbook
- Collector 50km² map
- Map Guide Book
- Making-of DVD, including the development team's thrilling African trip!
I've already touched on the second aspect, namely that preventing gamers from getting their hands on the game in advance of its release prevents them from forming negative opinions about the gameplay mechanics. Lots of game companies release playable demos to Xbox Live or PSN in order to wet the appetites of gamers, but Far Cry 2 was different, or at least so we were told. Talking to Eurogamer about the open nature of the massive 50 km2 environment, Hocking explained:
"One reason is, even if we were to give out what you played today - even if we put invisible walls around it and said, here's the demo, you can go anywhere you like inside these walls and play it how you want - that's potentially right there eight-to-ten hours of gameplay. I don't know too many people who are willing to give away a 12-hour game for free."Claims like that are in of themselves useful promotional strategies which emphasizes a good sized playing experience to cost ratio. This game is meant to be B.I.G.
The rub
I want to go back to the reason as to why I haven't fallen foul of the HMV pre-order strategy. This is mainly because the Internet has allowed for a good deal of flattening when it comes to the relationship between retailers and consumers looking to secure brand loyalty (I make most of my online purchases on the basis of cost and whether or not stores are affiliated with consumer co-operatives like QuidCo). It took less than a minute for me to Google the term "far cry 2 extra missions exclusive" and find a Sony page with a code on it allowing anyone to unlock the so-called 'exclusive' content. In case you can't read the code from the image it is: 6aPHusewe
If a company really wants to secure customer loyalty then it might have to do a little more than what HMV are doing in this instance. What makes this an even more bizarre scenario is the simple fact that Sony made their games machine region free when it comes to purchasing games titles. There's nothing stopping consumers bypassing the inflated European prices and buying direct from Asia at a 30% discounted price. Although, that last option make mean longer delivery dates and that tomorrow is not THE day after all
[EDIT]I unlocked extra machete skins by registering with Ubisoft. The code I mentioned above didn't seem to do anything on the PS3 version I own. However, these codes unlocked extra missions via the Promotional Content menu (although I think they do the same thing!): 2Tuw5esw and 96CesuHu
Pause the game, and display the "Map Legend" menu. You will see a new envelop legend labeled "Special Mission". Successfully complete the tutorial and a few missions. You will eventually get a phone call from a distorted voice that sends you on your "predecessor's tracks". Go to the envelop map legend location to find an old bus that is now a shack, and continue.
These are also dud codes:
SpujeN7x
tar3QuzU
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