Because a game is the killer U. S. Army 's Best Recruiting Tool

David Verklin and Bernice Kanner
The authors of this Watch, Listen Up, Click Here

Since the last report made for the service in December 1972, Uncle Sam had to hustle to staff to create a force of armed volunteers. In the case of the U.S. military, which means recruiting 80,000 new soldiers every year - essentially replacing more than the entire workforce of BellSouth every 12 months.
The publication was the case initially. After "Army now wants to join you" fizzled, in January of 1981, "Be All You Can Be" became the battle cry. For two decades, wrapped around the ads that have made this branch of research as adventurous as an Outward Bound course, resonated with 17 to 24 years (including the army is the largest employer in the country). Then, in 2001, which was sunk by an army "of One." ( "Although there are 1,045,690 soldiers like me, are my own strength ...") critics scoffed that the new slogan box was wrong (it is most appreciated conformity individuality in the barracks?) The army has responded has been effective.
Iraq, exploded.
Despite the addition of thousands of additional recruiters, increasing the commitment of awards and funding for the university, the budget for the fattening of ads and ratchet to the call of patriotism, the military could not meet its boots.
So the Army has added more weapons of marketing. Hosted public meetings in which civilians could face the soldiers and hear their performance. You tried product placement: mechanic, Monster Army on the Discovery Channel, dressed in a jeep. It has launched a computer game engage in substantial video quickly became a gold standard "advergames" for its effectiveness and realism. Players assume the roles, such as the Royal Military Intelligence (18F), Engineer (18C), Communications (18E) and Combat Medic (18D), and fire the same weapons that the army did. And when you set fire to race, their aim is less precise.
Before he was released July 4, 2002, many feared the Sport $ 7.3 million will join the ranks of the $ 436 hammer and $ 640 toilet seat as a study of excess. Few predicted "America's Army", would become the artillery of the most effective marketing tool, the authentic experience of military transport in a voice that recruits want to hear.
More than seven million users have registered (anonymously so as to counteract any fear of recruiter harangues) with 10,000 to 50,000 new download shoot-em-up daily. In a dozen operations and missions Gunning, players progress through the stages of soldierhood - drilling in basic training, target practice with an M-16, learning the core emergency medicine, and finally, the immersion in combat. The game has been downloaded over 16 million times, 20 percent of entering cadets at West Point, practiced, and between 20 and 40 percent of new army recruits have been as well.
"They look rather than the opposite," said Chris Chambers, deputy director of the Army Game Project at the Army Office of Economic and Manpower Analysis. At an average cost of 10 cents an hour against the $ 5 to $ 10 an hour for a television spot, offers a draft and not just the press.
"America's Army" has proven to be powerful weapons, such as a store official game is a roaring trade selling action figure collectibles, clothing, mugs and other merchandise with the logo. The Army strengthens the parties and tournaments across the country around it. A wireless version and suites, including "America's Army: Special Forces," where players try to win a green cap to meet the missions of Special Forces, have been released. Apple created a knockoff: Boot Camp. And the army now widely used in training.
Uncle Sam Wants You. . to play. . . It is not alone. Everyone is virtual action. Some, like the army, the creation of a whole game that functions like a sales brochure. As the Army promoted its pro-military message through the game, the United Nations, World Food Program aims to inform on his mission to fight world hunger. In "Food Force", players guide a helicopter on the war-torn island of Sheylan, (a fictional cross between Sri Lanka and Somalia) and relief supplies to a drop in population with little shelter and food industries. Or provide food rations, supplies, calendar, or take a supply truck in hostile terrain.
In the racing game, "Volvo Drive for Life" (playable on Xbox from Microsoft), players are not rewarded for finishing first, but to avoid accidents. Walk-in for a test drive at a Volvo dealer and you can try in the showroom. Dealers can provide game cartridges on select prospects and customers. After his mascot tromped by Royal "Fight Night Round 3 (Xbox 360), Burger King created action games around its bizarre king and made available for just $ 3.99 for customers who bought a value meal . (Most games sold for at least 12 times that.) extends beyond the athletes wear Nike shoes in the video game NBA 2K6: Tournament players are given several pairs of virtual footwear and choose what to put on his locker at Nike Depending on the task. They can also customize the shoes with the customization and on the website of Nike iD.
In other advergames, marketing a ride. In "CSI: 3 Dimensions of Murder," Visa fraud, monitoring capabilities shine when a suspicious activity on your credit card the victim initiates investigation by a team of forensic science. In Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, "the protagonist, secret agent Sam Fisher, scales a bright neon sign for Ax and enters a lunchroom inhabited by a Diet Sprite Zero vending machine quiet. (Axis also created Mojo Master an online game about picking up women.) In "Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow," Fisher retrieves a message from a Sony Ericsson smart about who is the villain. In "Burnout Revenge", players' training and crash a Carl's truck Jr. delivered. And the players in Activision's True Crime "titles take a break in fighting gangs to recover stolen Puma sneakers.
Some vendors install games on company websites or URLs designated as "Life Saver Candy Stand, or FiletoFish.com, the site where a division of McDonald's posted" Shark Bait "(in English and Spanish). Players must protect the network - of-fish sandwich from attacking sharks. For Wachovia, Carat Fusion recreated the 17th hole, par 3 to difficult Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina. readers to judge distance and wind conditions on the 217-yard hole to find a club : noise of the crowd allows them to state whether they have made a swing virtual goods. Wachovia has sponsored the annual PGA Championship of 2002: The game was to promote the fashion, to sell tickets and create viral buzz. H & R Block "Deduct-A-Buck" game on the website is set deductabuck.com season. Players who correctly answer questions about what they can legally Cancel in this seventy-TV-quiz-style game show to win great prizes.
Hollywood and Nashville hardly launch a movie or a song, without serving more than one side of the game. And despite the very high fees for certificates of film, a successful intervention will almost certainly be reincarnated in a console. Turner's "Witchblade" promoted the TV series, games and built around the Men in Black II, Spider-Man, and Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course is designed to promote new releases. With ads from Sprite, the sci-fi game "Planetside showcase for the film Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, and in the free version of" Anarchy Online ", a 15-second trailer for V for Vendetta played in a continuous loop . Ads of Batman Begins in "Splinter Cell" were timed his exit from local markets.
The Da Vinci Code has had his own game PS2. Paramount Pictures has produced a Mission: Impossible III game for cell phones, while Miami Vice had an accompanying game to play on portable Sony PSP.
It's almost more fun and games. Yankee Group estimates that by 2007 a serious player in each family hiding fourth in America. Nielsen said that three of the four residences with children under 34 have a gaming system. Orcs kill more people in medieval style, research virtual gold and power, "World of Warcraft", who lives in Denmark. In 2006, players from around the world for over 100 million PlayStation2 and 40 million Xbox. In the United States, video games already raked in more money at the box office cinema, and Yankee Group indicates that the industry top $ 8.3 billion by 2008. PricewaterhouseCoopers says globally will reach 55 billion dollars by 2009. This explains why a cottage industry of Los Angeles builds game consoles into the backs of surfers Lincoln.
Collectively, interactive advertising embedded in quizzes and games accounted for more than $ 1 billion to 12.5 billion dollars in online advertising revenue in 2005, according to the Bureau of interactive advertising. Nielsen (a measure today the industry) expects advertising spending in games will grow from 75 million dollars in 2006, 1 billion dollars by 2010. Mitch Davis, CEO of Massive, thinks it could be nearly twice that - and represent about 3 percent of spending in all media, just what advertisers spend on the Internet.

Copyright © 2007 Carat North America, Inc. in the book Watch This, Listen Up, Click Here by David Verklin and Bernice Kanner published by John Wiley & Sons Inc, April 2007 U.S. dollars 24.95US / $ 29.99CAN, 978-0-470 -- - 05643-1