One of the more famous examples of a company using a game as a marketing technique was Burger King. They built three games for the Xbox and Xbox360 and sold them for $4 a pop.

Of the reviews I’ve read, most do not speak highly of these games. But, at the same time, very few speak ultra-negatively either. One review at gamespot.com summed up Sneak King with - “Sneak King isn’t a good game, but it’s so crazy and so cheap that it still manages to be weirdly compelling.”

Match that with the fact that during the 5 week promotional period, they sold more than 2.4 million units.  And as of June 2007 (the latest numbers I have), it was tied with the third best selling Xbox title of all time. 

Its estimated media impression was equivalent to thirteen Super Bowls and helped drive record traffic and sales.  Hence, not surprisingly, Burger King considered this a success. (Numbers and success analysis courtesy Coloribus.com)

We can learn from this…that reaching the upper echelons of perfection is not so much the goal as producing something of interest to your customers. The low cost of entry (particularly compared with the normal cost of a game $30-$50) and the novelty of stuffing hamburgers into the mouths of unsuspecting citizens (the premise of Sneak King) added to the luster and success of the games.

I surprisingly had a hard time finding failures. You might think this bodes well for video games as a marketing technique, but I wonder if most of the failures have been so small that the media took no notice of them.

One failure I found was Viagra’s “Viva Cruiser” Game.  But, this seemed more due to a lack of explaining the side-effects of the drug rather than a problem with the game.

So, what can we learn from this? Video games can be a very lucrative tool for customer engagement.  And, they are a largely untapped market as I could find very few examples to include here. But, even if you do everything right, somethings such as legal worries or other unforeseen problems can sink the ship. Tread carefully.

Related posts:

1. Video Games as a Marketing Technique Part 3: What Do I Do Now?
2. Video Games as a Marketing Technique Part 1: To Play or Not to Play?
3. Video Games as a Marketing Technique: Part 5 Standing on the Shoulders of Open Source Giants
4. Video Games as a Marketing Technique Part 4: Pitfalls
5. Video is Social Media, Too. Hot Social Media.

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