Dear ArenaNet, please consider your marketing

[Radiancee.6537]

I'm mostly happy with Guild Wars 2 but it is kinda sad to see, that the marketing went .. kinda downhill. I'm just confused about the Secrets of the Obscure Launch. While I'm mostly satisfied with this new expansion ... where was all the hype? Where was the marketing?

I mean, just watch this Heart of Thorns reveal reaction: 

 

In the future, I wish ArenaNet would again proudly showcase the strengths of Guild Wars 2 and properly announce expansions.

[illuminati.8453]

Honestly, this xpac would be hard to sell. 

"Are you tired of games that give you everything right away?  Boring!  Say hello to the ultimate gaming experience that keeps you on the edge of your seat - not with action-packed gameplay, but with anticipation!  Welcome to Guild Wars 2, where the future is bright, but the content is...well, a work in progress!" 

[IAmNotMatthew.1058]

53 minutes ago, illuminati.8453 said:

Honestly, this xpac would be hard to sell. 

"Are you tired of games that give you everything right away?  Boring!  Say hello to the ultimate gaming experience that keeps you on the edge of your seat - not with action-packed gameplay, but with anticipation!  Welcome to Guild Wars 2, where the future is bright, but the content is...well, a work in progress!" 

I'm not into marketing, but I know that you generally use the good part of your product for marketing, you know like WV or legendary armor, or maybe the much easier Skyscale acquisition.

[jokke.6239]

I think the best marketing they could have done would have been a steam front page advertisement on launch

 

Btw Arena Net, pinned threads on the steam community page for new players are full of broken links

[quake.9023]

whats new. the non existent marketing in gw2, their methods are soo.... weird and not mainstream

[kharmin.7683]

Maybe there isn't enough budget for a larger marketing campaign.

[Astralporing.1957]

7 hours ago, IAmNotMatthew.1058 said:

I'm not into marketing, but I know that you generally use the good part of your product for marketing, you know like WV or legendary armor, or maybe the much easier Skyscale acquisition.

Funny how a lot of stuff they used for that (like Relics or Rifts) turned out to be the bad parts of the expansion. Of course, that's because the expansion didn't have a lot of stuff in it, and most of it wasn't all that good.

[Nine Inch Snails.7963]

The last time they did something like that for a live audience was the IBS thing.  A lot of people made fun of that.

[willow.8209]

i'm pretty sure i came to the game through a radio ad, before there were any expansions whatsoever. The ad was really intriguing.

[Danikat.8537]

My husband has complained he's constantly getting adverts for GW2. Mainly on Instagram but also Facebook, Twitter and other websites. I suspect existing players don't realise those are adverts because they're already following the GW2 account on any social media sites they use, so they just see them as normal posts.

I doubt many people would watch a livestream announcement for a game they don't play. I don't even watch them for games I do play because the vast majority of the time is always spent on meaningless chatter or telling you how you're supposed to feel about what you just heard and what they promise they're eventually going to get to really soon after some more irrelevant nonsense. I can get all the useful in a few minutes info by reading the inevitable summary article on the website afterwards.

Whereas social media and website adverts are harder to avoid and easier to take in so it's much quicker to hit that point where someone thinks "I keep hearing about this game, I should find out what it is". I'm told it takes an average of 3-5 "impressions" for someone to remember and consider buying from a brand (not specific to video games) and the actual length or depth of each one is largely irrelevant except that word of mouth from friends and peers has much more impact.