1. The Promotion and
Marketing of Video
Games
GCSE Media Studies Set Topic 2013-14

2. Top Ten Video Games 2012
 Call of Duty: Black Ops II – Activision
 FIFA 13 - Electronic Arts
 Assassin's Creed III – Ubisoft
 Halo 4 – Microsoft
 Hitman Absolution - Square Enix
 Just Dance 4 – Ubisoft
 Far Cry 3 – Ubisoft
 FIFA 12 - Electronic Arts
 The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Bethesda
 Borderlands 2 - 2K Games

3. How are video games promoted and
marketed?
 In your books, list as many strategies and
methods for promoting and marketing video
games as you can think of.

4. How are video games promoted and
marketed?
 print advertisements
 large posters/billboards
 trailers
 television advertisements
 websites
 use of social networking
 merchandise
 press releases
 previews/reviews
 public
appearances/premiers
 celebrity endorsement

5. The Key Concepts
Media Language Representation
Audience Institutions
Key Concepts

6. Applying the key concepts to a
promotional campaign
 Just Dance 4 - Ubisoft

10. Video Promo

11. How does the Just Dance 4 trailer use media
language and representation to promote the
game?

12. How does the Just Dance 4 trailer use media
language and representation to promote the
game?
Features of media language
 Camera
 Angle
 Shots
 Movement
 Mis-en-scene
 Editing
 Sound
Representations?

13. Iconography – the Just Dance brand

14. Planning your answer
 Focus on one key point in each paragraph
 Ensure each paragraph refers back to the question
 Ensure each paragraph uses media terminology
 Use specific examples from the text

15. Feedback from Just Dance 4 trailer
analysis
 How does the Just Dance 4 trailer use media language and
representation to promote the game?
 All of you explained what the media language was
 Most of you explained what the representations were
 Some of you explained how the media language and
representations helped to promote the game

16. Feedback from Just Dance 4 trailer
analysis
 How does the Just Dance 4 trailer use media language and
representation to promote the game?
 All of you explained what the media language was
 Most of you explained what the representations were
 Some of you explained how the media language and
representations helped to promote the game

17. Appealing to audiences
Audience theory in relation to video game promotion

18. Uses and Gratifications Theory
 This theory states that audiences are attracted to media
texts that are USEFUL or which provide them with some
GRATIFICATION (pleasure)
 Blumler and Katz (1979) theorised that these uses and
gratifications fell into four categories:
 Diversion – something to pass the time
 Personal Relationships – something which allows you to make more
productive friendships, for example by giving you something to
talk to your friends about
 Personal Identity – something which allows you to define who you
are
 Surveillance – something which allows you to find out about the
world around you

19. Uses and Gratifications Theory
 David Morley (1991) argued that there were five
types of uses and gratifications:
 Cognitive (learning – the text helps you find out
something)
 Affective (the text affects you and provides emotional
satisfaction)
 Tension Release (the text allows you to relax or let off
steam)
 Personal Integrative (the text helps you to define your
own personal identity)
 Social Integrative (the text helps you with social
interactions e.g. by providing a topic of conversation or
way or interacting with others)

20. Richard Dyer’s Utopian Solutions
 “Utopia” is an imaginary ideal world
 Richard Dyer argues that “entertainment offers
the image of ‘something better’ to set against the
realities of day-to-day existence.”
 This is the idea of “escapism”
 Inside the world of a video game your existence
can be “better” than in the reality of day-to-day
existence

21. Richard Dyer’s Utopian Solutions
Real World Problem
 Exhaustion
 Dreariness
 Boredom
 Fragmentation/Loneliness
 Scarcity/poverty
Entertainment World
Utopian Solution
 Energy
 Intensity
 Excitement
 Community/companionship
 Abundance/wealth

22. The idea of aspiration
 Aspiration is the idea of wanting something
better than what you have
 Advertising, marketing and promotional
material will often present an idealised
representation of the world – a Utopian
Solution – as audiences will aspire to that
lifestyle and its trappings

23. Idealised representations in Just Dance 4

24. How does the Just Dance 4 trailer use
representations to appeal to its audience?
 Use audience theories in your answer
 What uses and gratifications does the trailer
suggest the game offers?
 What utopian solutions does the trailer suggest
the game offers?
 Give examples of idealised representations that
create audience aspirations