Ubisoft Enlists Teens to Market Upcoming Game

kitsuta

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Jan 10, 2011
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Ubisoft Enlists Teens to Market Upcoming Game

Under-privileged teens will get real-world marketing experience advertising a Ubisoft game.

Breaking into a creative industry, like games, can be tough under normal circumstances, but what do you do if your background - educational, financial, or otherwise - is making things even more difficult? A new initiative called Commercial Break aims to address that very question by helping under-privileged youths get into advertising, and international publishing heavyweight Ubisoft is the initiative's first client. Speaking about the new partnership, Head of Brand Marketing Mark Slaughter stated that Ubisoft is "committed to making a contribution to helping young, creative individuals get onto a career path that makes use of their talent."

The aim of the partnership is to create an ad campaign for one of Ubisoft's upcoming games. To this end, the company selected eight would-be marketers, aged 18 to 19, out of 30 applicants in the London area. The teens are a good fit for Ubisoft, according to Slaughter, who said that "the participants will bring a fresh perspective, especially as many of them form part of our target audience and will be on the same wavelength as the consumers we are trying to reach." James Hillhouse, co-founder of Commercial Break, agreed that the partnership worked well because "videogames are at the heart of creative entertainment for young people." As for the participants, "they can't wait to get started."

Ubisoft did not specify which game the ad campaign would be for, but it will be a launch campaign during the fall. That covers the launch of Assassin's Creed III, but that's certainly not the only title Ubisoft is publishing this fall - others include Just Dance 4 and Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth. Either way, Commercial Break will help the participants find paid internships based on their new-found experience after the project is complete.

Source: Campaign Live [http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-07-26-ubisoft-supports-new-initiative-for-disadvantaged-teens]

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Ragsnstitches

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I'm too lazy to fact check, but isn't Ubisoft notorious for ill conceived marketing schemes?

The only thing that I can think of off hand was the Splinter Cell stunt with the guy running into a cafe waving a toy gun around, causing REAL panic.

I know that was made by an external studio, but still... it couldn't have happened without a knowing nod of approval by some Ubi Exec.

EDIT: I only mention this because I kind of, deep down, hope that they balls this up... not for any spite against Ubi (though I have some stored away), but it would make for hilarious articles.
 

Ashcrexl

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Well, I foresee this resulting in the absolute worst ad campaign video games have ever seen.

oh wait. EA's Dead Space 2 Moms campaign. never mind. Nothing these guys can cook up can possibly top that abomination of marketing. sorry Ubisoft.
 

Terminate421

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Ashcrexl said:
Well, I foresee this resulting in the absolute worst ad campaign video games have ever seen.

oh wait. EA's Dead Space 2 Moms campaign. never mind. Nothing these guys can cook up can possibly top that abomination of marketing. sorry Ubisoft.
Oh come on, it was actually kind of funny. Yeah it was immature as hell but how did that not give just a giggle at the concept?

I feel there will be alot of Twilight-esque stuff. I would still want an opportunity to do something like this.
 

GenGenners

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This is in London, and speaking as a 19 year old from the UK, this is a great opportunity for those who were selected. It's a harsh work industry over here, so good luck to them all.
 

saintdane05

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rhizhim said:
i feel a return of skateboarding and rapping animals from the 90's will be imminent.
But I LIKE the rapping animals. The 90's gave us classics like Ghost's Pumpkin Soup.

<youtube=xYCNQVIA-xg>

Yeah, I'm going to plug the Sonic Adventure soundtracks whenever I can.
 

kajinking

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Well after Dead Space 2 why the hell not?


To be a bit more serious I'm interested in what this may produce but I'm not really sure how this might go especially since we have no clue what game it's for. A smaller game obviously has less marketing budget limiting what they can do but I highly doubt they would them in charge of anything major.
 

kajinking

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saintdane05 said:
rhizhim said:
i feel a return of skateboarding and rapping animals from the 90's will be imminent.
But I LIKE the rapping animals. The 90's gave us classics like Ghost's Pumpkin Soup.

<youtube=xYCNQVIA-xg>

Yeah, I'm going to plug the Sonic Adventure soundtracks whenever I can.
Feel free, that soundtrack rocks.

P.S. Where'd you get your Icon? I keep thinking it's from Katawa Shoujo
 

saintdane05

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kajinking said:
saintdane05 said:
rhizhim said:
i feel a return of skateboarding and rapping animals from the 90's will be imminent.
But I LIKE the rapping animals. The 90's gave us classics like Ghost's Pumpkin Soup.

<youtube=xYCNQVIA-xg>

Yeah, I'm going to plug the Sonic Adventure soundtracks whenever I can.
Feel free, that soundtrack rocks.

P.S. Where'd you get your Icon? I keep thinking it's from Katawa Shoujo
It is. I took it from the game itself, during what I think is the first Emi H scene.
 

Andy Shandy

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saintdane05 said:
rhizhim said:
i feel a return of skateboarding and rapping animals from the 90's will be imminent.
But I LIKE the rapping animals. The 90's gave us classics like Ghost's Pumpkin Soup.

<youtube=xYCNQVIA-xg>

Yeah, I'm going to plug the Sonic Adventure soundtracks whenever I can.
I shall join you in this venture!


But yeah, when I saw the title, knowing Ubi's track record, I expected them enlisting a bunch of 13 year olds to advertise Far Cry 3 or at least something that it would be illegal for them to buy
 

Dastardly

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kitsuta said:
Ubisoft Enlists Teens to Market Upcoming Game
I was under the impression that all of the previous Dead Space games were marketed by teenagers...

But seriously, it's an interesting idea, depending on the specifics. For one, does this go hand-in-hand with providing actual training and learning, or are they just getting cheap labor under the guise of "exposure?" Also, are the kids getting paid for this at all?
 

Signa

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Ragsnstitches said:
I'm too lazy to fact check, but isn't Ubisoft notorious for ill conceived marketing schemes?
I'm quite sure you're thinking of EA. Dante's Inferno's Sin to Win competition, and the Moms Hate Dead Space 2 come to mind. They also had fake Christians protest one of their games.
 

kitsuta

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Jan 10, 2011
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Dastardly said:
kitsuta said:
Ubisoft Enlists Teens to Market Upcoming Game
I was under the impression that all of the previous Dead Space games were marketed by teenagers...

But seriously, it's an interesting idea, depending on the specifics. For one, does this go hand-in-hand with providing actual training and learning, or are they just getting cheap labor under the guise of "exposure?" Also, are the kids getting paid for this at all?
There weren't a whole lot of specifics, but my impression is that Ubisoft will be training them, but not paying them. Not ideal, but pretty standard internship terms for an industry in high demand.

EDIT: Also, I'm pretty sure Dead Space was EA.
 

saintdane05

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Andy Shandy said:
I shall join you in this venture!


But yeah, when I saw the title, knowing Ubi's track record, I expected them enlisting a bunch of 13 year olds to advertise Far Cry 3 or at least something that it would be illegal for them to buy
You know, if the lyrics were changed, keep the same beats and background music, those would be pretty good songs. For know, they are just cheesy/awesome at the same time.
 

Ragsnstitches

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Signa said:
Ragsnstitches said:
I'm too lazy to fact check, but isn't Ubisoft notorious for ill conceived marketing schemes?
I'm quite sure you're thinking of EA. Dante's Inferno's Sin to Win competition, and the Moms Hate Dead Space 2 come to mind. They also had fake Christians protest one of their games.
No, I know EA has a history of tasteless marketing, but I was sure Ubisoft is just as bad for it. More for competency reasons though, rather then sheer decadent shamelessness like EA.

Aside from the Splinter Cell derp fest I mentioned earlier, they also had that Watch Dogs promotion that leaked participants E-Mail addresses. I'm sure there are others, but google is not forthcoming.
 

Sis

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> Explosions
> Babes
> Dubstep

Shouldn't be too hard to top these usual suspects in gaming ads.
 

Xanadu84

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The ads may not be great, but the idea of croudsourcing it to give underprivileged teens some real life experience is pretty interesting. And really, putting choices into the hands of consumers can yeild some suprisingly awesome results.

Suddenly I picture a exec at Ubi going, "Wait a second...those guys over at EA are just...terrible. Like they are trying to be as bad as possible. Hell, we do one clever, nice, innovative thing and we will look like absolute angels compared to them. Whats the most straight forward way to do this. Umm...help underprivileged kids. Whats an easy way to do that? Umm...job experience? Yeah, no one will complain about that. Let em work in...marketing! Yeah. This will do nicely."

Surprisingly good or hilariously bad, this should actually go pretty well.
 

Zaik

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I was going to come in here and crack a child labor joke, but apparently they made the cutoff 18 :(

Oh well, maybe next time.