At PRICE, our plan is to accelerate our mission to improve and expand our agency. That includes adding such services as video production, media planning and buying, and full campaign strategy and implementation.

We look forward to growing our relationships with industry-leading companies, like Namco, Electronic Arts, Sega, THQ, Konami, JAMDAT, O~3 Entertainment, and Logitech. We also look forward to establishing new relationships, pushing the limits of creativity, and delivering to our clients marketing solutions that are truly innovative.

This month's e-newsletter is packed with PR and marketing advice that will help you get the New Year off to a great start. We are extremely excited to have two professionals on hand who I admire greatly. Erica Kohnke Kain -- the only person to use if you are serious about getting publicity -- shares her thoughts on how to get that ever-elusive page-one placement for your products and services. And Bill Gardner, an amazingly talented man with more than 20 years of experience leading companies like Panasonic and Capcom, who is now president/CEO of O~3 Entertainment, lets us in on his secret to putting consumer products on the fast-track to success.

As always, I hope you enjoy and learn from "Outside The Box" and I wish you the very best in 2005!

Until next time ...

Joe Cerbo
President
PRICE

It's true. The mainstream media is waking up, dusting off their tweed sports coats, and discovering that the videogames phenomenon truly is a piece of American history. For the first time, they are ready to discuss games as a significant part of our culture, and spotlight our industry with page-one placement.

Before this season, we gamers were a mini-trend. Occasionally we came up with a game that could make the evening news -- or get placement in the Circuits section of the New York Times. Newspaper reporters and men's magazines discussed individual games, and we all enjoyed a cozy existence, competing for the same coverage in the same publications.

My profession requires me to stay in touch with the nation's newspaper reporters, and I have noticed a significant change in the last month. Since Halo 2's release and the success of the Nintendo DS, mainstream journalists have started using the word "Americana" to describe interactive entertainment. For the media, games have become a legitimate and widespread cultural phenomenon.

Why? In large part, our industry has "aged up," the media have become more technologically savvy, and the journalists who once ruled the editorial universe have been displaced by former interns who have taken over the cultural beat.

The staid Washington Post recently added a games culture reporter and page-one opportunities are cropping up for all of us, provided we know how to take them.

The first step is to Ö

Click here for complete article.

Q: Aside from a great game and good package design, what other key factors go into the making of a top-selling game?

A: Bill Gardner, president and CEO of O~3 Entertainment, has more than 20 years of experience in the consumer business as a manager and executive, including having launched Capcom in Europe. Bill responds: You can have the best-looking game with great gameplay, but if you don't spend at least six months preparing the market for the title's release, you'll never have a hit.

The PR campaign begins 6-8 months before the release with screen shots and press releases going out to the magazines. Contact the editors and see what you can do to get your images onto their covers. The next step is to get the editors playable versions of parts of the game, hoping to get some feedback.

At the same time, we test and retest the game, adding playability factors. For example, when we came out with "Resident Evil" at Capcom, we determined that it was a little too easy for U.S. gamers. So we added an aiming device that made it a little more difficult to hit the antagonists. That's a tiny touch that's not a vital part of gameplay, but it can mean the difference between becoming a hit or not.

Then, three months before the game's release, comes the ad campaign. One of the most important parts is determining its theme which, in turn, determines who looks at the ad. Will it be the action in the game or, perhaps, its neat leading character? For example, Lara Croft became the theme of Tomb Raider's advertising, not the gameplay, not the game itself. I believe that's what made it an amazing hit.

Then, 45 days before the game comes out, you send the final version to the magazines for review. If you've done everything correctly, on launch date -- boom! The game hits the shelves, the reviews say it's terrific, the TV ads talk about the reviews, the magazine ads hit, the in-store promotions appear, and word-of-mouth does the rest. If you've done it all and done it right, you can sell a million copies.