Being a gamer and coming from a game marketing background, it’s easy to understand how simple it is to get hooked on a game, especially the MMOGs and Facebook which seems to be a rising trend nowadays.

I play World of Warcraft. When I first started some two years ago, I breathed, slept, and ate World of Warcraft (WoW for short). I could spend the whole day leveling my character, interacting with my guild members and in between activities, slip to the kitchen to cook some instant noodles. There were days when I only ate dinner. The amount of time spent in a game such as WoW is tremendous. Hardcore players spend at least five hours on raiding and about three hours doing other in-game activities – that’s about the same number of hours I spend working in the office! Which brings me to my main point – marketing through games is getting increasingly popular and may make up the bulk of the marketing landscape in future.

An example of marketing through games is President Obama’s campaign through games like Burnout Paradise and Guitar Hero 3, both highly popular games. The choice of platform is also very strategic – Xbox360 currently dominates the online console gaming community and has been out in the market longer as well. The social aspect of MMOGs is particularly strong and the amount of time people spend in-game amounts to A LOT of exposure, thus I believe there will be more campaigns appearing in online games.

In my opinion, word of mouth is the best marketing as it has the best persuasion power. There is a sense of confidence instilled in whoever is listening and that person will be more likely to buy the product. What better way to do it than marketing in an MMOG where people talk all the time and players with influential power can move a mountain?

The best thing about doing a campaign in MMOGs is that it doesn’t even have to be big. You don’t have to place huge in-game billboards like Obama. Simple things like giving users a Coke costume to wear for a period of time can increase brand awareness. A simple questline consisting of about three quests revolving around environmental issues (tweaked to suit the game) with a reward that can make your character turn green can also raise awareness for the environment. Flash game apps in Facebook are also good mediums of marketing without seeming too forward and hard-sell.

The concept of marketing is slowly shifting. It’s not about buying space, air time or holding events anymore, it’s about buying a community and shifting its views and preferences while getting them interested and involved in what you are doing.