Cadillac secures Xbox Live ad space

Nice idea. Great way to build a little extra buzz about products. Downloading a free car is extremely more satisfying than watching an ad. Thumbs up to all involved.

Now thats the smarted idea for ingame advertising. Make thier product useful in some way. For the sake of realism games have been doing this already for years.

That's an interesting way to advertise. I wonder how the car will perform in the game. Do you think Cadillac made them make the car perform better than it actually would be in real life as compared to other cars in the game?

I would hope they "enhanced" the car's performance. The game is full of 200MPH supercars. Who the hell is gonna race online with a Cadillac?

Wa-hey! Now that's advertising I like! It's unintrusive, and adds to the quality of the game... for FREE! Unfortuantely, I doubt this will be the norm and other companies will just force M$ to plaster huge virtual billboards in online games.

"Nice idea. Great way to build a little extra buzz about products. Downloading a free car is extremely more satisfying than watching an ad. Thumbs up to all involved."

It's a slippery slope, though, and one that has heavy implications for developers.

Let's say the new business model is that car makers have to pay to get their cars into driving games. It's a logical extension of this, because why would a developer *give away* the use of one car in a game and try to sell the rights to their game to other manufacturers? It wouldn't make sense to charge Cadillac but not Chevrolet, right?

The more cynical among you may also realize that PGR3 had fewer cars to start with than PGR2, and would rightly question if this was not the plan all along.

So the question then becomes, are the choices we will have in future driving games dictated not by the dream list of cars that the developer comes up with, but by which manufacturers will pony up the dough? And what about high-end stuff like Ferrari and Porsche who will just never pay for their cars to be included? And how does this all affect smaller developers or those just starting out in racing games? Will the world be divided into the PGR3's of the world on one side, with the "Ford Racing" crap advertorial games on the other? What about damage modeling? Will every racing game launch with a small roster of cars that will eventually be filled out by paid ads?

I'm just speculating. But you can bet that once this starts, it's not going to stop, and things are not going to stay the same as they are now. And it won't just be racing games that'll be affected; it'll be any type of game where real-life products are the main focus. (Okay, admittedly I can't think of too many other genres where that applies. But you can bet MS's ad department is actively looking at where they can do this kind of thing in everything from RPG's to FPS's.)

What demographic were they going after exactly?

Cadillac?s are generally only for: the old with nothing else to spend money on other
than prescriptions; middle aged people having a mid-life crisis; drug
dealers/gangsters who listen to too many rap songs...

That may be an extreme generalization but still...it seems like a waste of
money considering very few who would buy Cadillac?s play on Xbox Live.
-?I say stick to word of mouth, ride the Cadillac name, keep letting rappers plug Cadillac in their songs, and keep putting TV ads with Led Zeppelin in it

"4. Wa-hey! Now that's advertising I like! It's unintrusive, and adds to the quality of the game... for FREE! Unfortuantely, I doubt this will be the norm and other companies will just force M$ to plaster huge virtual billboards in online games."

Haha! No.

Companies don't FORCE MS to do ANYTHING. EVER. It's the other way around. If MS decides that these guys all need to make the playable cars for their game, they all do it. (I know the car companies don't actually create the digital cars, but if MS wants them to have the option, they pretty much have to). Microsoft has much less to gain in advertising deals, remember?

Though valid points are made for and against this type of advertising, I find it very refreshing. True, maybe Cadillac is gearing this toward the wrong demographic, but it's a cool way to advertise, nonetheless.

I can also see this snowballing. Who knows, maybe in Splinter Cell: Double Agent you'll have to take Tylenol(r) brand pain reliever to raise your health.

This is the good kind of advertising imho. Give me stuff to play with, that is fun and relevent to the game and is free.

Les Doodis, if Tylenol wants to get thier stuff into a game and it makes that game cost less at the register, then I'm all far it (even though it could get annoying to have to oepn those child proof caps while hiding under a stair case in a multiplayer game, heheheheh).

Well as much as people hate to admit it, with games based in reality, this type of "in game ad" will only add to the experience and make it more "real".

If there are in game ads in games NOT based in reality such as SiFi or fantasy, then this type of advertising takes away from the experience: ala "Demolition Man"---the only fast food chain to survive is Taco Bell, lets all eat at Taco Bell in the future! o_0?

The burning question, of course, is if Cadillac is pulling the old move that prevents it from deforming with damage taken.

Many developers who created games featuring licensed cars were prevented from allowing any sort of crash-damage.

Hopefully we're past that ridiculous stage of gaming, but y'never know.

@6.

Your generalizations are way out of control there. I think the fresh designs of the CTS put Cadillac in a new light. It's a hot car for the young demographic. It was even used as the escape car in the Matrix Reloaded.

I'm probably the last person to ask how effective this would be since ads have almost no effect on me. Most things that I want I probably knew I wanted them before they made an ad.

@5.
Those high-end guys like Porche and Ferrari don't make ads anyway. I don't see them on TV or as an actual ad in a magazine. They don't even make enough to go around if we could all buy them. Cadillac may be a car but it's in an entirely different market from those guys.

Shiro - less to gain? It's not as if MS don't get paid for the advertising. Though Jeff makes a good point about the wider implications. I wonder what made Cadillac do this in the first place? Were they not approached by Bizarre Creations? If not its understandable (they're not supercars like Ferraris), though if they were then its an odd move to make.

-VampireHunter Z

Sorry, but I have to say just one thing: HTF is a Cadillac targeting the young demographic??? Scion, Honda, etc..that's the young demographic. Cadillac, Infinity, Lexus...that's the old demo, middle-aged crisis demo, and spoiled rotten "I'm driving my dad's (insert model) and I'm so cool" demographic. This kind of advertising is nice, but you might as well say an add for Ferrari targets working families. Simply false.

Fortunately, I love the CTS-V. Very awesome. I don't mind product placement when it makes sense and isn't over-the-top.

"Cadillac?s are generally only for: the old with nothing else to spend money on other
than prescriptions; middle aged people having a mid-life crisis; drug
dealers/gangsters who listen to too many rap songs..."

That may be an extreme generalization but still...
"Sorry, but I have to say just one thing: HTF is a Cadillac targeting the young demographic??? Scion, Honda, etc..that's the young demographic. Cadillac, Infinity, Lexus...that's the old demo, middle-aged crisis demo, and spoiled rotten "I'm driving my dad's (insert model) and I'm so cool" demographic."

...the competition to pack as many wild stereotypes into one post is really heating up.

"..the competition to pack as many wild stereotypes into one post is really heating up."

You show me a 16yr old kid that just got their license and bought the Cadillac with their own money (not a richy rich either--otherwise thats another stereotype) , and I'll stand corrected on my "stereotypes."

Didn't think so. Don't be so quick to happily flash the "everyone else is a prejudice stereotyper but I'm on a higher level of consciousness so I know better" card.

-Eric

I wish I could give you a star for that one. Why is it that if you see some kid who just got an Escalade handed to them on their 16th birthday, doesn't work, and will work after high school for their dad making $200k a year just for being the no-talent son of a snob, you can't say "What a spoiled little brat." without someone screaming "STEREOTYPE!! OMG NOT FAIR!!11!ONE!" Oh wait...that's probably because the person telling you not to stereotype is some 18 year old, stepping out of their new Z06 Vette that they've "worked so hard at McDonald's to save up for yo" and apparently have a ton of credit from their LONG 2 year history of crap they bought...*cough*bull$hit*cough*...

Taco Bell in Demolition Man is funny as hell. I loved that!

As long as advertising remains unobtrusive I don’t mind it at all.
But it will only be unobtrusive when restricted to certain types of game. You could slip multiple ‘gags’ like the Taco Bell one into a game like Fallout. It would change the game to collect Coke Bottle Tops instead of Bottle Tops.

#1 x2

Eric, I'm glad you picked none of the arguments you originally made as a rebuttal to my comment and ignored your own disclaimer about the likely absurdity of your comment..."That may be an extreme generalization but still."

So you're now implying that the only people that play PGR 3 are 16 year olds and that they have to be able to afford the cars in the game. We're discussing product placement for performance cars here. How many 16-18 year olds can also afford Ferraris or Lamborghinis? Do you object to the "absurdity" of their presence in racing games or trying to establish/retain a desire for their products? Of course, saving up to buy the cars yourself suddenly would mean that person has transitioned into having a mid-life crisis.

So yes, I still also assert/agree that your claims are pretty wild and I dare say, quite absurd. Even using one of your own statements, you're implying people who listen to rap (who apparently are all drug dealers) don't play video games or racing games. I'm not a big fan of most modern rap or hip hop, but it's a pretty wide reaching and popular genre. So the implication that no rap fans play games is also pretty ridiculous.

One thing that no one yet has mentioned is the reversal in the traditional money flow. The way licensing used to work was the videogame developer or publisher would approach a company (in this case Cadillac) and pay them a fee to be able to place the company's product in their game. This is why in certain driving games you couldn't drive some cars but you could drive others. It all depended on how much money the game makers had to spend on licenseing. This is true for sports teams as well. EA pays the NFL not the other way around. Now we are beginning to see the clout that game marketing is generating. Now game companies have well know brands coming to them with money to be included in the games!

GT Gamer-

While you call my claims absurd, I call them "demographics". You may call demographics "sweeping generalizations" but that is how companies target their audiences.
Without generalizing populations and putting certain people into certain camps of the real social world then the "Marketing" major at universities would not exist, nor would anything relating to "business" exist.

As far as I know Ferraris and Lamborghinis are fast cars, thus their place in racing games. They are the very meaning of high performance, and have nothing to do with luxury, because luxury weighs down a car. That gizmondo exec's car doesn't even have power windows yet it costs a million dollars because of its crazy performance. Can Cadillac seriously be said in the same breath as these marvels of engineering, no, that would be insulting to Ferraris and Lamborghinis. And as far as I know, Lamborghinis has only been recently officially licensed in one racing game.
I also never said everyone who listens to hip-hop is a drug dealer---that's something you put together from your own reading comprehension problems.
I said "that may be an extreme generalization but still" to tell people like you NOT to look to far into the previous statements, and look at the larger point I was trying to make aboutt Cadillac's misguided demographic targeting being a waste of their money.

I could be wrong, but you must not watch a lot of auto racing to claim that the current generation of Cadillacs or Cadillac as a company has no performance/racing pedigree. So to keep narrowing it down even further, your basic argument is that Cadillac shouldn't try to expand their market awareness or presence for their performance vehicles and just stick to the groups who you perceive Cadillac buyers are and should be.

Not only that, but from personal experience (which must be the same pool you've used for your statements as you've provided no firm evidence either), I've witnessed most people driving the V-series Cadillacs don't really fit into any of the "demographics" that you stated...most of which are indeed very narrow over-generalizations. According to your "demographics" - rich young punk, mid-life crisis, rich old geriatric...there's not much room for someone to ever own a an expensive car in a way to be "reasonable."

Cadillac's racing "pedigree" has nothing to do with its production models. I would never buy a Chevy, but they do really well on the NASCAR circuit.

Cadillac's sport car models aren't in the same league as Ferraris or Lamborghinis, sorry. If you argue to the contrary I'm done with you.

Again, I generalized the demographics because I am not going to waste my time spelling out for people like you what logical people already know, hence the disclaimer at the end "i know its a generalization..." See previous post on why I put that at the end.
Lastly, I love the "I know from personal experience..." argument trying to challenge my clearly made up and thoughtless generalizations. Try to back up your "facts" with facts...I could just as easily say "well sir, in MY personal experience (fill in the blank).