Things We Learned From The Last Week

One of the things our Copywriter learned from the last week was that this Blog used to feature a section called ‘things we learned from last week’. In a week that featured April Fools Day, the formal beginnings of Brexit and another hundred Trump-related facepalm moments, any such continuation would be jumping in at the deep end. But seeing as fake news is apparently all the rage these days, you can probably trust an advertising copywriter over a journalist anyway.

So, here’s a few of the things we learned from last week!

HTC introduces eye-tracking Virtual Reality ad technology

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2017-03-31-htc-introduces-eye-tracking-vr-ads

We’ve seen attempts at attention tracking online in the past, but HTC’s new tech, to monitor how viewers see or interact with advertisements in VR, is about to hit the market. Finding out exactly which elements of an ad get the most attention and what gets seen first should give us some truly intriguing insights. This could mean creative optimisation in VR takes on a very scientific form. We’ll be watching these developments with interest… and a general sense of motion sickness.

TV’s not exempt from advertisers’ scrutiny over trust issues

http://adage.com/article/media/mercedes-benz-pulls-ads-o-reilly-factor/308546/

Ever since that Times article, we’ve been reading headlines about advertisers losing trust in Google and other digital giants. And just as Google promise to work with 3^rd parties to better police their content, we’re now seeing Mercedes-Benz and BMW pulling advertisements from Fox News’ ‘The O’Reilly Factor’ – following on from sexual harassment allegations charged at the host of the show.

Board Games becoming a thing again

http://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/from-monopoly-to-exploding-kittens-board-games-are-making-a-comeback/

Having worked in and around the games industry for many years, it’s not the first time we’ve read this headline. But it’s the first time we recall it being said outside of the Christmas gifting season – although the 28% uplift in sales reported in the US could still be largely attributed to that period. It’s a fairly significant spike though, thought to be related to the current ‘nesting trend’ with consumers staying in more and more – comfortably catered to by the likes of Netflix and Just Eat.

We’re still waiting for game designers to successfully exploit that over-lapping space between physical board games and mobile/gaming technology, but it’s bound to happen sooner or later. It better anyway… we’ve been waiting for 3D hologram chess fights since the first Star Wars movie.

PETA takes a swipe at Nintendo over cow-milking mini-game

http://www.thedrum.com/news/2017/04/03/peta-sours-nintendo-switch-cow-milking-minigame

It’s been a strong year for Nintendo thus far, with the Japanese gaming giant upping forecasts and doubling production efforts for its new Switch console. But last week, animal rights group Peta made a complaint to Nintendo regarding a mini-game which asks players to competitively milk a cow. The crux of the issue was that the milking process was portrayed as devoid of cruelty: which is not necessarily reflective of real life. Nintendo’s brand, however, has always celebrated the cutesy and the kitsch – so it’s extremely unlikely that any ‘realistic’ updates or patches will be released.