In-game advertising first - er no!

It seems like the GCHQ in-game advertising first is not actually a first - this is dated March 2007.

Royal Navy in-game advertising

Actually, I knew it was not a first as I had seen this campaign earlier this year ... it just shows how the media will publish a story without any research at all.

I am quite sure i am going to have pissed off a few people here - but sorry it just has to be said and i wanted to see if any of the media picked this up without having to write this post.

but nothing ... so i thought i would let the cat out of the bag.

Comments

[Laura Robertson]

Hi John,

No 'cat let out of the bag' here am afraid. We were indeed all aware of the Royal Navy advertising earlier this year. However our partners in this campaign, Massive, who provide the network of games, confirmed to us prior to launch that the Royal Navy advertising was classified as branding, because there was no specific recruitment element attached and certainly no call to action. I guess there may be some people out there who may want to take that branding v job specific debate further, but in this case we are just delighted for our client that this campaign has made such a remarkable impact, making headlines all over the world. That is something to be proud of.

[Alex]

ahhhh - the debate of spin over reality.

Yup - headline grabbing is definitely an artform in itself, and you should be rightly proud when the BBC are broadcasting your message - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7053369.stm . Personally am not convinced the claim is indeed valid - as an ex Royal Navy employee I don't believe that the Royal Navy has a brand beyond it's employer brand, therefore surely all presence is indeed recruitment specific, but then I'm not knowledgeable enough on this particular activity to understand what made the GCHQ piece all the more "job" specific.

Anyway, for me in life as in recruitment advertising, I prefer to treat much with a large dose of some advice given by a popular musical act who came to prominence in the late 80s - "Don't believe the hype...don't don't don't don't believe the hype" (Public Enemy c.1988).

However - here we are raising the activity's profile yet further - so maybe producing "debatable spin" is the new PR stunt in itself. Anyway - look forward to hearing more about the actual and tangible success of the medium in the near future.

:-)

[John Whitehurst]

Laura thanks for responding but it was part of this campaign.

http://www.gluelondon.com/casestudy.php?id=07

That is recruitment advertising.

And i an not going to debate over what is classified - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classified_advertising

People can make up ther own mind.

I think the fact you knew this shows a lack of respect to people in the industry and the people who worked on this campaign.

Doing the PR is a great idea (and it is great that you did it) and saying the first was not even needed - if you look at the Guardian story they did not publish that statement.

I am acutally more upset by the media who did not even bother to research the story. It just shows very lazy research on their part.

[Misha]

It’s not hard to believe that society has become so digitalized that job recruitment has found its way into video games, advertising did long ago. If it hasn’t already, will recruitment enter into a game with a wider player game like the Sims? Somehow I wouldn’t be surprised if Molly’s goal is to become president of Big Name Corporation. Crackdown and the previously mentioned Google Earth bring Isaac Asimov to mind. I can’t help but think that the job game will be like something out of science-fiction.

Many companies and recruiters have already grabbed technology by the horns and started using it to their advantage. Take for instance Focus, a food recruitment consultancy, who strives to “ensure our clients are at the cutting edge, and we have introduced a number of initiatives recently to help them and us continue to engage with the best Food manufacturing talent. These include Food graduate engagement campaigns on Facebook, a sophisticated search engine marketing program and this Food Recruitment blog of course. We also provide the training and support necessary to use these current tools and methods.”

The article from Focus talks about what recruitment will look like in 5 years. http://www.focus-management.co.uk/foodblog/2007/10/what-will-food-recruitment-loo.html Thanks to the internet, companies don’t have to be in the same country to hire employees. Will recruiting go beyond the network sites like Facebook to this new Earth made of pixels and coding or beyond?