Computer game wins big

Interactive disk launches product

by Len Egol, Senior Editor

from Direct, p 62

If your game is launching a product to a niche market that doesn't warrant heavy advertising support, try a computer game. You could win a higher-than-expected response rate and a ton of highly qualified leads.

Harris Semiconductor was looking for a way to introduce two new products for digital signal processing to 15,000 imaging system designers nationwide. After noodling the alternatives, product marketing manager Ben Word hit on an interactive computer adventure game to keep product introduction costs under tight control.

The tight little market's demographics reveal an audience of relatively young males who had cut their teeth on computer games. "A computer game seemed to be the ideal way to provide information on our product in a fun way," Word says.

What's more, the products themselves are graphics oriented, which made the highly graphic medium even more appropriate..

The game was executed by Prentice Associates, Quincy, Mass., a firm specializing in designing and programming computer marketing tools.

"We've done a lot of interactive computer disk promotions, but I believe it's the first time a computer game was used to introduce a product," says Lloyd Prentice, who at one time was the publisher and editor of a magzine on classroom computer programs.

Called Engineering Jones and the Time Thieves of DSPea, the game portrays a futuristic world deprived of the benefits of the new Harris DSP technology. While running the half-hour program, the player saves the day by solving a puzzle.

As the scenario unfolds, the player is introduced to the features, benefits and applications of the new products. After the puzzle is solved, the player returns a response card that automatically enters him or her in a drawing to win a camcorder.

Harris Semiconductor reports an 11 percent response rate and more than 1,700 highly qualified leads by the end of last September. "We certainly exceded our usual 3 percent response rate on direct mail campaigns," Word says.

One reason for the exceptional results may be that the game itself was self-qualifying. "We used high resolution graphics," Prentice says. His client reasoned that he wasn't interested in reaching the kind of people whose PC's couldn't run high resolution color graphics.

The creative on the Engineer Jones game came to about $30,000. The disks themselves dropped in the mail for about $2 each. The agency handling the self-mailer package is Greenstone Roberts, Melville, N.Y.