My wife picks this up off the front porch and walks inside with a scowl on her face:
John, what is this?! Another game?!
Caught completely off-guard I prepare myself quickly to provide some sort of explanation – but I simply don’t remember buying any video game lately (besides iPhone 5 apps… … …).
I stare at what she’s got in her hand, blink a few times, and then look at her:
Sweety, that can’t possibly be mine – I didn’t order that!
She hands it to me and I look it over – yup, it’s addressed to me and everything. I rip it open and find this inside:
Well played Microsoft and Amazon, well played (I needed this for my father’s Windows to Mac migration).
Apparently the two organizations have created a marketing opportunity out of their packaging and it worked – perhaps not how they intended it to work but it definitely caught my attention (and freakin’ almost got me in a heap of trouble!).
But I think it’s incredibly clever and it’s a neat way to leverage something that already exists and create even more value from it. It made me think of all the common-place things that I do in my day-to-day that could be leveraged for creative marketing, advertising, and the like.
And don’t get me wrong – I don’t need any more advertisements in my life but the point is that there are opportunities lying right beneath our noses to do something different. Perhaps these opportunities are so obvious that they go completely unnoticed.
Great startups take advantage of these kind of already-existing markets and make something great out of that opportunity.
If that were my wife, she’d be upset because “there is a chance that I got that for you as a Christmas present.” (You could try to angle for that, btw)
On a serious note, for sure there are opportunities that we miss out on. There are plenty of places that we can tap into if we just think out of the box.
Yep. I got the same packaging when I received some Blu-Ray discs that I ordered. A brilliant move on Amazon’s part.
I love seeing clever collaborations when it comes to advertising … it’s like a breath of fresh air. Ahhhhh, that was creative!
Games like this exercise the mind with fast paced, high-pressure situations that force you to make good decisions quickly, adapt to the unexpected, and think strategically with your team … so, in a way, gamers make the best entrepreneurs–hahaa, I couldn’t say it without laughing.
But I stand by the first part of that sentence. It beats the heck out of reality TV in my opinion, but hey, everything’s debatable!
#TeamBattlefield3
I hear what you’re saying. But the main reason for the comment is that this is heeeeeelarious.
Creative individuals and organizations have much to gain by collaborating. I think we’ll be seeing more of this in the future.
I think these opportunities do exist all over the place, but we aren’t noticing them for various reasons. We are too dismissive (“that will never work”) or too self critical (“that’s a dumb idea”) or we just don’t notice at all because we aren’t used to thinking outside the box.
Good to know that I wasn’t the only person to have that happen to!
Ha ha ha!!! That is too funny! Can just see that look, on both your faces! This is a great way to advertise, albeit a bit tricky!!! And being the Mac-user that I am, Windows needs all the help it can get!!!
Good stuff and that does in fact make perfect sense.
I noticed that too on a recent Amazon order. Threw me for a loop as I knew I hadn’t ordered a game. It’s a great, subtle marketing technique though. You trust Amazon and the makers of Call of Duty are hoping you’ll give them a shot because of that Amazon trust.
I work at UPS, I see thousands of Amazon packages with the Call of Duty ad. If I’m not mistaken, I think it’s a deal between Amazon and Call of Duty, I know that Microsoft sells well but I don’t think all of these packages could have consisted of Microsoft products.
This is hilarious. I wonder if anyone had a huge fight at the door, storming out before the package was even opened.
Though this is clearly an ad being used for everyone, I think the advertising of the future will have customized printed ads coming in on your packages, designed based on your preferences.
I wonder how many packages end up in the trash because of this!