14. Marketing

This game will be very easy to market to an audience who are conscious about the environment and climate change. With the topic being so popular currently, it is getting a large amount of media attention and so hopefully this will help to market the game itself.

A current report on climate change on the BBC News website (BBC 2012)

A perfect way to market this game would be to use ‘sustainable marketing’, because this ties in with the theme of the game. This means using recycled materials wherever possible, and using alternative energy resources during production of the final product. (Sustainable Marketing, 2012)

This game would also be a good game to play in schools, to teach children about climate change. A separate stand-alone game could be made so that it can be used in schools without them having to use a social network.

Students in a school using computers – they could be playing the game (Telegraph 2010)

The game could also be marketed using grants or features from different companies and charities which focus on climate change. Charities such as ‘Stop Climate Chaos Coalition’ and ‘Friends of the Earth’ might be very interested in the idea of a game promoting climate change education, and so they may feature it on their websites, or recommend it to their members. They may even sponsor the game to have their logos put onto it, and to claim some of the profits of the game as donations to their causes. (SCCC 2012) (Friends of the Earth 2012)

One of the biggest ways of marketing this game would be on the social networking site that it is hosted on. The game will have access to its player’s list of friends, and it can send out invitations to play through this. It can also be promoted by asking if the player wants to ‘share’ their achievements with their social networking friends, with a link to the game so that more people will play. A final way of marketing this game would be the option to earn in game rewards by recruiting friends. The player will have the option to invite their friends to the game. The more of their friends who join the game, the more rewards the player will get.

(Stop Climate Change Coalition, 2012)

(Friends of the Earth, 2012)

How ‘Castleville’ by Zynga markets via social networking (Facebook 2012)

The game’s release could be timed to coincide with a major climate change event. The United Nations hold a Climate Change conference every year, with a different country hosting it every year. The game could be released alongside the conference, so that the game will complement the media stories about the event. Last year the conference discussed ways of limiting carbon emissions, and agreed that the strategy was going to be finalised and released in 2015 - for it to be taken into effect by 2020 (The Guardian, 2011). If the game is released alongside the carbon emissions plan, it can help people to understand why we need this plan, and it will teach them how to reduce their own carbon emissions.

There are other significant days in the year where the game can be released, such as; Climate Week (12^th to 18^th March), Earth Day (22^nd April), World Environment Day (5^th June), World Oceans Day (8^th June) and Global Wind Day (15^th June). All of these days can be used to draw attention to the game, because the game contains enough relevant content to link to all these days. 

Climate Change Conference Logo (United Nations, 2012)

World Environment Day Logo (United Nations, 2012)