THQ questions TV marketing

Danny Bilson, the VP of core games at publisher THQ, has questioned whether the huge costs of TV marketing can still be justified in the increasingly multimedia dominated world of the modern games industry.

Publishers such as EA and Ubisoft have in recent times made big-noise about high-profile TV spends to promote key upcoming titles, but Bilson questions the value of V advertising to promote a hobby that replaces the watching of TV in the home.

But as far as bigger cost against bigger game is, I think it’s about smarter,” he told the[a]listdaily. One of the bigger questions we have to ask ourselves is how important is television? How important is television to a core gamer on a non-television brand? Television is a big question mark for me.

It’s incredibly expensive, and what I can do with $2m, which will buy a few TV spots on a big sporting event, what I can do in outdoor, or on the web, or direct-to-consumer is way more exciting.

You know I’ve grown up with television. I used to make television. I made it for many years. Some people love it, but I know I’m playing games, I’m not watching TV. You know where I want to market? I want to market on Xbox Live. I want to market on PSN, because every night that’s the switch I turn on at my house. And that front end comes, and those windows come, and all that marketing’s getting right to me because I’m a core gamer. That’s where I want to invest.”

However, Bilson does concede that for IP based on ‘TV brands’ that medium of course remains relevant. I think television has some relevance on WWE and UFC because I consider those TV brands. But our other stuff, I question it severely.”