Creating an advertising campaign to reach a target market segment can be a tricky task. One industry that does a very good job at this is video games. Video game commercials and other advertisements are directed at highly specific groups of people. In their latest advertising campaign, the much anticipated video game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, has employeed a very clever technique to reach their tagret market.
The newest TV commercial for Modern Warefare 3 (MW3) features two celebrities that are extremely popular with MW3’s target consumers. The celebrities are Johan Hill from smash hit comedies like “Superbad”, “Knocked Up” and “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and action star, Sam Worthington from “Avatar”, “Clash of the Titans” and Terminator: Salvation”. Each of these actors is very well-known and popular with the people that MW3 is geared toward: teen and young adult males. By using celebrities like Worthington and Hill, the MW3 creators ensure that viewers will take time to watch their commercial. While most of their target segment was already planning on buying MW3 with or without the commercial, the ad does help build excitement for the now available blockbuster hit, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
the psychology behind using a celebrity in an advertisement is that people who are using peripheral route processing (people who don’t have much invested in the decision to buy a product) are more likely to listen to ads with celebrities or flashy commercials. This applies to video game purchases. When a person has more to lose or gain from a purchase (cars, houses, medicines), they are more likely to listen to experts on the subject like doctors, personal trainers, etc.
Link to commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLjgRmJUwpU
*The views expressed in this blog are mine and not affiliated with the University of Southern California or its Master’s in Human Behavior program*
Psychology and Advertising 