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Author: Lauren Brady

What is brand loyalty when it comes to cars?

Brand loyalty is another corporate buzzword that gets thrown around many a boardroom. But what is brand loyalty? Is it some caveman-like basic urge to be part of a group? For something as amorphous as the concept of brand loyalty, it’s quite rigid in practice.

As a term, it’s the affinity customers feel towards your brand and how likely they are to choose you over competitors. But what is it in a psychological sense? According to Kotler et al, brands can exhibit five traits: sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness. Consumers are drawn to brands that exhibit at least one of these traits and line up with their own internal beliefs. But how can companies use that information, especially in the automotive industry?

 

Familiarity

Brand loyalty could simply come down to prior experience. File this under ‘competence’ and ‘ruggedness’. It could be as simple as cereal – it tastes good, ergo I will buy it again.

In relation to vehicles, you might be loyal to a brand that has worked well in the past. Cars are such a huge investment, you want something that will last you a long time. You’ll want one that performs just as well.

But sometimes it’s familiarity. Humans are creatures of habit and stepping outside of what we know is daunting. Even if you’ve never driven a car before, you’ll have perceptions about particular brands. “My Mum’s Fiat looks nice” or “my friend loves their Kia”. Plenty of Americans would tell you that Dodge is one of the best car brands in the world. But if that’s true, why do they not sell as well elsewhere in the world? 

There’s a famous study that tested people’s ‘Coke vs Pepsi’ bias. It found that people preferred it when they thought they were drinking Coke, despite what was even in the glass. The two drinks are near-identical, but if you dare say such a thing you might start a fight. Maybe brand loyalty is just as simple as ‘better the devil you know’?

 

Aspirations

Or not. That’s too narrow a definition and doesn’t account for people’s appreciation of a brand they don’t even know. You may have never driven a Bentley Bentayga but you know what the name Bentley represents.

It plays into the idea of ‘excitement’ or ‘sophistication’. Brand loyalty can also be aspirational – you want something because of the prestige of it. Apple products have that effect on people, despite their market-leading prices. Over three-quarters of people would replace their iPhone with another one, and even more of them couldn’t even imagine having something else.

We see our products as an extension of us. We never stop being kids in that sense, chasing brands that get us the most attention. But it’s a chicken-or-the-egg scenario: did wealthy people buying brand X make it so prestigious, or did they buy into it because it already was?

 

Creating brand loyalty

Some companies engender loyalty by actively making them feel like part of an exclusive club. Both in the sense that by owning a brand you are part of a minority and in the literal sense – a reward scheme. Why eat anywhere else when another three meals will get you a free starter at Nandos?

It’s harder with cars since you can’t quite say “buy five Fords and your next one’s free!” You could offer an app like ‘FordPass’ though that gives people a reason to stay in your ecosystem. There are plenty of examples of it – each one making you feel like your part of an exclusive group that’s being cared for, provided it has the ‘sincerity’. Kia even refers to it as the ‘Kia family’.

If you want to foster more loyalty you have to work to change already established behaviour. Van Praet described seven steps to this process. You need to interrupt the pattern, create comfort, lead the imagination, shift how they feel, satisfy any critical questions they might have, change their associations, and take action.

So while brand loyalty might differ from person to person, there’s a core to it that you can tap into. Every brand can find loyalty and an audience it’s just a question of can you do it?

At RealtimeUK, we understand the importance of brands. We know what your brand means to you and have a strong history of representing companies in the best possible light. If you’re interested in working together on a future project, get in touch with me at [email protected].

 

Why you need a high-quality trailer for your games

So what’s the point in having a high-quality trailer for games?

With E3 having just passed. And even though certain companies skipped the party this time, there’s still a buzz in the air about what happened at the event. E3 has become Christmas for gamers, and developers and publishers know it. That’s why it’s become the place to announce your newest slate of games. But in a sea of competitors, how will your game stand out?

When it comes to capturing your audience’s attention and increasing user acquisition, an effective and high-quality game trailer is critical. It forms the foundation of a prolonged marketing campaign in a game’s life cycle. 

In our modern digital world, first impressions are everything. Despite building and delivering an excellent game, your efforts will fall short if your trailer fails to do your game justice. It’s paramount you give your trailer the attention it deserves and make sure it ticks all the boxes. 

 

Capturing attention

In a highly competitive marketplace, user attention is in high demand. Your competitors are doing everything to draw maximum attention with their trailers and marketing efforts. Falling short in quality and due diligence here can be costly. 

Creating a trailer that engages and immediately captures your audience’s attention is critical. Failure to do so will see any user engagement drop fast. How you capture their attention is up to you. Sometimes the intrigue of what the mysterious project is is enough. Other times, the scenario itself might be enough to capture their curiosity. Whatever you do, just don’t start it with a parade of logos splashed onto a black background. Or if you need to do that, at least make them fit with the style of the game. 

 

Entertain

It might be an obvious point, but you want to make an entertaining trailer that encourages engagement. Note we said entertaining – not exciting. A trailer has to have to its own mini-narrative to carry the audience through to the end. You need to fit acts one, two, and three in the space of 90 seconds.

If they come away bored or confused, you haven’t done your job. This is your game – what do you think is entertaining? If you know the answer to that, then surely you know what to put in your trailer.

 

Understanding

A high-quality trailer leaves its audience with an understanding of what your game is about and what they’ll get out of it. The focus here isn’t necessarily on gameplay mechanics. You can choose a point of focus to show off what your game has to offer. It could be game goals, character journey, atmosphere, or storyline.

The key to a high-quality trailer is to avoid cramming too much information into it. In 90 seconds, stuffing your trailer with information on price, device information, story, gameplay, atmosphere, and all your other features is a sure way to turn off your audience. Focus on hooking them around your core concepts. They’ll actively search for more information after successful engagement. 

But it’s the professionals who have years of experience crafting trailers that evoke powerful emotions within the target audience. They have the knowledge to plan out dramatic structure and content from beginning to end, always staying respectful of your end product. With the ongoing battle for attention in such a competitive space, seeking industry expertise could give your game the attention it deserves, along with an edge over the competition. 

 

REALTIME is one such company, creating trailers for the likes of Subnautica, War Robots, and Zombie Gunship. Our staff are visionaries who can create a stand-out trailer worthy of hitting the E3 stage. If you would like to discuss your upcoming project, please contact me at [email protected]. 

Is technology the future for car dealerships?

If you listen to the doom and gloom, you would think the traditional high street was dying. Look at big names like BHS and Toys R Us going under in recent years and the subsequent rise of online shopping. You can’t walk down your average high street without seeing boarded-up stores or newly emptied lots. Yet we’re still far from the collapse of the high street; online shopping only accounts for 17% of total sales, meaning the retail sector is still going strong.

So it’s hard not to look at the doom and gloom around car dealerships with the same scepticism. Articles titled ‘Why Car Dealerships Will be Extinct by 2025’ paint an ominous picture. But if the high street can survive, why can’t dealerships?

The new way of shopping

Of course, the two experiences are different. While retail has its fair share of pushy salespeople, it isn’t nearly as much of a pain point as it is for the automotive sector. According to Deloitte, less than 1% of people like the car buying experience. But they can learn a lesson from the retail sector; those that are thriving today know that they need to adapt. So it’s less ‘car dealerships will be extinct by 2025’, more ‘those who fail to change with the times will die out’.

All the information a consumer needs is at the touch of a button. Customers spend 10 hours on average researching their new car purchase, with 52% visiting the dealer’s website during the process. They are savvier and less likely to fall for sales patter. When they visit the dealership, it’s not necessarily advice they’re looking for.

So what are they looking for? Consumers crave convenience – they will want an easy time. Dealerships might not be the start of the car buying process, but they can still be a part of it. Allowing customers to choose their car at home – maybe even configuring it – before confirming their decision in-store is a good place to start. Adoption of technology like this will make customers feel less pressured, able to take it at their own pace.

They can learn a lot from the Apple store model. There, all of their expensive gadgets and toys are laid out to experiment with at your leisure. Salespeople approach you but don’t push you. SEAT has taken the idea and ran with it – they have two stores in the country that wear their convenience on their sleeve. Their website boasts their lack of ‘pushy salespeople’ and their ‘no haggle pricing’. They know what consumers want. They’ve adapted.

Take a SEAT

These SEAT stores aren’t dealerships but that doesn’t mean what they do can’t be integrated into them. They have less emphasis on the salespeople and more on their information kiosks. These are a fountain of information and adverts in the store make for a more natural pathway for consumers to experiment with the car configurators. It gives them something to ‘play’ with, opening up the door to conversions that weren’t there before.

The stores are also less about the cars, with only three on display. Counter-intuitive? Not quite; Green Room CCO Mike Roberts says it’s about ‘putting control in the hands of the customer’. If they want, they can even book a test drive nearby.

But there is pressure building from companies like Tesla, who let you buy directly, or ride-sharing apps like Uber. The next big trend might be car subscription services like Wagonex, who knows? We could see a trend of fewer, yet more robust, dealerships.

As we keep saying, the key is adoption. Make the journey from online to in-store a seamless one. Offer easily accessible options at your dealership. Understand that people want to feel in control. Give them the option to customise their car there and then, maybe even offer test drives in a VR environment.

Extinction isn’t likely to happen by 2025 but that doesn’t mean you’re invulnerable to any adverse effects. While the future looks bright for retail, companies like Debenhams still face problems. The same can be said for dealerships. The question is, what are you doing about it?

At RealtimeUK, we have extensive experience working with some of the biggest names in the automotive sector. If you need CGI solutions for your car configurator or app, get in touch with me at [email protected].

E3 2019 – The Elephant Not in the room

E3 2019 has drawn to a close. It remains to be the King of Games Industry events, but is its Crown slipping?  Any regular attendees to the show would be forgiven for thinking that, when viewed from the outside, all was as usual at the Los Angeles Convention Center.  All entrances to the show were adorned with the usual marketing imagery from the year’s biggest games and every vestige of available space was crammed with branded inflatables and marquees to entertain the masses. Inside though, the story was very different.

With Sony, Activision, EA, and many others electing to stay away from the show floor, the show seemed to be a shadow of its former self. Even XBOX stayed away from the show floor, again preferring to take up a presence at the Nokia theatre next to the Staples Center.  It was just a short walk away, but metaphorically, it could have been several miles, further fracturing the event itself. But in the end it didn’t – E3 as a brand is a far bigger than the show itself, and continued to flourish online where millions tuned into the hugely lavish press conferences that have become a staple of the show itself.

One of the biggest moment’s of this year’s show was the XBOX press conference, the highlight of which was the new trailer for ‘Cyberpunk 2077’. The hugely impressive CG trailer was a major marketing beat for a game which was first announced in May 2012, which  goes to show the impact that pre-rendered trailers continue to play in the  ever-lengthening marketing cycle for a game in the build up towards finally being released.  With the game finally set to be released in April, 2020, just shy of Eight years from its first announce, the trailer was a fantastic achievement in story-telling that successfully served to build the brand and whet the appetite of gamers world-wide – You couldn’t possibly be left unimpressed. But, even if you were, CD Projekt waited for the closing moments to pull out their biggest guns – the introduction of Keanu reeves as ‘Johnny Silverhand’ in the closing moments of the trailer itself.

The inclusion of a Hollywood A lister was perhaps a nod towards some of the glitz and glamour that this year’s show might have been missing when compared to previous years as it continues its shift towards becoming a more consumer focused event. With much of the gameplay demos being only available to play behind closed doors, the floor space as ever continued to be taken by the huge booths and snaking queues of gamers eagerly waiting to play the latest demos. However, there were not as many as in previous years with the West Hall in particular seeming particularly sparse. Nonetheless, the show as ever remained heavily reliant on trailers to help market the games set for release.   Many of this year’s biggest trailers took a pre-rendered route with games like Deathloop, Gears of War 5, The Elder Scrolls online, Sniper Ghost Warrior, Baldur’s Gate III and many more opting to for the very highest levels in visual fidelity and storytelling to seduce gamers.  REALTIME’s own contribution this year included trailers for ‘Evil Genius 2’ and ‘Zombie Army 4: Dead War’ – further proof of the continuing role of CG in the marketing of video Games. We were delighted to see some marketing imagery we had created for Bigben’s ‘Overpass’ game which made an appearance on their stand.

Whilst the halls themselves might have been much more sparse both in terms of attendees and exhibitors, E3 as an online event continues to flourish. The millions that streamed in to view the spectacular press conferences continue to be a testament to the success of the show, even if the show itself is becoming more fragmented year after year.  Hopefully next year the likes of Sony, Microsoft and others will return to the main halls – Only once the elephants return to the room can the circus that is E3 feel complete. 

The road ahead is strong for diversity in digital media

In the past few decades, digital media has made tremendous progress in the pursuit of diversity. Protagonists, directors, and developers are just some of the roles that are being increasingly occupied by under-represented minorities in video games, film, and TV.

Industry-wide encouragement for more representation is enjoying success in several ways. Let’s dive into the figures and see what people are doing to increase engagement with a more diverse audience.

 

Video game participation

Studies are challenging the inaccurate ‘gamer’ stereotype that assumes they are straight, white, and male. Look at the fact that:

Stereotypes are clearly not an accurate representation of gamer demographics. Many developers have seen this as an opportunity to engage with a larger audience.

 

Successful models of diverse engagement

Diversity in video games is growing and some adopters are enjoying roaring success. Apex Legends, a free-to-play Battle Royale game, has taken the gaming world by storm. With relatively little marketing efforts, they hit 50 million players in the first month. They also instilled diversity into the core fabric of the game’s characters. Out of the eight characters so far, two of them are black women, one non-binary, one mixed race, one Hispanic, and the other non-hetero.

Other developers are creating narratives that represent the experiences of different backgrounds. In Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation, the game revolves around interacting with the world as a biracial woman. Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us explored Ellie’s sexuality. It’s a theme that will be expanded upon as she steps into the light as the protagonist in The Last of Us Part II.

Elsewhere, in-game character customisation gives players even more options. They don’t have to be bound to any race, gender, or even sexuality. BioWare might be the trendsetter in this regard, and relative newcomer Stardew Valley lets you marry NPCs no matter what the gender.

 

Film and TV diversity

Minority-led movies and TV series are taking off across many platforms. Black Panther enjoyed a record-shattering box office success. It was the biggest February opening weekend ever, the biggest non-sequel debut ever, and the top-grossing film by a black director. It breaks the Hollywood illusion that actors and directors of colour generate less revenue than their white counterparts.

Before the major motion picture Crazy Rich Asians, Hollywood hadn’t released a film with a majority Asian cast for 25 years. This romantic comedy topped the box office, once again proving the power of diversity and the importance of engaging with a variety of audiences.

In terms of TV series, Netflix has done well to reflect diverse perspectives and progressive points of view. Important social and political conversations are opened when popular shows tackle stigma on mental illness (Lady Dynamite) and highlight problems with the prison industrial complex (Orange Is The New Black), the immigrant experience in the U.S. (Master Of None), and systemic racism (Dear White People).

For gaming, film, and TV industries, it’s clear that minority represented or minority-led productions can thrive. The movement to actively seek out engagement from wider audiences has begun and is largely enjoying success. There’s still a long a way to go, but representation and diversity in digital media has a bright future ahead.

RealtimeUK understands the importance of diverse engagement and can bring that to life in your cinematic trailers. Get in touch with me today on [email protected] to discuss your next steps.