Very interesting article from Advertising Age that evaluates the media plans utilized to market both the Beatles: Rock Band and Guitar Hero 5 last year. It evaluates and rates each product/franchise based on the following categories: Teasers, Television, Social Media, Website, Radio, Experimental Marketing, and finally Summary. Scores were based on 0 to 5 stars.  It was interesting to see from a high level the efforts made by each franchise to promote their product.

From the casual gamer’s or even non-gamer’s perspective, there is very little differentiating the two products, and I still think Guitar Hero has the better name recognition than Rock Band. However, I do think that Rock Band had a leg up in this battle, as they were offering something very unique: The Beatles. Guitar Hero 5 from a marketing standpoint was simply another game in the franchise, and there’s only so much PR you can do when you are pushing the 5th iteration in a franchise.

Anyway, check out the full article here. Let me know your thoughts on how each franchise was graded. I was disappointed with the Social Media score given for Rock Band, but I thought everything else was fair.

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