Support NeoGAF

[McSpidey]

The low budget assigned to this actually just makes it worse, because it's high enough to entice a large number of videos but not high enough to actually pay them all making it a sort of pyramid scheme where they don't pay for most of the video made.

 

[Froli]

Lmao

 

[Aquamarine]

Astroturfing is pretty standard everywhere. They are still banned on Gaf if they get found out.

Spoiler

Am I right about this? Someone confirm pls

Bish said that a ton of people with email addresses / IPs attached to marketing firms / "reputation management" companies were banned...especially during the height of Microsoft's negative PR bloodbath (DRM scandal).

 

[Aquamarine]

Some comments made by Bish earlier in the year:

Funny how many of these posts have come from juniors who have registered between June 1-3 of this year.

This year's batch of juniors has been among the very worst.

*checks rinemy's email account*
*immediately recognizes Microsoft partnership*
*calls to wife for advice on how to spell 'disingenuous' for the ban message*
*goes back to playing GTA V*

In a year filled with suspect juniors and straw grasping of the highest order, you're standing out for all the wrong reasons.

Hi guys,

A friendly PSA to all astroturfers, internet marketing firms, and the like trying to change the conversation here on the forums:

Learn to better cover your tracks. I highly recommend IP spoofing and resisting the urge to leave cute breadcrumbs in your profile.

At the very least, it'll be more entertaining for me to track you down and nail your hides to the proverbial gates.

Toodles,

-bish

 

[JABEE]

Microsoft is preying on the naive, greedy YouTube channels who think they can make a quick buck. But who is the real winner at the end of the day? Microsoft.

Cheap, crowd-sourced advertising. Millions of impressions. Let the personalities do the advertising for you...it's brilliant. I applaud their 21st-century way of marketing.

Now if it only wasn't so deceitful...

It's promotion and it's deceiving when the party does not disclose that they have accepted gifts/monetary benefits for an alteration of their content.

It may happen all the time, but I look at it as everything that is wrong with the ethics of Marketers. It's about tricking consumers, not about informing them about your product in an honest way.

It's only going to get worse too. Corporations are going to destroy any semblance of fair and balanced consumer guides. I guess it's worth it to ruin an outlet or person's credibility as a reporter as long as it means survival among the rest of the cheaters and unscrupulous characters. It reminds me of a baseball player's rationalization of their use of performance enhancing drugs.

It's just sad.

 

[NewGame]

brb windows movie maker

-later-

XBOX ONE LOGO 10 HOUR EDITION

 

[Bboy AJ]

Some comments made by Bish earlier in the year:

I say just ban all new registration for a year. I don't enjoy propaganda. I come to GAF for gaming advice and dealing with astroturfers makes it that much harder.

 

[Ploid 3.0]

What if you promote Xbox One, PS4, WiiU, PC, and the handhelds? You technically promoted Xbox so...

 

[le.phat]

I hope the TOS to this desl leaks to the internet

 

[demolitio]

Hey guys, I think I know how I'm going to get an Xbox One now. Will you guys join my charity called "Watch this stupid video and give Demo an X1"?

I'm never paying for a console again! ...Now how do I make 'dem vidyas for youtubes?

 

[Dartastic]

Jesus fuck, just saw that Bish reply. Awesome.

So about my student debt...

 

[drgambit]

 

[HawksWinStanley]

One of mine has over 500k views (a strange goal the Buffalo Sabres scored a couple weeks ago), but that's because I posted it on Reddit and it went viral.

Puck caught in Smith's pants? That was hilarious.

 

[Gestault]

*groan*

I really, really wish this wasn't an (apparently) official promotion. This is an embarrassment for the industry.

 

[BBboy20]

Their new commercial has "accolades". Has a console ever had advertisement that has extracted quotes of how awesome the machine is?

 

[Zetta]

Really wish I could take a gander at the guildlines. I'm expecting it to bind anyone from talking any kind of negativity about the Xbone. If not then holy crap this may be good.

This scene capped the night of the release for me. If they wanted to make it believable at the very least have some of them eating something...

 

[Rad-]

I don't really get what's wrong with this. Sounds like a very efficient way to market a product.

 

[-Plasma Reus-]

Microsoft is advertising this thing to hell. There is no way it would not sell a million in the US. If you put enough money into advertising, you can sell just about anything. And MS has enough money.

Internationally though, that's a whole other story.

 

[nib95]

I don't really get what's wrong with this. Sounds like a very efficient way to market a product.

This post covers it pretty well.

I mean it's obviously deceitful if you go on youtube and you have no idea whether someone pimping the XBO is being genuine or not or if they're just wanting to get paid. If it were not deceitful, there'd be a disclaimer before the "promotion" video that it was, in fact, a promotion video. If you are not abreast of this pay scheme, as many clearly were not, then you could easily be fooled into thinking such positive impressions were someone's real and honest opinion.

Now it's clear that you can never be sure when someone is being honest about the system or just a paid shill.

Same would be true if it were Nintendo or Sony, and if this is a common practice, all it means is youtube videos are pointless for impressions since we now have no way of knowing who is being truthful or not.

 

[Nokterian]

3 dollars? Hahaha oh my and pretty disgusting to say the least...

 

[Gestault]

I don't really get what's wrong with this. Sounds like a very efficient way to market a product.

People use these sorts of community-produced content to get a lot of their impressions of games. It's sort of a transitional medium further away from formal reviews. There's the impression that they're motivated by people's own tastes and preferences. This muddies those waters. Like a newspaper writing articles about a company who's also a major advertiser in that same paper. It raises questions about the validity of the information.

This is literally paying money to bring about more positive coverage of a platform, claiming to be an organic gesture by the community. If Microsoft believed these people would produce this content anyway, there would be no rational reason to offer compensation for doing so. It cheapens the value of community interaction and content creation by making it a piece of formal advertising.

 

[Foffy]

How gross. Seems like Microsoft is banking on dirty, disingenuous marketing to make this awful platform look like it's great.

 

[GHG]

$3 per 1000 views?

Is this some kind of sick joke?

 

[John Harker]

How gross. Seems like Microsoft is banking on dirty, disingenuous marketing to make this awful platform look like it's great.

Jeeze no one listens.

Take two minutes to look up CPM digital media rates, this is how it works.

 

[purpletentacle]

Because it's getting people to talk about their product on a huge, influential social network.
How is it not a smart idea..? Haha.

And if they'd just made a good console, people would do it for free. Haha.

 

[Gorillaz]

What is so funny bout ordering McDonalds

 

[StoopKid]

Microsoft is advertising this thing to hell. There is no way it would not sell a million in the US. If you put enough money into advertising, you can sell just about anything. And MS has enough money.

Internationally though, that's a whole other story.

I was just thinking the same thing.

It's sorta funny how microsoft has spent a fuck ton on marketing and still getting outsold by the ps4.

 

[Marauder Shields]

I was just thinking the same thing.

It's sorta funny how microsoft has spent a fuck ton on marketing and still getting outsold by the ps4.

Sony don't engage in marketing?

 

[StoopKid]

Sony don't engage in marketing?

Not to the extent microsoft has done with xbox.

You can't go a few hours without seeing a ad.

 

[GDJustin]

$3 per 1000 views?

Is this some kind of sick joke?

Dunno anything about this program at all (just skimmed the topic), but a $3 CPM isn't unreasonable for random content like this.

 

[Pop]

How disgusting

 

[mrklaw]

So this is for active promotion n the video - not just allowing an ad overlay? Not sure I like that approach

 

[Hedge]

So paying youtubers for good word of mouth on the xbox? That's horrible. I don't really trust any YT already because I was nervous about this happening already, but there are many that do. Goes to show how much money can distort.

 

[Tsundere]

This should be hitting all gaming news outlets tomorrow.

 

[Miles Quaritch]

This should be hitting all gaming news outlets tomorrow.

Don't forget to email Polygon. Will be highly amusing to see their take on this...

 

[stonesak]

This is fucking disgraceful. Reeks of desperation.

 

[fastballspecial]

Shills... shills everywhere.

 

[nib95]

Don't forget to email Polygon. Will be highly amusing to see their take on this...

They'll probably have a good laugh at Machinima, since they only had to make a documentary (wink wink) for Microsoft to give them that cool $750,000.

 

[Unknown One]

Castle Vidcons is always fast and great. Best Console War comic in my opinion. It pokes fun at all.

 

[dragonelite]

This campaign caps at 1.25 million views.

Microsoft is paying $3750. Total. This is nothing.

Is that for every youtuber that participates or the individual youtuber cap.
Im sure there are a couple of youtubers that can reach that 1.25 million views easily with some videos. If individual youtuber that quiet a good deal unless you tell there are other sponsors that pay way better. Not a youtuber.

 

[Mr. Luchador]

Suddenly becomes the console of choice for many personalities.

It'll certainly be interesting to see which ones suddenly switch to using Xbox One games on twitch, and starting saying Xbox One on youtube a lot.

 

[CadetMahoney]

Good luck with that MS.

Desperate death throes of a previous competitive company now on a steep downslope of losing considerable sales and marketshare in every region to the point of irrelevancy by the end of the gen.

 

[Cuburt]

Microsoft continues to think everything and everyone is for sale. Unfortunately, enough people are that they continue to push the industry in a direction I loathe.

They keep finding new ways to make me regret ever supporting the Xbox brand.

 

[FranXico]

So, it was proven to be true.

Can't say I'm surprised.

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

In the UK, the USA and the EU endorsements for material gain, without disclosure of material compensation (i.e. payment) is against the law, and is not just "Advertising". to re-iterate:

Yup.

Thats the one thing I despise with shit like this. They need to explicitly say that there is a product placement in the video otherwise its very deceiving and illegal.

 

[Jimmy Rustle]

Microsoft continues to think everything and everyone is for sale. Unfortunately, enough people are that they continue to push the industry in a direction I loathe.

They keep finding new ways to make me regret ever supporting the Xbox brand.

To be fair, Sony has also been doing some buying of their own.

Ever since Sony "partnered" with Chris Smoove (Youtuber), he's been doing several PS4 giveaways and videos with sports stars playing PS4 in their home.

 

[FranXico]

To be fair, Sony has also been doing some buying of their own.

Ever since Sony "partnered" with Chris Smoove (Youtuber), he's been doing several PS4 giveaways and videos with sports stars playing PS4 in their home.

Heck, even the guy who does Francis has been "bought" by Sony, but he openly admitted to receiving their swag, which is the honest thing to do.

Those partnerships are at least obvious, whereas this campaign is intended to give the general public the illusion of spontaneous public support for the brand.

 

[XANDER CAGE]

"Hello Influencers" sounds like a cult leader addressing a flock

did anyone think about that copy before they sent it?

 

[Brohan]

Pretty disgusting way to promote your product imo.. I hope it backfires on them.

 

[Mung]

Ok I guess as long as it is always clear that the makers are being paid by MS.
Otherwise, it would be completely deceitful.