There are two aspects of branding. One occurs when you work with someone else’s brand or property. The other occurs when you want to create a brand—such as Tetris or Zelda—based on your own intellectual property.
In my career I’ve had quite a few spikes caused by working on licensed properties, such as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Disney’s Aladdin, Cool Spot (the red dot on 7-Up cans), Global Gladiators for McDonald’s, The Matrix movie, and so on. What turned out to be really interesting was how the lifecycle of consoles played into the timing of licensing power. When new console hardware ships, so do new franchises, new brands, and commonly new game experiences. Then as the hardware matures, so does the market—we get more sequels, and we get a ton of brands. I gave a speech at GDC once about this and showed the Christmas charts, where every single title in the Top 10 was a licensed brand or a sequel of a brand. So just know there’s power in branding, as these brands have achieved familiarity with your audience (thanks to massive marketing budgets or being current in society for a long time).
These days, the iPhone market is a great example of the “Wild West,” where brands just aren’t needed. People are being really creative, and the iPhone platform is so new, popular, and wide open that people will snatch up the creative products that appear on it. That said, later in the lifecycle of the iPhone, when there are 10,000 games available, the products that become brands will start to pop out of the noise. That’s the cycle I expect to see.
To test the brand-power theory, I once went to a game store and just stood there and watched the activity of buyers. It was really interesting to see the kids’ wandering around the shelves, and, as if little magnets were hidden in the boxes, their hands were attracted to the known brands first.
The worst case I saw was a grandmother offering to buy a game for a kid. The kid said, “I want Mortal Kombat” on the Sega Genesis, and the grandmother choked when she saw the price. She said she was really sorry, but she couldn’t afford it. She then pulled out Gunstar Heroes, a fantastic Sega Genesis game. I smiled, thinking, “Nice job, Grandma!” What happened? The kid refused the game and left the store with the most horrible excuse for a game—a Mortal Kombat LCD watch. Okay, I get it. Brands have power.
This chapter covers both types of branding in the following sections:
To begin with, when you negotiate to use someone’s brand, you really want to convince them to work with you.
People with brands all want the same things:
Safety. To work with people they perceive as experts.
Respect. To know you’ll comply with their rules.
Quality. To know you’ll protect the value of their franchise.
Confidence. To know you’ll solve any problems they have.
Reporting. To know you’ll keep them in the loop on everything.
Approvals. To know they have a final say to keep them legally safe.
Help. To know you’ll help when they report to their bosses. (Yes, they have bosses, too.)
Understanding. To know you are patient. Everything takes time.
Support. To know you support and love their property.
Innovation. To know that with you, this work is relevant—that you will put your best efforts into making the game fresh and representative of the property.
When you decide you want to work with someone’s branded property, you will often find it a competitive, demanding, and expensive arena. Table 7.1 provides some guidelines for how these factors will affect your chances.
Table 7.1. Relative Brand Availability
Cheaper | Expensive | |
|---|---|---|
Easier | Popular catchphrases Games based off another game Public-domain properties Parodies of a hit Expansion packs | Bestselling novels Bestselling comic books Sequels to hit video games Games based on a toy Games based on a universe |
Difficult | Cult movies Cult TV shows Remakes of classic games Reinventing a property | Motion-picture franchises Hit TV series Popular music icons Big sports franchises |
With the previous information in mind, it is also possible to work with licenses in different ways. Here are a few examples of how you might work with a movie license:
Can’t afford a movie license? Use a catchphrase from the movie or spoof it.
License the logo only, nothing else—not even music! (For example, Top Gun.)
License the movie name/characters, but not story. (The designer writes a new storyline.)
Build a license. (For example, James Bond: Everything or Nothing.)
Base a game on a key element or event from the movie. (For example, the Hoth battle from The Empire Strikes Back.)
License all the best bits of the movie. (For example, in The Lord of the Rings, just the Orcs or the Hobbits.)
License the whole enchilada plus actors/crew/world.
Reinvent the license. (For example, American McGee’s Alice.)
Make your own game, make your own movie. (For example, Wing Commander.)
Collaborate on a new movie that’s being made. (For example, Gears of War.)
Use the game to preview new music for an upcoming CD (a la Guitar Hero).
Have a new movie and a new music album released as a game first.
License the entire series for one game deal—one seriously potent game (a la Dirty Harry).
Personally acquire the rights to a movie, then do your own deal.
Have a Hollywood celebrity start a video game team. He or she is your brand.
Finding someone else’s brand and licensing it can be rewarding, but it carries with it many challenges and risks. In contrast, creating a brand of your own can result in tremendous rewards but requires a combination of factors, including:
The Property. You need a property that can be branded, such as a character (Mario, Mickey Mouse), a series of successful games (Final Fantasy), or a killer concept or story (Diablo).
The Vision. You need to see clearly what you want to accomplish before you can begin to make it happen. This doesn’t mean you know from day one that you are going to create a brand. You might, but you might also be taken by surprise by your success. Being prepared to take advantage of unexpected success is another example of having vision.
Partners. Branding is a multidisciplinary effort, and to successfully establish a brand, you will need marketing, distribution, and possibly ancillary products (such as action figures, collector cards, posters, and so on).
What makes a property a brand? There’s no easy answer to that question, but one way to discover the answer is to take a look at some qualities of successfully branded properties.
A very entertaining product. (People have lots to talk about.)
Often a very memorable character (the signature character).
Superior execution in at least one critical area. (They are known for it!)
Timing (and flow).
Cultural relevance. (They are interesting today somehow.)
Versatility. (They can be used in other ways, such as in games.)
Uniqueness. (They stand apart from the crowd and are not a clone of something else.)
Hooks. (See also Chapter 4, “What Publishers Want,” and the “Hook Evaluator v3: DP’s Forty Questions” section in Chapter 3, “Hooks.”)
Years ago, I discovered this list of guidelines from an executive in the toy industry. I’ve used its precepts ever since. As with anything, there are different ways to evaluate or understand a complex subject. I encourage you to look at every industry that has branded products. See what you can learn from them, and bring it into your game career.
The product must be highly differentiated from existing products and must contain unique features.
It must communicate instantly to the consumer, who should be able to look at it and instantly recognize what it is.
It must contain important demonstratable features.
It must be able to make an impact and be newsworthy.
It must be able to generate incremental sales, independent of existing product sales.
It must possess significant volume potential with the ability to sell hundreds of thousands of pieces every year.
It must provide both price and play value to the consumer.
It should not be a one-shot item, but rather should be extendable into a product line or product extensions.
It must be compatible with the image of the company.
Examples from video games include:
Doom. There is no signature character and no story to speak of, but the game has superior execution, atmospheric setting, lots of action, huge cultural impact, perfect timing (being at the forefront of a new genre), and so on.
Mario. He is the perfect signature character—cute, funny, and versatile. He has far superior execution and staying power.
Star Wars. This has everything.
Harry Potter. This is a hot property; repertory characters, magic is fun, it’s light-hearted, it has a well-defined fantasy world, there’s room for innovation, and it’s very adaptable.
South Park. This has an inferior animation style, but memorable characters and superior writing/story/cultural relevance—even if it isn’t to everyone’s taste. Similar is The Simpsons, but with better animation and many “guest stars.”
Peter Pan. This has an engaging and versatile character and memorable supporting characters, an imaginative and timeless storyline, and a wide-open fantasy world.
Charlie’s Angels. This has a combination of beautiful women, slight absurdity, a campy story/concept, action and potential for multiple storylines, a nostalgia factor, tongue-in-cheek humor—and did I say beautiful women?
Dracula/Vampires. This has recognizable, strong characters, a wealth of literature and lore, and free license/public domain. It’s adaptable to just about any setting and even to many genres, from mystery to comedy.
The licensed property can be expanded from toys to toddlers. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a good example.
A property can go from kitchen play sets to food products, such as the Looney Tunes frozen foods and so on.
Value increases by moving from product licensing to promotional licensing. Think Tom and Jerry promoting Welch’s grape juice, Disney’s gargoyles on Chef Boyardee meals, Disney’s partnering with Burger King, and so on.
The property can move from frivolous products to helpful products, such as the Flintstones line of vitamin products.
A licensing property can move from a corporate product line into consumer products. General Motors has been very successful in expanding the use of its trademarks, such as Camaro, Chevrolet, Cadillac, and Corvette, on to consumer products (toy cars, model kits, and so on).
A fully mature licensing property can move from products to promotions to sponsorships. Disney, the NFL, and Major League Baseball have all moved from products to promotional licensing and now into sponsorship income.
A property can move from insisting on single-property licensing to joint-venture licensing. (For example, TV teaming up with the NFL, then licensing the combination as if it’s a new property.)
A licensing property can move from the visual or mechanical to the electronic. Carmen Sandiego has moved from software to TV and from TV to electronic games and consumer products. Dora the Explorer is another example.
Design Challenge
Think of games that might use some existing property. Think of movies, TV, novels, other games, and popular culture. Evaluate these brands in terms of expense and ease of licensing. A friend of mine did this; he bought the rights to Conan when everyone had forgotten about it, then brought it back from the dead, signing big licensing deals in multiple entertainment media simultaneously.
Come up with at least five game concepts that use existing properties that would be cheap and easy to obtain. For example, I wanted to do the Smurfs game because it’s incredibly well known but also pretty dead as far as a property goes right now. (The license would not have been expensive.)
Come up with a way to use one or more specific movies or TV programs to create a game without having to pay for the whole license. For example, perhaps you just want the rights to the villains in the Disney movies (none of the typical popular characters), or maybe just one villain that they had no plans to promote.
Think of some original game concepts that you could turn into a brand—signature characters such as Spider-Man or James Bond, as well as concepts with a lot of depth, such as The Sims or Warcraft. How would you plan the development of your brand? How would your ideas lead to a branding opportunity?
Go back to Chapter 4, “What Publishers Want,” and create a hook summary and a 45-second elevator pitch for the best concept you have come up with here.
If you like any of your ideas well enough, go ahead and create a full design for it. (We have plenty of chapters to help.)