So, you’re getting pretty good at reaching your target online. But so are all your competitors. If only there was a way for you to have a more static presence on consumers’ desktops…
Well, it looks like Minnesota-based Best Buy has figured out how. Thanks to Ottawa-based Fuel Industries, the electronics retail giant has been able to land its logo right on its targets’ desktops, with branded games that become the computer’s wallpaper when downloaded.
The branding is relatively subtle. The emphasis is on the free content: a golf game, which launched in September, to appeal to older, ‘executive-type’ men, and ‘Invasion,’ an arcade-style game aimed at younger males that debuted in October. ‘Our intent was not to have Best Buy shoved down everybody’s throat,’ explains Todd Dexter, Best Buy’s assistant CD. ‘It’s about speaking to different segments differently.’
The branded desktop game idea came from Fuel. ‘Typically, if you’re not online, marketers can’t reach you,’ says Fuel’s creative marketing strategist Sean MacPhedran. ‘So we thought: How can we create
content that’s outside the browser?’
Fuel came up with the idea after consistently hearing clients wonder how to reach their targets in unique ways. ‘[Marketers] are really
starting to think about how to leverage desktop space,’ says Mike Burns, Fuel’s CEO. And we all know reaching consumers is all about
providing content. ‘[Marketers] are trying to provide smart entertainment,’ adds MacPhedran.
Best Buy is promoting the desktop games with online and print efforts, including ads in magazines like Maxim, Blender, Forbes and Men’s Health.
While the chain is tight-lipped about just how many desktops it’s landed on, Dexter will say this: ‘It’s been successful so far…I’m happy that we did it.’
