Marvel and its Use of Social Media

I wouldn’t consider myself a Facebook addict, but I do spend a lot of time playing one game on it. As I may have mentioned, I am a huge nerd. So when Avengers was coming out, I scoured the internet for anything having to do with the movie. What I found was that Marvel, the company behind the Avengers, had a huge presence on Facebook. There are two things I noticed that they did very well.

First and foremost is their entertainment ability. Marvel managed to create a fun game that allows players to create their ideal team of superheroes and fight against villains in a turn based strategy game. While this game is free, spending money allows you to unlock the more popular heroes, or skins that make those characters better. These micro transactions make Marvel enough money to keep the game running, but the existence of the game is also a great form of adver-gaming. When you play the game, you are constantly reminded that Marvel not only exists, but has a lot to offer the consumer. Lesser known properties are given time in the story line, which may cause people to go buy comics or find other ways to learn about the brand. Additionally, Marvel ties in their movie properties with the game, offering special items and skins that are limited time only. These special additions are a great idea because it causes players who may be more casual to play much more frequently in order to get the limited edition items.

Second, Marvel doesn’t just make their own adver-games, they also helped Acura, a sponsor of the movie, gain awareness in the marketplace. They created  an online hub where you could go and “become a S.H.E.I.L.D. member. Of course, there was Acura branding all over the place, but by playing the Acura themed driving games and passing the quizzes, the user would be treated to some unique content, including a short clip that they hadn’t shown before. I of course played through these games, since I wanted to see the video. In all honesty, the site looked great. They did a great job of making the site look high-tech and secret agent-like.

Both of these games show that companies like Marvel can provide quality entertainment while still increasing their brand awareness. This internet advertising takes little financial commitment, and can actually capture an audience’s undivided attention, whereas traditional ads tend to make people more likely to close the ad or just stop watching. This kind of advertising looks to be the future of the industry, as people find new ways to skip or block ads. With these kinds of adver-games, a company can ensure the attention of their audience, and provide an advertisement that doesn’t just play once and then leave the customer’s mind, it provides an experience that the customer is likely to seek out again and repeat in the future.

The Vatican

In light of Pope Benedict’s retirement, I was online looking at articles about the pope’s opinions on various issues. I found a link to an article on BBC.com, found below.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21417767

I thought the most interesting part of this article was the comments he made about other religious groups. This was interesting to me since the pope has had very conservative views on a number of topics. He has made several statements, one of which on this site is that deviating from traditional gender roles was "a violation of the natural order." I thought it was remarkable that two different groups of people, such as the Vatican and feminists, would feel so differently about a topic. This actually goes into the debate about culture, and the thought that one’s culture is superior, also known as ethnocentrism. The article goes on to talk about Islam, as well as secularism, and not surprisingly, he wasn’t supportive of either one. What initially surprised me was the hard stance he took on several of these groups. Despite being religious, he is also a public figure, and his tone seemed to me to be a little more condemning as opposed to coming across with a willingness to understand. I think that this is a flaw in our world; people are much more willing to look down upon other groups instead of trying to reach agreements.

I looked for other articles relating to his position, and I found a bunch, but not many of them had different content. I read through the comments of these sites, and unfortunately, all the commentators started flame wars in their posts. This only served to back up my previous conclusion. People in general would much rather fight over their beliefs than try to accept somebody else’s. I guess accept in this scenario isn’t even the right word. Understand would be a better choice. I know that most people’s religions say that they are the only ones with the “right answer.” And it’s fine for people to disagree on what that answer is. But I think that we as a species, as a culture, and even as individuals, would be much better off if we took a second, stood back, and asked ourselves “Why does this person feel this way?”

I thought that I would read this article, and it would simply inform me of the opinions held by the papal office, but it was a lot more thought provoking than I originally realized. It definitely made me think about how the news we hear pretty much always has more depth than we assume.