Hello everyone,

During my experience in indie I figured that advertise it can be vital to a game.

Just like music... a repeated song on MTV or clubs makes you familiar to the song and may end up as a favorite song.

I was wondering if there is a smart way to approach advertises.

Personally i don't find TV advertises very effective for gamers (since their free time they usually play a game rather than watching advertises on TV).

What would it be a smart way for advertising a game? How would you do it/ made it.

I know steam could be a great boost for your game to become "known".

Any ideas on kickstarter/indiegogo etc.

Maybe send some samples and free keys to game review websites?

Thanks you for taking the time to read my post.

Regards
Andreas

Please Read: I am more interested in how other indie companies had an approach on advertisement. Im not interested in advertising my game. Its a long way until I have a solid team and project.

This info is for me and all the rest whom are interested about learning how the indie companies advertised and succeeded.

Each one of indie companies used their own methods and approach of advertise. Some could share their experience with advertises and how they failed or how they succeeded.

Im sorry for the lack of content on my post above and the confusion. Thank you all for replying back.

Check this link out:

http://clicktobegin.net/business/20-ways-to-advertise-your-game/

Thank you for the link Navyman.

I have already searched on the web about advertising methods.

My question is more about how the indie devs approach this. Which methods they ve tried, which they failed and which they had great success.

I figured that advertise it can be vital to a game.
1. I was wondering if there is a smart way to approach advertises.
2. Personally i don't find TV advertises very effective for gamers (since their free time they usually play a game rather than watching advertises on TV).
3. What would it be a smart way for advertising a game? How would you do it/ made it.
I know steam could be a great boost for your game to become "known".
4. Any ideas on kickstarter/indiegogo etc.

1. Your question is unclear. You want to approach advertisers, instead of advertising your game? Who is it you want to approach, and why?
2. Yes, and TV advertising is extremely expensive (and not the best way to reach gamers, since advertising on TV goes to everyone, not just gamers).
3. Steam is not for advertising. It's for publishing your game (distributing your game to customers).
4. Kickstarter and Indiegogo are not for advertising - they're for getting funding.

(I can't tell you good ways to advertise a game, since I'm not a marketing person.)

One under-used method I believe has some potential is to use pre-show adverts in movie theaters. Note that this works only for games with a high quality level.

People go there to be entertained, and their awareness for products of entertainment is much higher than TV adverts. Also, your target audience may have a higher chance to show up at the movies than watch TV, and you're less likely to end up paying views for people completely outside of your target range (currently, the elderly demographics for games is still largely under-developer).

For an indie game, depending on the target audience, newspaper back cover ads, or electronic ads is probably the best, as far as ads are concerned, but I'm more into organic growth through word-of-mouth.

Take a peek at Space Engineers for example, this is a game that has grown into half a million users without use of marketing.

I know steam could be a great boost for your game to become "known".
Any ideas on kickstarter/indiegogo etc.

Steam/Kickstarter as marketing tools:

Greenlight - absolutely.

Kickstarter - yes, but in case of "success" you have to finish and deliver what you have promised. If you have never fully finished and released a game before, its probably a bad idea.

https://www.techdirt.com/blog/startups/articles/20130228/00041522145/kickstarter-projects-that-dont-meet-their-goal-are-not-failures-they-help-people-avoid-failures.shtml

http://nintendoenthusiast.com/article/kickstarter-feature-part-1-why-kickstarters-fail-and-how-to-avoid-it/

Social media presence is also a good thing.(maybe not Facebook and the Youtube comment section ...but Twitter:))

In your question(s) you dont say anything about what phase of the development your game is in. You only have concept art/ideas, you have a beta, you have a finished game, a playable demo, a previous version? Do you have games that people already know? How long till the game is finished? - if it has much time to go, you can use the dev process as a marketing tool(see IndeDB/Desura). ...consider things like these. ...otherways its more like lamenting about marketing rather than coming up with a concrete plan for an actual game.

In your question(s) you dont say anything about what phase of the development your game is in. You only have concept art/ideas, you have a beta, you have a finished game, a playable demo, a previous version? Do you have games that people already know? How long till the game is finished? - if it has much time to go, you can use the dev process as a marketing tool(see IndeDB/Desura). ...consider things like these. ...otherways its more like lamenting about marketing rather than coming up with a concrete plan for an actual game.

Thank you for pointing out the flaws on my post. I edited it so it can be more understandable. Im sorry for the confusion. I am not interested in how to advertise my own game. Im more researching on how each individual indie company had proceed on this matter. share their story and tell us how they succeeded or failed with the specific approach they ve chose. :)