Rumors and GW Marketing

[Wulf Vengis]

Only if they have nothing else to market. Which was not the case, as GW clearly sees their IPs and release schedules more holistically than you do, given they launched right into something AoS-related.

Yes they jumped right into, but that's why these "unofficial" leaks occurred. To keep some of us interested and others hungry, while those of us interested in the next AOS/etc release are getting their fix.

 

I might just have become blind to the overabundant online advertising, but I don’t have any AdBlocker on any of my browsers beyond the default built-in features (if any) and I don’t ever recall seeing any adds on a GW site. Maybe before sone of their YT videos, but even then plugging an ad before your own ad would be most definitely counter-productive, so I wouldn’t expect them to put much advertising anywhere (or they’d be opening themselves to competitors plugging their own ads on GW’s platforms)...

Not necessarily pop-ups but those ads/links to other sites (forgeworld/black library/podcast/etc), those groups pay for that website space. They pay gw an amount of money for that. Yes they're subsidiaries of the parent gw but they're independent entities upon themselves.

 

"Why would they leak to an anonymous dude?"

Because said "anonymous dude" is not anonymous to someone with the authority to permit this activity.

[MegaVolt87]

Valrak himself has said his source needs the green light for leaks and evidently Valrak needs the green light as well. Real leakers just dump everything, usually on place like reddit with a throw away account so its everywhere. This is clearly guerilla marketing. GW knows marines always sell, they don't need much help for promotion. GW's massively diversified product range indicates a desire not just to make money, but ALL OF THE AVAILABLE MONEY EVER. You can only do that if you cover all or most product range gaps. More neiche or new to market ones are going to need more promotion than the established ones. A real unofficial, not stage managed leak would be camera phone footage of new models, books etc then updated on a popular adult website where it is much harder to take down than on youtube. 

Edited September 19, 2019 by MegaVolt87

[Triszin]

I'm just waiting for a bad icon IMG of russ

[Exilyth]

On one hand, it's nice to know whats comming so one can plan purchases, but on the other hand sitting here and waiting for known stuff to actually release is tiring.

Also, with a limited budget and the current release rate, the "buy this now or wait for something better to get leaked tomorrow" is kind of detrimental to my interest in news about the hobby.

 

If GW really wanted to reign in the leaks they'd use a canary - or multiple.

[m0nolith]

Is this thread missing a Original Post here?

Feels like the first post is a response.

[Master Commander Ajax]

Is this thread missing a Original Post here?

Feels like the first post is a response.

I think this was a part of the Imperial Fist/Salamander thread that’s been separated into its own topic.

[Wispy]

he's quoting me in the OP.

 

i'm really not interested in continuing the discussion. was a nice chat Wulf but you are a stubborn fella and was getting a little frustrated with the exchange. like i said previously, i have worked closely with Marketing departments & GW itself at various parts of my career - if what wisdom i have to offer is just going to be resisted here then there's not much else for me say. will agree to disagree

:)

Edited September 20, 2019 by Wispy

[Chapter Master Valrak]

Valrak himself has said his source needs the green light for leaks and evidently Valrak needs the green light as well. Real leakers just dump everything, usually on place like reddit with a throw away account so its everywhere. This is clearly guerilla marketing. GW knows marines always sell, they don't need much help for promotion. GW's massively diversified product range indicates a desire not just to make money, but ALL OF THE AVAILABLE MONEY EVER. You can only do that if you cover all or most product range gaps. More neiche or new to market ones are going to need more promotion than the established ones. A real unofficial, not stage managed leak would be camera phone footage of new models, books etc then updated on a popular adult website where it is much harder to take down than on youtube. 

 

I AM ALPHARIUS!

 

Seriously though, I know the guy who leaks me the stuff and he's sent more than I can show, the reason I wont show it because he's stated that if it did come out GW could narrow it down with ease. 

[Lucerne]

GW needs to stop playing coy and give a handful of model previews for the next year, psychic awakening style, going forwards.

[Ishagu]

GW needs to stop playing coy and give a handful of model previews for the next year, psychic awakening style, going forwards.

No they shouldn't.

It might turn away people from more immediate, upcoming releases.

 

I don't believe for a moment that the leaks were intentional, and the reasons the leaker gives for not revealing more are perfectly plausable.

[m0nolith]

GW has had an excellent guerrilla marketing department for the last 2 years.

Not totally moral, but man do they do their jobs well.

[Lucerne]

 

GW needs to stop playing coy and give a handful of model previews for the next year, psychic awakening style, going forwards.

No they shouldn't.

It might turn away people from more immediate, upcoming releases.

 

I don't believe for a moment that the leaks were intentional, and the reasons the leaker gives for not revealing more are perfectly plausable.

 

 

It should be obvious to anyone capable of basic reasoning that people need to know what's going to be sold to want to buy it, and if people are turned off by a release schedule? Then that means GW is bungling their release schedule. All GW needs to do is show better judgment when planning their releases for constant and specific teasers to be helpful for them.

 

If GW hadn't realized that fans of factions enjoy seeing confirmation they're getting support and knowing what they can buy in a reasonable timeframe, they'd continue to give completely useless rumor "images" that you'd need to apply an engima code cracker to make sense of and to completely go dark about their release schedule until pretty much the day before.

 

They've done neither of those things, and fan reception has been pointedly positive to actually seeing what they can buy within the next year, complete with CAD images, and snapshots of the units.

Edited September 20, 2019 by Ugolino
Removed hostile line. Please don't make disagreements personal and respect your fellow frater.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

I agree with Ishagu and they have gone so far as to say they don’t like leaks. To say they do is just opinion with nothing to substantiate the claim.

[Wulf Vengis]

Fair Wispy, please don't take my back and forth as discredit to you or your experiences. I accept what you're saying, my thoughts had just been that this seemed too well planned to not be orchestrated.

 

Valrak had stepped in and cleared the air a bit on their situation. So my previous statements/arguments on this occasion are voided.

 

I still feel this kind of leak marketing (well done and tasteful to the product) is beneficial.

 

As far as showing us a broader release schedule goes this would be an excellent system. Maybe not give us everything but having an idea of what to expect and when throughout the year would surely boost purchases for the individuals interested. Even if it's just something like "in May the dark angels, freebooterz and aeronautica then in june aos, aos and something else".

 

I also agree that there is currently nothing wrong with their marketing style. It's working and yes we the community are quite pleased with it. There could be improvements but they aren't necessary, they're simply a quality of life kind of thing.

[Karhedron]

 

 

GW needs to stop playing coy and give a handful of model previews for the next year, psychic awakening style, going forwards.

No they shouldn't.

It might turn away people from more immediate, upcoming releases.

 

It should be obvious to anyone capable of basic reasoning that people need to know what's going to be sold to want to buy it, and if people are turned off by a release schedule? Then that means GW is bungling their release schedule. All GW needs to do is show better judgment when planning their releases for constant and specific teasers to be helpful for them.

 

I am with Ishagu on this one. Many players collect multiple armies. If GW announces stuff too far out, people put off current purchases to save for stuff they know is coming. By keeping the hype focused on stuff that will be coming in the next few weeks and restricting longer-ranged rumours, GW maximise impulse buying and shiny-new-model syndrome.

 

The last thing they want is people thinking, "That new release looks cool but I am going to wait since I know something is coming in 6 months time".

[Marshal Rohr]

This isn’t Apple. It’s a wargame played with toys. It’s also not a video game, where leaks can cause dip:cuss on 4chan and reddit to go review bomb a game and kill any kind of ‘must have above 85% rating’ clauses companies get paid by. If they showed us new guard now, to be released next May, I’m not going to start saving now for it. No one is. Even if you don’t have a lot of disposable cash, you could easily pick up Sisters and new Eldar over the next few months and new guard in May. It’s also silly to think that a fixed model already made and in production is going to be effected by being leaked a month early. Shrike will still have dumb hair and Garadon will still have a silly head no matter when they show you a model. It’s not like scripted RPGs getting people turned off months before hand or something. When Star Wars action figures get leaked it doesn’t hurt action figure sales when they come out because people will still make the snap decision if the toy/model looks cool to them at point of sale. 40k is also one of the few hobbies out there where if you like 85% of the product you can change it to suit your tastes with zero barrier to entry, unlike video games where you need to be competent with computers to make a mod or cars where you need expensive machinery to build parts. The only thing that would effect sales would be rules leaks since meta-gamers dominate the conversation on rules online and that trickles down to gaming groups. Even then, while everyone was arguing about Repulsors vs Executioners on cesspools like Dakka, people on Instagram and Facebook were buying 2-3 and still doing so. Edited September 20, 2019 by Marshal Rohr

[Slasher956]

I've brought very few GW models* that arent sisters since GW announced sisters in plastic... and I also play craftworld eldar and still dont have a knight or flyer

 

*split wake the dead with a marine player....thats it    promise!

Edited September 20, 2019 by Slasher956

[Marshal Rohr]

I expect to see the receipts for hundreds of dollars worth of Sisters purchases if you’ve been saving this whole time and not just one of the boxes then once they’re released ;) Edited September 20, 2019 by Marshal Rohr

[Robbienw]

I don't buy the argument that leaks of stuff further ahead will put people off buying stuff coming out sooner, not for the majority of customers anyway. If you have certain amount of saved cash, and then you see something coming out a bit later you want and decide to wait for that, they will still get the money.  If you buy the first thing and spend all the money, then you won't have it available for later stuff anyway, and you may get upset you didn't know it was coming.

 

I think the only people it would affect are people who want all the latest new things and then lose interest in them quickly after.  I cant see that being a huge group of people.

 

Leaks are good and keep people interested.

[Triszin]

Gw is very good at rolling with the punches.

 

They do sometimes leak bad images of stuff when they are to excited to build hype.

 

I.e. It was gw who leaked the magnus box before the official reveal

[The Yncarne]

At this point in my life, I’m not saving money months in advance for a potential release. Nor am I likely to pick up a random unit for a faction I don’t play.

 

A 30, 60, or 90 day release window would really determine which faction I’d be working on or playing with in that timeframe. IOW, it’d help me know my faction is being actively developed or supported. If one of my factions isn’t going to see releases for at least 90 days, I’ll probably switch to one of the other factions I own.

[RikuEru]

I.e. It was gw who leaked the magnus box before the official reveal

No. Someone AT GW leaked potato photos. Ane I bet if they found the source, that person got fired.

Surely not GW itself.

Same for similiar leaks later.

 

This Salamander/IF Leak was not intended.

It does not fit the schedule for ghe C:SM stuff so far.

The Preview Videos for the two chars have no voice overs for the quotes given, unlike the ones before. They rushed to get them done.

And the current SCHEDULED Hype generation for 40k stuff is the Monday Articles on Psychic Awakening 1.

[Wulf Vengis]

Its fair to assume at this point that these are play testers leaking this stuff out.

 

But i don't see how leaks of this nature would hurt their overall sales.

 

Maybe some people buy fewer models this month because in another 2 months their favorite faction will be getting a release. Chances are however that if anything in this months release strike their fancy they'll still purchase that as well. Not to mention that if part of this months release is a "source book" they'll more than likely purchase that book at the least then spend more in two months time.

 

A simple nudge as what to expect would suffice. They don't need to publicly release an in inter-office memo giving us the entire breakdown in full detail. But a simple "this spring the Craftworlds mobilize and space wolves fans should keep your eyes open over the summer for a special release" would be more than enough.

 

Then 30 days out we might start to see official prerelease/previews/leaks. Heck they could hide a primarch in there. Slip images and leaks about the rest of the release with absolutely 0 mention of any primarch but then on release day (or even a week or two before) BAM! there's a Corvax on the WHC site.

[PeteySödes]

*puts on old man hat

 

It's so crazy to see how far the game and GW has changed on this front. Not in a good or bad way but just different. Crazy to say but it was almost 20 years ago that I worked with a GW rep who slipped me the new (old) Warriors of Chaos WFB army book like 8 months before release. No strings other than don't make copies don't put it online or will end you but I just had it and it was the coolest. 

 

It made me save for models that were coming though way down the pipe though which isn't what they want i'd imagine. Its really hard because i get that the release schedule is kinda meant for really pricey impulse buys which is great for the business. It does make it hard to plan for the player though.

[Grand Master Laertes]

 

I.e. It was gw who leaked the magnus box before the official reveal

No. Someone AT GW leaked potato photos. Ane I bet if they found the source, that person got fired.

Surely not GW itself.

Same for similiar leaks later.

 

If I remember correctly, he has indeed been found and fired on the spot after being completely chewed out.