Hi Everyone, Craig here,

I'd like to hear your ideas about how we might promote the GP2X further in the UK & Europe.

I was thinking of doing something for youtube maybe (it is expensive though, about $8,000 for front page exposure for one week).

Let me know of any ideas you think might work on youtube and also in other areas, or even how you heard about the GP2X to start with...

Thanks,

Craig

I actually heard about the GP2X on Engadget. I personally think word of mouth is the best form of advertisement. If you impress your current customers they will tell their friends and they will tell their friends. It might be a good idea to include swag in the GP2Xs that you sell. A catalogue/flyer or demo videos on VCD. Anything the original buyer can hand out to their peers to get them interested and aware the the system exists.

Well, Firefox had that competition for advert videos. You could do something similar and then post the winning videos on YouTube and Google Video as a regular member and on any websites, etc you might have. All these demonstrational vids, etc that people are posting are interesting, but they're hardly that promotional. Have a competition and think up a good prize. Money is good, but so is hardware and that kind of thing. (for example free copies of Vektar, Payback and... any... secret... 3D games... you might or might not be working on... *wink wink, nudge nudge*)

Personally, having finally decided that I want to make films for a living, I'd jump at the chance to get some experience while at the same time promoting my favourite handheld.

EDIT: I heard of the Gippex by complete fluke on Lik-Sang, so I can't give much kudos to word of mouth.

I think you need to put together a video presentation of the GP2X. Not the crappy quality we see over youtube etc. Videos showing off the wide range of GP2X games, emulators, video / audio functionallity etc, emphasising things such as the size, quality screen, SD card support etc.

If you had a well put together video that covers most aspects of the GP2X, then maybe you could get some of the Linux / PC magazines to throw it onto one of their cover discs as a feature? Other than that you have word of mouth, and maybe some kind of affiliate program.

We need more developer / gaming websites to take interest in the GP2X. I mean, imagine if IGN reviewed the GP2X... TheRegister.co.uk did an article on the GP2X, which is where I picked up on it, and I am sure many others did as well.

The GP2X is a wonderful device, and it's one of my best purchases over the past few years. I took it to Kos last week on holiday, and back in the appartment in the evenings I played 'Day of the Tentacle' and MAME. I completed DOTT and was amazed at how much fun it was, and how well the GP2X handles the stuff we throw at it. I took the entire Series 9 of the Simpsons as well (25 episodes squashed down to just over 500Mb) which helped enormously on the plane!

Maybe you need a T-Shirt campaign. Something along the lines of 'GP2X - The smart persons PSP'. It might rattle a few PSP owners...

Are you the one buying up ad space in retrogamer magazine? I read it in the US (imported) and think that it is a good place to advertise. Definitely keep it there.

I found it on Lik-Sang when looking in the GP32 section. Love at first sight

i would of thought its the job of GPH to advertise

Advertising in other mainstream computer and tech magazines would help I guess.

You must appeal to:

1 Emulation scene
2 Game developer scene
3 Multimedia organizer program developer scene
4 PC freeware scene (ports)
5 People looking for a cheap PMP
6 People looking for commercial-quality games
7 Music tracking scene

If the video has 5 whole minutes of showing emulators running on the GP2X that will only target the select few people that want to play emulators. If you want to keep the GP2X in the popularity it has right now, do not appeal to the catagories I mentioned, and instead, solely target the emulation scene (which I think many of you think is the best idea for the commerical). Just mentioning "SDL" could bring in many developers.

Also, the video should (somehow) show how easy it is to place files in the GP2X and run them, so that people are not baffled on how it works.

If we're only intending to point people to the video perhaps google video would be a better service. Or any similar high quality hosting.

Perhaps you could offer free promotional material to anyone who wants it, I imagine delivery would be quite cheap (considering it would fit inside an average envelope and wouldn't really need to be insured).

I like the competition idea, it worked well for firefox, but we must remember that firefox has quite a few more users than the gp2x

Geez... any adverts made by you will be so interesting...


I heard about through TheRegister and fell in love straight away.

Not sure on the viability, but sponsoring LAN parties on something might be a good start. Plenty of geeks there.

Advertisements featuring a Korean woman physically dominating a Japanese woman could get some attention.

Edit:

I read gamesmaster
a magazine in england, its a magazine which critics all gaming devices and games.
Mayby asking them to advertise or mention it in their magazine would be good.
For the rest of europe, i would also find the same typre of magazines.
I hate to say though, but no-one clicks on links on youtube, unless by accident or it really stands out from the crowd.
Newspapers are a good bet aswell if you ask me, alot of people read newspapers, (hate to stereo type) but people who read newspapers are often older people, meaning people who lived the days of nes.

Lol, I found out from this scary nutter at school :S

I dont mean to be funny Craig, but I really think you should look at making the advert you use in retrogamer/Games TM a little sharper its in need of an update. (IMHO)

Unfortunately Im no good in that department, but I am sure some one here would be able to help you and maybe swap a few hours work for a BOB of something..

What I think is wrong:

Not easy to see who you are, include an address people like that still
The GP2x pic at top is just too big
There is too much text on the bottom half, makes it look complicated
Update the bottom pics with real images (I understand there could be copyright problems with roms, but there must be enough freeware stuff to use) or have a link on the page to a www site with some samples of the emulators and roms..

Better Custom GUI shots may be show a couple of skins
Use nice speech bubbles or round icons with a small amount of text, fast to the point text on them (like the round green circle on page 21 or retrogamer26), IE high impact, eye catching points..
You have other products plug them to (power lead, bob, tv lead, batteries recharges etc)

I just asked the Mrs what she thought:
Its dull - the advert
Does not make me want to go out and get one
Cant be bother to read the text - too much, too small to see

Just my 10 cents, worth

Any one out there able to help redesign the ad...>

If you are going to do youtube adverts then you need to call out as many members to make unique videos of doing things..so if people browse they will keep interest.

Usually if I buy a product I will do as much research as possible...videos are a great resource, and having more is usually a great way to find any one persons niche. I like the youtube idea..but we cant let craig down, also if the videos show more technical things as well as the normal videos it will attract people that arent strictly into pirating romz for a larger epeen.

How about getting it featured on Indie Superstar, the new videocast for indie games.

I've got some words for you from Nick Tipping of Moonpod, the team behind Starscape and the upcoming Mr. Robot:


Why don't you guys at GPH contact them again? It seems they'd be interested if payed for it. From being a regular at their forums, I gather that they're really fond of Starscape and that they intend to do more work on and around it.


Very true words that lead us to this last quote:


I'd generally KILL for Gish, Starscape, Oasis or Titan Attacks on my handhheld, and you'd definitely have a unique collection of games by doing this.

AFTER you have some really really nice-looking and previously PC-only games, maybe it'll be easier to get people interested through your ads?

Oh man, that would be really sweet. It would definitely be a great addition to the commercial game collection.

It totally would, and at the same time, it wouldn't destroy the GP2X's reputation as an Underdog system that embraces the open culture of gaming if they invested in something more original than a GTA clone.

No offense on Payback, but a GTA clone, however nice-looking, will only serve to prove that the GP2X isn't as good as the PSP on 3D games. It looks really good considering the hardware, but if someone unfamiliar with the GP2X sees the game, they'll think "uhh... GTA looks much more awesome than this."

However, if they see GISH or STARSCAPE on it, they might go "ooooooh! I can take that WITH me?! Neat-o!"

Personally, you'd be better off marketing something like... oh... something based on a certain game called something like Snowman or Abominable or something. Yuppie or something... All right. Yeti. Any plans there? I hear some crazy things. Any rumor checks?

I'm in the US and first heard about it on the arcade controls forum/consoles section as someone had posted asking if anyone had any opinions on it.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?board=15.0

that's what makes me not want to get payback, it seems good and all but i really think gp2x is capable of more, not being a programmer of course, i wouldn't know

No, that wasn't really my point. It looks amazing for a system with no 3D hardware, etc, but the fact remains that it's just not as advanced-looking as GTA, which is a directly comparable game for another system. If you put Gish on the GP2X, there's nothing to compare it with, so there's less chance of prospective buyers looking at it and going "naaaahhh... I'd rather get it on that other system."

.... You haven't seen the final product yet. The first 2 versions were not optimized a lot, and did not use the second core (if they do figure out if and how it's usable), and they also implemented Squidge's hack afterwards which could allow some more interesting things since it allows memory to be more efficiently used.

Demos are short for DEMONSTRATION, and always only hint at the final product.

I thought Craig is the official representant of gph/gp2x outside of Korea

I agree, investing in indie games on handheld would increase the reputation. Indie games aren't made a lot anymore and they just don't sell, but on a handheld like the gp2x?

That would just be awesome, indie games, emulators, freeware homebrew, typical media functions. xP

As people have said, I think word of mouth is among the most effective of ways that people hear about these things... on busses particularly. I wonder how much ads inside busses cost...? Probably way too much, but the number of people who've asked me about the GP2x or GP32 a while back when on one is rather impressive.

To appeal to developers... well, if I recall correctly, one of the things about the GP32 that appealed to so many was that, essentially, it was the same as an ARM developers board but about a tenth of the price (arm in a box, ram, framebuffer). If the GP2x has somewhat of the same functionality, maybe it'd be a good idea to search out anywhere where ARM are advertising their own bits of kit and look at getting ads alongside theirs. After all, they much be reaching a certain demographic with their own ads for ADS and hardware, and it'd probably be largely the same one as would be nice to attract to the GP2x. That's one thought.

The other is based on an observation about adverts in this day and age. Walk along the street one day and see how many garishly coloured ads your eyes just pass over. If you can count them. Now try to do the same with simple black-text-on-A4 crudely printed header+text ads which people have stuck in windows. If the text is the right size, those are the ones which stand out, because we're so used these days to coloured crap. What you can do with that... no idea, but it might be of use in trying to get people to visit the requisite websites from seeing something about the place.

If we're after another gadget-prone group of people, it might be worth looking into enlisting people in second/third year uni to make sure they're present at Freshers' week events and get out some fliers along with all the clubs and whatnot. Only disadvantage is printing costs (about £99 for 10000 simple small flier ads) and that you've no guarantee people won't mistake the ad for a club night somewhere.

Then... I suppose if some of the other advertising is paying off, you could organise demonstration booths in shopping centres (pricey) or airports (even more pricey - but it'd stand out from Baileys and car booths, and be relevant for people who wanted something to do on the flight).

Right... those are my thoughts, I think. Maybe I'll think of some more in due course...

A simple one with minimal cost: you used to sell the GP32 on eBay, and it seemed pretty effective for browsers in the retro categories.

For the GP2X I'd put up several auction listings each week, targeting eBay categories such as PSP, DS, Xbox, Dreamcast and Retro games (plus when they separate them into Megadrive, SNES, etc). Then anyone browsing for anything, can stumble upon it.

He's the only distributor that has an exclusive contract (for UK)
He's as official as a representant than I am. We both try to convince GPH to do the right stuff and we both try to fix the stuff they did wrong

Luckily, GPH did realize the things he (and I) did lately and work together a tad better than before, so we are more official representants other distributors, but that's it

I am working on a new advert for the magazines with more screen shots, but as you say we have to be very careful re copyright.

The reason the current advert has a lot of text was I think the market which will buy the GP2X will most likely read about it, if they can't be arsed to read 10 lines of text they probably won't be able to use it

I really like the 'make an advert' competition idea, that is certainly something i'm going to look into, could be great fun.

Just getting that one article on theregister took a lot of work, i'm not sure if they will review it, i could try though...

Thanks for the ideas so far... got anymore?

-Craig

More ideas:

1. Create a short, 5 minute presentation about the GP2X that will show at 3 AM in one of those public access channels

2. Go to a busy place and randomly hand out pamphlets about the GP2X

3. Register in every gaming and gadget forum you can find, set your sig as a link to this site and a brief description of the GP2X, and make at least one thread in each forum with indepth information about the GP2X

4. Start an e-mail chain letter that somehow contains GP2X info and also a threatening message if they don't forward it.

5. Someone that is rich register tons and tons of domains that resemble popular gaming websites (ex. www.pspupdatea.com, www.gamefaqas.com) and make them forward to this site.

6. Make an obscure game in which the only way to get a code to "retrieve money" is to buy a GP2X and download a program that will give you a code, based on your GP2X id number.

Just stop, and go away.

well if it shows it 3 am it would be a lot cheaper than say a prime time showing

Does JaqMs's consistent trolling qualify for a banning?

Guess no one has a sense of humour here... Though my ideas are not serious and outragous, they are still feasible and all are able to promote the GP2X.

Actually, I quite like some of those ideas. They might be sneaky, but hey, for a select group of people, they'd probably work...

Even though a lot of the problems have been fixed in fw 2.0, I still think some firmware stuff should be updated before advertising the gp2x. I know that if cnet.com were to review it they would be really critical of the fact that it doesnt play all the video formats that it says it does and the music player needs to be a little bit more polished (oh yea and the ebook too). I still don't know whats going to be in this upcoming firmware so that stuff might even be fixed

One place to NEVER advertise the GP2X is Myspace *imagines all the horrible threads of "OMG CAN THE GPX3 EMULATE XBOX!!!!!!!"*

Random statement: 100% chance they would use "It can play your movies. It can play your games..." line

Also, how about we do a group observation on mass advertisement? We will count how many people register in one week, then all of us choose 1-3 forums to post about the GP2X in and see how many people register then.

Are there any figures out on how many units have sold so far? I was just wondering after reading this thread. It is getting a lot of exposure in some magazines out there that I think GP32 didn't. You would think that it might effect sells a little.

With the current magazine exposure in the UK it is going well so far, but it's all about keeping that exposure going, that's the hard part...

Well i found out about the GP2X when one of my friends said to me " You remember that console you where thingking of buying some time ago, Gp32?".
He had foundout about it while searching for SDL related sites.

I belive it's hard to do a commercial that makes regular users want to buy it and still appeal to developers.
Basicly whenever i have told people that you can make your own games, or that it runs linux as it's OS, they sort it into the "Geekthing/no good games/do not want" category.

The best way to appeal to both is to make the dev-appealing-bits subtile, like
"The linux core enables this device to be your very own media player, playing all your favorite format's, sutch as, mp3, ogg, avi, mpeg, divx and xvid !
And if the (inches here) isn't enugh, you can connect it to the tv using it's excelent tv-out to watching movies or play games".

The regular user will probably not even notice "linux" in that sentice, while most developers will.

Well, I do know words, and while linux isn't the focus of your statement, it's still how the entire message started. Alright. I'm going to do some creative thinking with everyone.

The things we want to convey to our target audience:

- Clear, good-sized, FULL color, great quality LCD screen
- Free downloadable games of all types (staying away from emulation near the beginning. Make it sound like emulation is NOT the main focus)
- Movie file playing. (Stick to currently working formats)
- Powerful dual-CPU "ARM" core @ 200 MHz (Avoid specifics about the second core until it's more available to programmers)
- Program or port your OWN games with "Linux"! (Developers will pick up the CPU details from the point above and THEN mention Linux)
- Music file playing. Popular MP3 and OGG formats.
- Retro-style game emulation (Try to avoid listing emulators that are not %100 with sound, leave out details like frameskip, they confuse the layperson)
- Easily connect to a computer using USB 1.1/2.0 or use the popular "SD card" format card reader.
- Free Firmware updates (while an obvious statement, more use of the word "free" attracts attention)


Fine print
- SD Card and reader not included
- Standard batteries may be insufficient to power console for very long
- Free downloads require internet connection


AVOID the following.
- Mentioning the PSP or the Nintendo DS, we're not striving to compete.
- Comparisons with the GP32, merely the mention of it being a successor should be enough.
- Stating that Payback is a clone of GTA, I think they'll get the point when they download the demo or movie.
- Showing ANY other console's logo or any image from a game by the makers of a console, like Sonic, Mario, etc...

Dimacus:
Personally, you lost me at "The linux core enables this device."
The thing they need to stay away from is a laden message with tons of information. [url=http://gp2x.co.uk/]gp2x.co.uk[/a] has the right idea. Easy-to-understand symbols in a quick and interesting list. This is even Craigix's site, isn't it?
Craig, take some lessons from your own site. When I was deciding whether to buy the GP2X and when I've showed it to people, I've been constantly coming back to that page because the front page looks very enticing.

Winterkid:
"Free Downloadable Games" kind of gives you a hint that this bit might require something along the lines of an internet access.

On mentioning the PSP or DS, that all depends on HOW they are mentioned "Okay, you just spent $200 on a handheld. Want to spend $200 more on games? Now you don't."

I can't imagine any commercial game being advertised as a clone of another game. All games are advertised as original games with innovative gameplay. Personally, I think they shouldn't advertise with it at all, apart from maybe a screenshot with its name on it, but also then amongst a slew of other games.

I think they're AWARE that they shouldn't show the logo of other game companies, as that would most probably be illegal (not that I'm a legal expert.)



I'll see about making a quick mock-up of the ad I have in my head right now.

I agree! After finding out about the GP2X from TheRegister.co.uk I visited craigs site and the list of features sold it to me there and then. The site could do with a little work though, related to some of the colours used. (eg. news links on the main page, in dark blue, arghhhhh my EEEEEEYES!!! Oh, and that stuff about WMV and AC3... I also think you need to make it clear that the version available currently is BLACK. I expected a white one lol

I've only had my GP2X for a couple of weeks now after spotting the advert in Games magazine, but I think its an outstanding piece of kit. I'm sure more people would be interested if they only knew about it.
This thread reminded me about a story I read on an aspiring game programmer, who used to phone round video game shops asking if they had his game in stock. Eventually the shops would contact him with orders.
Maybe we could all write in asking for reviews, info etc on the GP2X to the popular games magazines. Games has a retro section as do other magazines, and you also have Retro gamer. I guess as some of these magazines carry adverts for the GP2X perhaps Craig could push them for articles on the GP2X?
Only other idea is to approach some popular gadget websites such as Firebox or Iwantoneofthose.
If you could sell via those webites you would be open to a much larger audience who are relatively tech savvy.

I think the GP2X should come with a 1GB SD card pre-loaded with loads of complete games (and maybe some videos and music). At the moment it's a bit like a "kit" where you get the hardware and then have to hunt around for the good stuff yourself - so it's less accessible to non-geeks. I think it should be sold as a super-value pack of great portable games + system, then the other uses will become clear as the package is opened.

The other uses of it are great selling points - but only to geeks who will find this stuff out for themselves anyway.

In short - clarity of purpose for massmarket penetration.

Actually I think mentioning another handheld by name might imply a desire to compete, where we don't really want to complete with any company. What I mean is imply other handhelds without actually naming any or listing features known to only be available to those other consoles. eg... "Commercial games cost less than most commercial titles for other portable systems" or "larger playing screen than other portable media players"

I know MOST people know that having any other logos/characters is probably illegal, but not everyone does. Someone in another thread suggested putting icons of other consoles, with arrows leading TO the GP2X, symbolizing the emulation of the 2X. That tells me that not everyone knows basic copyright, which is not their fault, naturally, but still...

As for the Internet required comment, I was listing a couple things for fine print. Stuff that's assumed, but not everyone knows about it. There's reasons why things have warning labels like "Do not eat" or "Do not use as shelf". Hopefully it will keep the stupid from complaining, or even better buying one in the first place.

Hmmm... No, not really. The file archive serves a very important purpose in that aspect. It's a one-stop resource for all your GP2X downloading needs.

What the GP2X really needs is a unified mode of "installation". People are likely to get confuzzled by the fact that SOME games and emulators allow you to put the files wherever you want, while others require you to either use certain file structures or - even worse - figure out how to write scripts and then make scripts for your game.

A set of guidelines on what to include with a game and how to make it "install" would greatly improve the ease of use and accessibility of the system. What if the CPU tweaker could be incorporated into the games and you could overclock from within the game's own menus? I'm no programmer, but shouldn't that be possible?

IMO I think advertising the device on my tech sites and hardware sites is a must (as that is how I found out about the device). Put more emphasis on its multimedia purposes rather than just on games and emulation.

Secondly play strong emphasis on the open source fact and that it is developer friendly and show some possible examples of what could be made with the device.

Other things you could also show is its functionality in how people have adapted it to do other neat stuff like EvilDragons car player etc... ie show that the thing is truely a mobile platform and can be taken with you anywhere?

Try and sort out more promotional stuff with other sites that do competitions. Do a prize where they can win a whole complete GP2X package (not just the console but include the accessories, people want everything with the device as its more of an investment for some).

$8000 is ALOT of money just for advertising especially if its just for YouTube movies. There are other ways that it could be better spent (but I'll have to put my head to it to find all of em ) but mass net exposure via news, tech and game sites is a first then you can consider doing movie adverts.

How much does it cost to do a flash advert on various game sites etc? Would that be a cheaper alternative? The cool thing is you could even incorporate a movie advert with the flash adverts by streaming a .flv within the .swf flash file, and get a mini movie advert done that way. You can have multiple variations of the advert and they can then be dotted around the net or some could even link back to YouTube for more info (if you do go down that route).

I'll restate that I think many indie developers would jump on the chance to earn a few thousand quid by porting a game they'd already made. It would negate the design phase (apart from a slight redesign to make their games work on 320x240), the gameplay test phase would be considerably shortened, the whole "planning" phase would be cut down to a fraction of the time they originally used, and the graphics would only perhaps need to be rescaled (some of these games, not even that.).

So again: TALK TO INDIE DEVELOPERS!