With the upcoming launch of a potential blockbuster like Valve’s Portal 2, clever marketing plans that match the game’s unique personality should already be rolling out in advance of the April 21 release date. Most ad agencies would be chomping at the bit for that account. However, Valve is going it alone this time.
Valve’s marketing vice president Doug Lombardi expressed frank disappointment in the promising kick-off meetings with ad agencies that would result in copycat, cliche, and disconnected treatments. In fact, Lombardi described third-party agency value propositions as “close to worthless.” Lombardi instead makes the case for in-house advertising, stating that ‘”With the Portal 2 ad, we play-tested it and were able to make changes during production. With an agency, those types of tests are too often left to a post-mortem — at which point, the value of those realizations is pretty close to worthless.” The bottom line for Valve is, who knows the product — and how to pitch it — better than the company creating it?
Portal 2 will be distributed through Valve to PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. Electronic Arts will be handling the retail distribution of the title.
[Source: IndustryGamers]
Given the quality that they’re putting out with the Portal 2 videos like Aperture Investment Opportunity #1: “Panels” , I’d say they’re doing fine without third-party agencies.