I am n00b at marketing

Etelmik

Okay, so my boss has me promoting his company. That's fine and dandy. But the clincher is that he wants me to promote a free give away in a raffle of a free console. This idea is nice, but no matter where I can think of to put it, it either sounds like scam or spam.

What do you hate most in a game company and what is feasible? I applied for the job but didn't really learn much about Internet marketing beforehand, and all the Internet marketing I've seen is crap, and highly frowned upon.

Those with marketing experience, especially in gaming, I'd love to hear it. I realize that there may not be many who work in it right now.

Comments about the irony of me posting about marketing on the PA forums are not needed.

Cakey

I'm not really sure this helps you - I don't know enough about your company or your campaign - but this is why it's helpful to have at minimum a company blog, or a presence on something like Facebook, or to develop partnerships and contacts with media, industry bloggers, etc. The latter might still be worth pursuing. These are all valuable in general as marketing vehicles, and they often force you to shape your marketing in such a way that it will appeal to the third parties who'll be delivering your message for you - it makes you work harder. That's a good thing. Take that for what it is - I'm not a hardcore marketing strategist, just one of the creatives.

Also, some forums are more amenable to this sort of thing than PA if the contest or giveaway is relevant and it's coming from a reputable source. I don't know too much specifically about games, but if I were marketing something to do with 3D rendering software or something like that, I know that with the proper approach, I could post it in the appropriate section of CGTalk. There've got to be equivalents for gaming.

Huh. Suddenly this is making me feel kind of dirty.