Sonic Adventure 2 v.s. Sonic Heroes - Round 4: Hype/Marketing

[Willsy]

Heroes.

 

Even this hilariously bad commercial is great:

 

[TheOcelot]

Heroes wins this easily, if only because I actually rememberd the marketing and it didn't just "appear" like SA2 did.

 

Sega's marketing for Heroes was one of the most aggresive campagins I seen out of them, citing the year of Heroes' release as teh 'Year of Sonic" completley with Sonic Advance 2 and the release of Sonic X to tie it all together, I even used to own some of the Mcdonalds toys that went with the game. Not to mention I actually saw commercials for this game, this will forever be a memory of mine.

 

 

I think there was a massive push with Heroes as it was SEGA's first attempt at releasing a Sonic game on multiple platforms. Also, i'm pretty sure they were trying to bring in a younger audience with Heroes, hence the lighter story and 12 - playable - characters. 

 

Heroes was the first 3d Sonic game I played (I had a PS2 so I was pleased to be able to buy it) and the advertising they did for it certainly got my attention.

 

As for Sonic Adventure 2, did the impending doom of the Dreamcast help shift more copies of the game?

Edited May 14, 2013 by -Bender-

[-blank-]

You want to know how I found out about SA2's existence? (Well, SA2:B to be exact, since that's the version I played). A few days after it was released, my brother asked for it for our Gamecube. Our mom got him the game. That's how I found out about it. No commercials, no magazine articles, I didn't even know Sonic was a video game character. I remembered him from the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog TV show I would watch on the rare occasion. I don't even know how my brother knew of the game's existence.

 

 

Heroes, on the other hand....

 

 

Well, I read magazine articles on it. I actually had a couple of the McDonald's games. I remember the advertising for Sonic X and Sonic Advance alongside.

 

 

Yeah, I'm going to go with Heroes based on personal experience.

[Linkabel]

I really think Tornado is right, I think you guys are really underestimating the marketing that went into SA2. Because of the 10th anniversary everyone was talking about this game and the end of the Dreamcast.

 

Magazines covered this game like crazy, I even still have them just for the nostalgia. Worldwide contests and promotions were held to win cool 10th anniversary merchandise and it had a commercial that really left an impact on the public.

 

I couldn't get away from this commercial, like at all:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btocx2o5gZQ

 

I remember almost every prime time show was sponsored by SA2 (well it was done by Sega obviously) for example like that 70s show (remember this was when the series really became popular and was on Fox). They also advertised it a lot during Saturday mornings and in Cartoon Network.

 

They even hyped up the game for E3:

 

SA2B had a decent marketing too, not as big as the original though. But being a Sonic game in a Nintendo console really attracted the public which made it more popular.

 

To say SA2 didn't have marketing is like saying Iizuka doesn't need to visit a dentist. For me SA2 wins this round.

 

P.S. the McDonald's promotion in the OP was actually to promote Sonic Adventure DX, Sonic X and Super Monkey Ball. It was the third promotion with McDonald's in 2004 that was done for Sonic Heroes.

 

[Soniman]

 

 

E3 predicting the future confirmed.

[Burnt Ash]

Before I saw Tornado and El Driver's posts, I would be inclined to say Heroes, for while I don't remember it, I heard a lot about it in the years to come in comparison to SA2s marketing. Now though, it's a tie.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

I hardly remember advertising for SA1, but I'm sure you guys would be damned not to go through hoops to prove that it had it. Hell, I don't even remember advertising for Heroes while we're at it.

 

The fact that we're comparing an anniversary title to a non-anniversary one should make it clear who wins this contest. Really, when does Sonic Team not hype those titles? Even Sonic 06, as much as we didn't see any marketing, had ridiculous hype before it fell on its face.

 

The winner for this is SA2. This is a game that even the media can't bash very easily because of the nostalgia that was born from the hype and marketing that went into it. And that MASSIVE flyer of Shadow at E3 just shows how much they were putting into the title. This is before Youtube and the Internet started becoming more and more ubiquitous to the point where they've become necessities of the modern world, nevermind SA2 being the last Sonic title on the Dreamcast before it got ported to the Gamecube, and I'm pretty sure something like that during one of Sonic's peak moments in his history would call a lot of attention.

 

EDIT: VVVV---And that post below just puts the whole argument to shame. No way Heroes could compete with SA2 on the hype and marketing combined..

Edited May 15, 2013 by ChaosSupremeSonîc

[Tornado]

 

See those two posters? Every US-published gaming magazine got at least one of those. The top one was from EGM. The bottom one was from Gamepro. Adventure 2 got just as many cover stories from every magazine; and just as many hands on previews. Multiple page spreads updating the game's development. Contests run at Sega's request for the series; especially when Adventure 2 Battle came around.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that's ignoring the two elephants in the room:

 

 

Sonic's 10th Anniversary was fucking huge. Everyone was making a big deal about it, and everyone wanted to take part in it. Magazines would regularly do series introspectives. They would regularly run little trivia things about the series. And as quaint as it may seem now now that everyone hates Sonic Adventure and like to pretend they always did, the Sonic series was at a zenith in 2000/2001. The double whammy of Pocket Adventure and the original Adventure made the series just as much of a darling as it was back in the early 90s. And that was the atmosphere that Sonic Adventure 2 was released under; compared to Heroes' a couple years later where critical reception to the Adventure titles was on the rapid downslope.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The other elephant?

 

 

Adventure 2 was the Dreamcast's swan song (and a real fear to be Sega's as well), and everyone knew it a good 5 months before it came out. Sega couldn't have asked for more free publicity for the game; and they exploited every bit of it. And while Adventure 2: Battle's hype was comparatively low-key, it was no less important in what it meant to be the biggest name Sega game in Sega's biggest franchise now being on a Nintendo system (which is largely why it was the best selling 3rd party game on the system); and it too was treated as a major deal at the time, far more than any other port I can think of.

 

 

 

 

Adventure 2 may have been deficient in terms of straight up marketing simply because of how much weight that Sega threw behind Heroes. But in terms of hype? Adventure 2 was the biggest game in the series since Sonic 3. Period. Heroes was a big deal still, but it wasn't nearly that big.

[Autosaver]

How was the Sonic Heroes marketing? I remembers TV ads of Heroes but not SA2. Did magazines make a big deal about Sonic hitting other platforms?

Edited May 15, 2013 by Autosaver

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Tornado, are those magazine clippings yours or did u find them on the internet?

[Crash]

 

This is why Heroes wins.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

More like why it loses. Tornado already put the round to rest; there's no way Heroes can compete with what they put into SA2 in this round.

Edited May 15, 2013 by ChaosSupremeSonîc

[Tornado]

How was the Sonic Heroes marketing? I remembers TV ads of Heroes but not SA2. Did magazines make a big deal about Sonic hitting other platforms?

There was at least 2 completely different print ad campaigns for Heroes, plus one that was a variation of one of the other ones. That's just in America. Europe probably got similar treatment.

 

Tornado, are those magazine clippings yours or did u find them on the internet?

 

They've been hanging on my bedroom wall since I got them in 2001.

[Jolt_TH]

I think SA2 wins this round for me, I can't remember a lot of the Heroes marketing, aside from the McDonalds toys. I remember all the hype about SA2, all the Gaming stores had big cardboard cutouts of Soinc and Shadow (from the front cover) which my brother claimed and stuck on his wall! Looked freaking awesome! I also remember the big push for the anniversary pack with the soundtrack and the "which side are you on?" Poster.

The only thing I can remember about her rows really (aside from the mcDonalds toys) was someone telling me that Sonic Battle was Sonic Heroes GBA! (And I believed them!!)

Edited May 15, 2013 by Jolt_TH

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

They've been hanging on my bedroom wall since I got them in 2001.

Right...so is there anything else I should know about, like if you have the Library of Congress in your backyard or something?

 

They're well preserved for decade old clippings. Obviously they mean a lot for you to still have them hanging.

[-blank-]

You know what the weird thing is? The fact that I saw the marketing for SA2B after we got the game. xD

Also, I remember that white poster. I remember having it for all of an hour before we lost it forever. v_v

[Gabz Girl]

SA2 wins, but it's very close since I remember the Sonic Heroes marketing and hype a lot more than SA2 (I was only 11 when it came out!). It helps that SA2 was a game celebrating Sonic's 10th Anniversary, had lots of advertising in magazines, was the Dreamcast's last official game and to top it all off had a special Birthday Edition. Oh, and it was released on the GCN a year later which made it the first multiplatform Sonic game.