You got me EB Games. You got me real good.
Some context: earlier this week I wrote this post. EB Games had sent out a newsletter to subscribers trying to sell ‘Gamer Socks’.
I’m going to be honest here: I thought that was pretty lame.
When I investigated a little further I discovered that EB Games actually let customers pre-order socks. That made things even worse.
In my defence I took it pretty easy. Here’s what I wrote:
Maybe it’s a little unfair to slag this off. If someone bought me Dark Souls socks for Christmas I’d probably wear them every day.
And then…
This is just extremely difficult to parse. I started this post with the intention of taking the piss out of EB Games for selling ‘gaming socks’. Now I’m like, “where are the Dark Souls socks? When are they coming out?”
“Will they be available for pre-order?”
Fast forward to this morning. This box arrived in the mail.
I’m not going to lie. I was a little terrified. Slowly it began to dawn on me: this is socks isn’t it. EB Games has sent me some socks.
I opened it. There was a message.
And this pair of socks:
They even came with a certificate of authenticity.
I’ve never been so conflicted in my life.
Look I’m just gonna have to throw my hands in the air here: you got me EB Games, you got me real good. Well played.
Comments
39 responses to “Well Played EB Games, Well Played”
that is actually bloody halirious. well played EB Games
*slow clap*
*knowing nod*
Well played, EB. Well played.
Marketing, it gets more insidious every day…
Marketing never changes
who the hell buys gaming socks ?
I have Fallout socks.
I was given a pair of sim socks.
As in technology socks for playing racing simulations, not socks with green diamonds and naked people.
I did, after Mark’s article
http://imgur.com/md8PIqV
OMG! They have doom cacodaemon socks. Must go to EB now!
I’m contemplating Doom socks lol
Clearly not Mark, he just gets freebies from EB…
One of my friends adores Portal and one day I saw Portal socks so I bought them for her for Christmas present.
So good. 😀
GG EB
For Whom The Bell Toes.
That’s all I got.
That’s actually pretty bloody good. As a marketer/PR/communications guy, it’s nice to see someone doing marketing right – it’s really not that common.
Well played EB Games’ marketing team.
I actually like shopping at EB now, they priced match the discounts Target was having.
Here, here. I always get them to price match. Even though I could go to other stores, I like the idea of supporting a “Gaming only” store.
I never thought I would ever get sock envy but I want those. The single run limited edition status makes it even worse.
EB socked it to Mark.
I laughed more then I should have at this
Where’s the picture of you wearing them or you wanting to keep them in mint condition for resale value?
he can trade them in for $1 towards Dark Soles two.
Yup, well played.
Mark, will you honour your pledge and wear them everyday or will you use the fact they weren’t bought for you for Christmas as a loophole?
I actually like EB, they priced matched the clearance sale by Target.
send it to consumer affairs saying its not the advertised product.
Nice to see a different side to EB. They’re usually so official and by the books, its refreshing to see this 🙂
You’ll make a motza on Ebay!
I’m going to have to start pre-ordering milk soon aren’t I?
buying a cow is the same thing, right?
Get yourself a digital fridge that can detect when you are low on milk/eggs/cheese and automatically order you some online… Is an amazing world we live in
I just got a new fridge, Milk lasts longer than a week around here and I keep some Long Life Milk in the cupboard for when I use a lot.
… Are there actually fridges that do that? I’ve gone fridge shopping fairly recently and I don’t recall any fridges that order your milk.
Don’t know if we have them here in Australia yet, but both Samsung and LG have both announced these types of fridges, has a touch screen in the door as well, connects to the net and can even order from multiple web stores at the same time apparently.
YOU DARNED
I have tears of laughter.
Straight to the pool room.
Give whomever came up with this a raise! This is the kind of PR that such a conflicted company necessitates.