August 26, 2004 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Web hosting provider WestHost (westhost.com) recently launched an unusual marketing ploy, making a free video game available on its Web site that allows customers to play and win prizes such as discounts on hosting products and services.
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The game, Host Wars is similar to “asteroids,” extremely popular in the 1980s. The player takes the role of a starship fighter and destroys flying asteroids that represent the “perils of Web hosting,” such as downtime, spam, no support and others.
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“The idea was sparked from a combination of wanting to separate our advertising campaigns from the masses and seeing how popular gaming is within our target audience,”says Bevan Erickson of WestHost.com. “Although we will continue to promote our products and services through specials, promotions and more traditional advertising, this represents a new phase of advertising to help promote our brand, without the pressure to signup immediately.”
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The game currently offers coupons at a number of level completions for discounts, free domain registrations, waived setup fees, free hosting and more. The top score of each month will get 1 year of free hosting. Runners up will get one free month.
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The company said it plans to keep the game running and will continue to work on improving it. Other games are currently being considered.
