A thought just crossed my mind as random thoughts are prone to do. I can't recall ever seeing an advertisement for GOG. Does GOG advertise?

After the Hitman GOTY debacle GOG knows that they're not going to be able to expand their business by including games that have any kind of online requirements, apart from multiplayer where it's expected.

So it appears the only option for GOG to grow its business is to expand their customer base. Convince those millions of Steam customers of the joys and freedom of DRM-free gaming. Why not go all out on an advertising campaign?

Yes they do.

If you go to certain abandonware sites, which I won't mention by name, you can find links to GOG there.

They also have had some affiliate campaigns with some websites and magazines, at least ScummVM site has links to GOG even today. I'm not sure about other sites/magazines presently.

If you mean like real ads, like watching some online videos and seeing GOG ad clip there, I don't recall that, but then again I try to avoid all kind of advertisements, so I may have missed them.

I think that GOG's advertising strategy was going to be to get everyone to download Galaxy 2.0, under the (very incorrect) assumption that most people want to put all of their DRM'ed games into one place (that is, one place that isn't Steam...which is the only actual "one place" where some people do want all of their DRM'ed games to be).

And then they were going to try to promote GOG games through Galaxy, to all their newly-acquired, DRM-loving customers (...or so they had hoped).

But that plan has clearly failed badly.

I'm not sure whether or not GOG is still trying to continue with that plan (it seems like they might have abandoned it...based on the complaints in recent months that Galaxy 2.0 updates have slowed down).

Abandoning that plan would be the wise thing to do. But the wiser thing would have been for them never to have tried that plan in the first place.

wong messade for wrong target audience... the millions of Steam users for the most part do not care very much about DRM at all (which is why they use Steam...).

If they ever wanted to do an add campaign, then they need to focus on the games. which is what could get people over. the problem then, off course, is that Steam have more games and the newest AAA games

you will also need to convince the "no steam, no buy" crowd, who have invested in Steam and built up their library there, as well as friends to play with on the same platform, Steam workshop for mods and extra conten and so on.

So targeting Steam users in add campaigns would be an uphill battle which gOg is not going to win, especially if they focus DRM free, which the target audience don't really care about.

Maybe indirectly with the newsletter, since I see people sharing their newsletter discount codes in threads, and since it seems GOG doubled the amount of newsletter codes starting this month, more will likely appear in these threads, and more people will likely notice them and find deals they could be interested in.

I've seen links on Mobygames, ScummVM and DOSBox websites. I think that I saw an advert about new super cool GOG Galaxt 2.0 somewhere on YouTube but I'm not sure and I have an active ad block to see anything.

GOG needs advertisement but it's very expensive. Steam users might not be interested in GOG, yet I was a Steam user and when I heard about GOG for the first time I was quick to convert myself into the new ways of gaming, actually the old ways like I used to play many years ago, I never liked any type of copy protection.

Occasionally I see articles about GOG on some gaming or even tech web-magazines, for example I read how GOG have small yet devoted fan base, or about Forgotten Realms Archives games, or Diablo and Warcraft releases. So GOG pop up here and there when something *magical* happens. My friends never knew what GOG is and now it seems that every gamer heard that name quite often. But then again, GOG needs more publicity and they need to find a way to pull new AAA games without those hellish Origin, UPlay, Bethesda, Rockstar/2K linked accounts. GOG even self-published some of the games, Forgotten Realms Archives included, and somehow they managed to negotiate a deal with Blizzard to release the Diablo with the expansion, so they must have some kind of power. Maybe one day they'll bring here Dune and Terminator games, who knows.

If I were placed in their top management I would invest in better multiplayer connectivity for Galaxy client with dedicated servers and such, *stalked* IP owners & publishers to release original versions of games as independent product for sale even if they are replaced by superior Gold Editions or Remasters (e.g. Gothic 2, Hard Reset), or if they refused to make a deal because *they are not interested* to make them *s̶u̶f̶f̶e̶r̶*, I mean to make *interested* eventually, and finally to fix that forum engine or change it once and for all but with the option to have current visual theme which I really like. As for the advertisement I would suggest to pay some money to multi million game blogger once in a while to heavily promote GOG store and exclusive titles. But I'm not good at management, so...

GOG advertises very poorly.

I also saw GOG linked prominently as a sponsor on PCGamingWiki, and this could be very significant or not as an advertisement.

Well, advertising does require some money, so there's that. If they are not sure it pays itself back with increased sales, it's safer not to do it.

Having their banner on some abandonware sites is kind of safe, people who visit those sites have probably already made the decision to get some game, and then they discover an option to get it legally there, and they may take the chance and buy it from GOG.

There are plenty of possibilities which wouldn't require (that much) money though.
GOG could be doing some podcast/webcast kind of releases whenever they get new games into their catalogue. They could interview the developers, and if it's an older game, tell some historical background about the events that lead to that game and things that followed. Then in the end mention that you can buy this game from GOG.

Obviously someone would need to record, edit, and publish all that, but if the content is good enough, people would actually seek to hear those "GOGcasts" (in other words commercials), rather than trying to get people to see them by some random chance which is how paid ads traditionally work.

I recall some years ago Youtube at times had ads for G.O.G and FYI I was unaware of G.O.G at the time.. Anyway They at the time was sorta agressive in their ads on the site and what got me to come here was ironically not the ads but word of mouth from hearing about the store and it having a game I won't that I couldn't find even on the IP owners own launcher and I was not going to get a console copy nor was I going to get a pc copy on disc I'd need to fiddle with to get running of pc if finding it on a site that did the touch ups for me to run on newer systems

I remember this sponsorship advert.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v =mEuM91-t-wA

I only ever found out about GOG on gaming forums a decade ago or so, and I don't see it anywhere else unless it's a youtuber talking about how you can buy a game on GOG or some old game is announced that was recently put on the store. Methinks it'd be a good idea to urge publishers who sell here to have the logo when they reveal platforms their games are on. Then again, I don't ever actually hear about Steam either. I guess it's one of those things where it doesn't need to be aggressively advertised like a video game console when it's common knowledge for those who PC game.

Then again, I could just be imperceptive of these things because I don't pay attention to advertising.

Your suggestion is totally valid, don't get me wrong. But there are some tools that are really available for any company even if the budget is small. My unsolicited professional opinion is that GOG does not do a great job with the basic tools that are at their disposal.

I remember a couple of monks advertising for the site.

our chickens always say Goog gooog gogogoog