Game On: Reaching Out to Gamers
In the good old days of Packman and the Super Mario Brothers, the message to players was simple – there wasn’t one. People glued their eyes to their televisions, manipulated their controllers and tried to make it to the next level, all in the name of fun.
But some of that fun has been sullied, and not just by the violent and overtly sexual games devoured in today’s marketplace. Advertisers, lured by the young male video game-playing demographic that has been disappearing from the ranks of television viewers, now work to include advertisements within video games.
Industry experts estimate spending on in-game advertising at nearly $200 million. Marketers pay anywhere from a few hundred to a few million to be featured in video games. In Need for Speed Underground 2, players can race past electronics chain store Best Buy and see billboards for Cingular Wireless, Old Spice and Burger King. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow features a board where the player has to figure out how to work a Sony Ericsson P900 smartphone to make it to the next level of the game. Red Bull gives a character wings in a game called Worms 3D. Drinking the beverage enables a power to increase energy and jump higher.
It used to take a year of development for a product to find its way into a video game, but new technology is quickly changing that. Thanks to services like Xbox Live, players with high speed Internet connections can sign onto a gaming network for the purpose of playing with both friends and other enthusiasts across the globe. (Think of it as going over your friend’s house to play video games, without leaving your living room.) Now the same technology that allows friends to play video games remotely will allow advertisers to update their product placements within a game.
Studies indicate that 30 percent of in-game advertisements are recalled in the short-term and 15 percent are recalled after five months – remarkable for an advertisement.
As a presidential candidate Bill Clinton made headlines by appearing on MTV and answering a question about boxers or briefs. Today’s candidates could benefit in much the same way by becoming the first to advertise in a top-rated video game. Imagine speeding past a “Hillary 2008” or “Vote Republican” billboard in a racing game. New messages could be uploaded on a regular basis.
It’s certainly one way to reach out to young, male voters and earn some cool points.
But some of that fun has been sullied, and not just by the violent and overtly sexual games devoured in today’s marketplace. Advertisers, lured by the young male video game-playing demographic that has been disappearing from the ranks of television viewers, now work to include advertisements within video games.
Industry experts estimate spending on in-game advertising at nearly $200 million. Marketers pay anywhere from a few hundred to a few million to be featured in video games. In Need for Speed Underground 2, players can race past electronics chain store Best Buy and see billboards for Cingular Wireless, Old Spice and Burger King. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow features a board where the player has to figure out how to work a Sony Ericsson P900 smartphone to make it to the next level of the game. Red Bull gives a character wings in a game called Worms 3D. Drinking the beverage enables a power to increase energy and jump higher.
It used to take a year of development for a product to find its way into a video game, but new technology is quickly changing that. Thanks to services like Xbox Live, players with high speed Internet connections can sign onto a gaming network for the purpose of playing with both friends and other enthusiasts across the globe. (Think of it as going over your friend’s house to play video games, without leaving your living room.) Now the same technology that allows friends to play video games remotely will allow advertisers to update their product placements within a game.
Studies indicate that 30 percent of in-game advertisements are recalled in the short-term and 15 percent are recalled after five months – remarkable for an advertisement.
As a presidential candidate Bill Clinton made headlines by appearing on MTV and answering a question about boxers or briefs. Today’s candidates could benefit in much the same way by becoming the first to advertise in a top-rated video game. Imagine speeding past a “Hillary 2008” or “Vote Republican” billboard in a racing game. New messages could be uploaded on a regular basis.
It’s certainly one way to reach out to young, male voters and earn some cool points.
1 Comments:
Awesome post! I work in Education Technology and video games are even being used as learning tools because people recall so much from playing them.
For example, say a high schooler is studying WWII in history class. Studies are showing that by playing a video game where they are "the soldiers" they will learn more about WWII than they would reading a text book with the same information!
It would be interesting to see if political campaigns eventually go down this route.
By Blusher, at 3:36 PM
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