By Cristina Andrei
Advertising and gaming industry alike focus now on what is called in-game advertising (or advergaming), already hailed as the most important new medium for 21st century advertising. In-game advertising provides the opportunity for brand messages to actually be displayed inside computer and video games played by hundreds of millions of users worldwide. Moreover, this new form of advertising is able to reach a key demographic already considered “lost” by TV advertisers, more narrowly defined and therefore even more valuable.
As recent statistics point out, the coveted demographic of males aged 18-34 is no longer interested in watching TV, being therefore less exposed to ads and almost immune to their message. Instead, the interest in PC and console games is now reaching unprecedent heights, surpassing by far other media options. It should come as no surprise that advertisers are planning to go where their audience is: at shooters, action, sports, FPS, RPG and racing games.
Advertising in games is not a completely new thing, as early examples can be tracked down to 1978, when the computer game “Adventureland” featured an ad for another game. But these incipient forms of in-game advertising were static, “hard-coded” (meaning that they could not be changed) and consisted of virtual billboards or product placements. This was, however, the first step of adapting such ads to their gaming environment, enabling players to perceive them as an integrated part of the game.
Static in-game advertising paved the way for dynamic, flexible adverts that are able to fit more naturally into a gaming environment. These ads can be changed according to their performance, the geographical location of the player or even the time of day, being closely monitored by the advertising agency that originally developed them.
Advertisers are now able to collect valuable data regarding the time spent by players when looking at certain ads and their viewing angle, all this having a considerable impact over advertising campaigns and even game design. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that “static in-game advertisements are now giving way to dynamic adverts, which accounted for $26m of the $76m spent on in-game advertising last year and will account for 55% of the $182m spent this year”, according to the Yankee Group.
However, in-game advertising still has to face a tough challenge: how to make ads relevant to game players without seeming obtrusive or inappropriate. For example, billboards can actually enhance the gamer experience when placed in sports games, but are totally out of context in a fantasy adventure. Since games are mostly seen as an escape from the real world, ads which are not well implemented might be seen as an intrusion and the games displaying them boycotted altogether. Even if ads manage to fit the game context, some statistics point out that gamers are not very enthusiastic about it. According to a recent survey, about 93% of gamers had a positive response to such ads, although less than 30% were enthusiastic and the majority of 43% were merely apathetic. Some believe that subtle ads can enhance their playing experience, others find them irritating or choose to ignore them completely. But the overall impression is that ads have to adapt to the gaming environment, not the other way around.
In order to do this, ads have to rely heavily on the creative options that are currently available. These may include billboards, banners, video-audio and 3D objects, all having to be naturally integrated in the game which displays them. As a consequence, original adverts now enable players to order pizza while they are still playing their favorite game (like in EverQuest II, a massively popular MMORPG), jump over obstacles consisting of products in their shooters or use branded tools while taking a virtual walk through Second Life, the amazingly realistic online world everyone is talking about.
According to some industry figures, in-game advertising can be very efficient in driving persuasion, provided that the products advertised are relevant to the game. Therefore, if adverts are able not to hinder the gamer’s experience, but actually enhance it, gamers are likely to have a positive response to such new forms of advertising. Various studies point out that in such cases gamers demonstrate better brand awareness and recall than those had after watching a normal TV commercial. Moreover, researchers are now interested in developing psychological profiles of individual gamers, to further increase the power of persuasion of interactive ads.
This can only mean that the advergaming potential is huge and will continue on its ascending path. “Statistics project that videogame marketing would blossom from $118 million last year to $1.05 billion five years from now”, says Yankee Group representative Michael Goodman. This could bring a significant increase in profit for game publishers, offsetting their growing game development costs and allowing them the financial freedom to further create and innovate. For the advertising industry, this new opportunity implies new creative options, huge commercial potential and new types of advertising agencies dedicated to the professional delivery of advergaming to its much sought-after audience.
