Ads? In games? Really?
A decade ago, Joe Bachle-Morris didn’t take advertising in computer games seriously – here’s why he changed his mind
It’s time to stop playing games and make a personal computer game confession. When I was a brand-side marketer at BSkyB a decade ago, we were the biggest media spender in the country… and I would never spend a penny in gaming.
My reasoning was simple. Why would I ever align my brand with such a disruptive experience?
‘Watch this video before your game starts!’
‘View my banner ad before you can click the tiny X and get to your next level’
It was hardly a great experience for my target audience. My fear was that they would come away from any in-game ads I gave the green light thinking that BSkyB had ruined their game! Why would I actively choose to pay for that?
But this is purely an example symptom of what has been slowly getting worse and worse about the entire advertising industry – disruption. It’s become more and more about stopping someone from doing what they wanted to do (game, chat, read, watch) to view an ad. It’s become less about what an ad actually was and more about what content it was covering. Less about attracting their attention with great work and more about getting in their line-of-sight and driving click-throughs.
When I was at school, I vividly remember my friends and I acting out our favourite ads we’d seen on the telly the night before: a red cheek after a particularly hard Tango slap; a spectacularly crap fade away jump shot in my imaginary new Air Jordan; sipping my stolen can of beer whilst exclaiming that I had just settled for a can of John Smiths… and dandruff (sorry Mum, this was after I was 18… of course).
It was all about memorable creative that made me think fondly of a product, even if they were ludicrously expensive trainers or an orange soft drink! But we’ve now got to a point where it is fundamentally about disruption, not engagement.
The people have spoken – and they’ve had enough!
It is widely known that 700m people use ad blockers across mobile and desktop. The average engagement rate on web banners is 0.03%. And it gets much worse in the notoriously difficult to reach audiences of Millenials and Gen Z. These generations were born in a digital age; a world saturated with ads. 84% of millennials admit that they do not trust advertising. 51% of Generation-Z are using ad blockers.
[advert position=”left”]
Under 9% are saying that they’re on Facebook. These guys are a highly active, digitally native audience and we’re targeting them by stopping them from doing what they love online. Advertisers have also tried using influencers, but I’m not going to even start on how that ‘fake news’ has driven questionable engagement for brands.
By comparison, in the world of gaming we’ve seen a huge shift in user behaviour. Game developers launch a new title and see high user growth, only to have disruptive ad placements to ruin the user experience.
Predictably, user numbers start to fall. Games developers only get paid on these ads if they drive performance and downloads, which means the focus is on increasing click-throughs rather than creating the best user experience. Until recently there was no other option available to game developers or brands.
But the fact remains that in-game advertising is an opportunity that everyone has been waiting for. After 20 years in the advertising ‘game’, I founded Admix because I was sick and tired of pretending that disruption works. In-game is a chance for games developers to generate revenue without a negative user experience. A chance for advertisers to reach the exploding gaming audience (bigger than music and film combined) by aligning their brand with a positive user experience.
At its best, in-game ads are like outdoor / poster advertising and product placement combined in a digital environment: a billboard on a street or a TV on a wall. A user can either view them or not and move on with their scene or level. It’s totally up to them because of the nature of a 3D games environment.
It gives advertising the chance to get its mojo back – to once again be about authenticity and engagement – by creating amazing work that attracts attention through its quality, rather than smashing you over the head with a digital spade. By giving developers the chance to weave these ad units creatively into their experiences in interesting and immersive ways, it becomes less about what’s the best place to disrupt a user and drive performance, and more about how it adds authenticity to a scene.
Countless companies have all struggled to varying degrees when placing ads in disruptive ways with users kicking back hard. The answer for brands and their agencies is simple – make it all about the user, and the ad creative itself. I want us all to try and get back to the good old days of eye-catching work, delivered to a passionate target audience in a positive way… although I’ll pass on those ‘you’ve been Tango’d’ cheek slaps now if that’s ok? I’m too old for that these days!
Joe Bachle-Morris is Co-Founder and COO at Admix