Advertisers have started to target their audiences through computer gaming, with US company, Massive Incorporated, launching full-motion video and audio ads in its main distribution title, Anarchy Online.
The video ads are inserted in billboards and television screens throughout the games, with the adverts promoting Panasonic and the premiere of the American television series
Lost on Channel 4. The advertisements originally ran as television spots and have been cut down to 15 seconds for the game.
The company’s tracking devises enable Massive to collect data on the demographics and geographical distribution of all players who view the adverts, how many times they viewed them, and for how long they saw each ad.
Commenting on integrating the adverts into the game, Nicholas Longano, chief marketing officer for Massive said: “Everything we try to do has to be contextual in the game and has to resonate with the gamer.” Game developers also try to place the ads where players congregate.
Longano added: “They’re putting billboards in areas that don’t have much activity, community areas, corridors. They don’t put them in places where there’ll be a battle going on.”
The gaming market is growing rapidly, with a new report by Kagan Research predicting US video game sales to rise to $16 billion by 2007, up from $10 billion in 2004, a rise of 61%. The report also estimates that by 2010, 54 million US households will own at least one portable video game console (see Advertisers Devise Ways To Cash In On Games Industry).
The increasing size of the market offers advertisers another channel with which to capture their audience.
According to analyst eMarketer, there are two primary ways in which advertisers can target game players, ‘advergaming’, games designed around a product and made to promote it, and in-game advertising, in which products are placed in games, in the background, in the hands of game characters, or elsewhere.
Earlier this year, a new media network was showcased at the video games industry’s E3 event with a form of in-game product placement advertising which some fear may eventually challenge television advertising expenditure (see New Advertising Channel Poses Future Threat To TV).
According to a recent report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) the global entertainment industry is predicted to rise at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.3%, reaching $1.8 trillion in 2009, due to improved economic conditions and an advertising upswing (see Strong Growth For Entertainment Industry Led By Online Games).
PwC’s Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2005-2009 predicts new revenue streams, such as online and wireless video games, to account for a significant portion of total growth in global spending. Combined revenues are expected to rise to $73 billion by 2009, up from $11.4 billion in 2004.
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