US Video Game Adspend To Increase

The eMarketer report, Video Game Advertising: Getting To The Next Level, says that the primary drivers of growth will include a widening audience, especially women and older gamers, the growth of games with online connectivity, and the need for game developers to offset escalating production costs.

EMarketer projects that $295 million of the 2007 total will be spent on in-game advertising and that spending on advergaming (the creation of games for the purpose of promoting a brand) will reach $207 million.

By 2011, the balance between the two will have shifted significantly, says the online market research firm. US spending on advergaming will climb to $344 million in 2011, but US spending on in-game advertising will climb faster, reaching a total of $625 million that year.

Paul Verna, senior analyst and report author, said: “As marketers experiment with how to best reach gamers, advergames, in-game ads and game sponsorship will be among the models that survive.

“Now the question is how to standardize in-game ad viewing measurements across platforms–including PCs–and to figure out what works best where. When those issues are resolved, placements will take off.”

In March, the Interactive Advertising Bureau published a report which said that in-game advertising is a tool which is currently not being used to its full by potential by brands (see New Report Focuses On In-Game Advertising).

Nielsen Wireless and Interactive Services, meanwhile, released figures which showed that the number of video game consoles in US television households expanded by 18.5% since the fourth quarter of 2004 (see Number Of Games Consoles In US TV Households Increases).