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Aleks Krotoski, “Gorillaz Checking In to Habbo Hotel“, Guardian Blog, Aug.24, 2005
“Give it up for Damon Albarn and his cartoon Gorillaz gang; they’re embracing the cyberspace vibe by appearing in the US version of the teeny-friendly, mega virtual world hit Habbo Hotel today to give residents both a personal appearance and a live performance.”
Joyce Schwarz, “Bold New Opportunities in Virtual Worlds.” iMedia Connection, March 10, 2006.
Quotes:
The greatest opportunity for brand expression may just be in the ’solo-branded’ Virtual Worlds like Coke Studios, Wells Fargo’s “Stagecoach Island,” Disney’s Virtual Magic Kingdom and Motorola’s Mokiworld. But other options like co-branding or develop promotions or sponsorships within other brands’ virtual worlds — like Wal-Mart did in Coke Studios — are feasible.
What’s the big payoff for the brands? One innovator Erik Hauser, founder of San Francisco-based Swivel Media, provides a powerful answer — engagement.
Swivel Media recommends its clients allocate six to seven figures to create one of these experiences.
Digital Deadwood is a great example of how branded virtual worlds enhance tourism promotion.
John “JCal” Callaham, “IGA Worldwide Interview“, March 13, 2006
Quotes by IGA’s CEO Justin Townsend:
“Mokeys and Burgers Create Online Persona“, AdAge, March 8, 2006: “In an age of consumer-generated media, avatars also help keep consumers engaged with a brand.”
Many more examples and comments at reBang.
Earlier on AdLab:
Personal Audio Avatar
Branding Avatars
MTV2’s “Coltrane hosts Second Life’s first ever fashion show.” Watch a Flash video from the show. Creator: Glitchy Gumshoe, an MTV staffer. Stage by Spellbound. Coltrane’s avatar by Lilith Pendragon.
Update (March 10, 2006):
The following refers to the console version of Activition’s True Crime: New York City released in fall 2005.
Times Square:
Most of the billboards in this version of Times Square are fake, but check out the noodle cup at the top center and the beer billboard under it.
Continue reading "Case: Brand Integration in True Crime: NYC" »
Kasia Gruszkowska, “Police! Freeze! Do You Accept Visa?” Newsweek, Feb 27, 2006.
“The firm’s [Ubisoft’s] soon-to-be-released CSI: Three Dimensions of Murder has cops solving a crime by making use of Visa’s fraud-protection services. Music also lends itself to video-game ads. Ubisoft has placed one advertisement for a band in Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, and plans to do more.
[…]
image: IGN. A screenshot from the upcoming Test Drive Unlimited for Xbox 360.
Eric Pfanner, “On Advertising: Getting in the Game.” International Herald Tribune, March 6, 2006:
“In “Test Drive Unlimited,” a new video game from Atari, players will get to choose their virtual wheels from a selection that includes Lamborghini, Ferrari and Mercedes. And, unusually for a genre in which car crashes generally count for more than fashion splashes, gamers will also be able to select their on-screen drivers’ wardrobes.”
Continue reading "Scratchpad: Ben Sherman in Test Drive Unlimited" »
“Ads in games can be persuasive, study shows“, Dec.5, 2005, msnbc.msn.com, accompanied by a video interview (IE6 only) with Robert A. Kotick, CEO of Activision and a VP of Nielsen.
Tom Loftus, “We interrupt this fantasy…“, MSNBC, Aug.25 2004.
Highlights (verbatim):
Continue reading "Scratchpad: “We Interrupt This Fantasy…”" »
Fran Kennish, “In-Game Advertising Dos and Don’ts“, iMedia Connection, March 3, 2006
Highlights (verbatim):
Do’s:
- A brand’s presence should enhance the gaming engagement
- Brand and commercial content must be relevant to the game
- Brands should feel like a natural part of the game
- Customization can strengthen gamers’ engagement with a brand
- In-game communication must be measurable
Joyce Schwarz, “Alternate Reality Gaming 101“, iMedia Connection, March 03, 2006.
Highlights (verbatim):
- Major brands such as Microsoft, Hasbro, Jet Blue, American Express, Sharp, Audi, Song Airlines and Stella Artois beer are staking out space in the ARG arena.
- You don’t want to tell the story; you want the players to tell it to each other.
Many examples of different types of ARG’s.
image: screenshot of the Swivel Media’s video shows a Wells Fargo ATM
Swivel Media released a video preview (file hosted at Swivel Media, .wmv, ~9Mb) of the new version of Wells Fargo’s Stagecoach Island that has recently been moved to ActiveWorlds.
Read more:
- “Revisiting Stagecoach Island” at Second Life Herald
- Original post on Second Life forums
Earlier:
Wells Fargo Opens Advertising Floodgates Into Virtual Life
Csven points at Next Generation that says that the new “Open for Business” expansion pack for EA’s Sims 2 will include a Depeche Mode’s “Suffer Well” song translated into Simlish.
Update (March 9, 2006): The video is now on YourTube (link1, link2, via Adverlab). One YourTube caption says the song was re-sung by Dave Gahan and is featured in the new expansion pack.
This piece of Machinima art uploaded to Dailymotion was apparently inspired by Fallon London’s ad for Sony Bravia.
– via Advergirl, Advertising for Peanuts)
“World of Warcraft’s European customer base is currently at more than 1 million players, with the worldwide total now at more than 6 million players.”
– press release, Feb. 28, 2006
Two blog posts in one day about virtual worlds being ripe for the social networking applications: Csven’s on Linked-In avatars and Wonderland’s on MySpace-like MyMMOG. The wish list so far:
image: Washington Post / Electronic Arts
Mike Musgrove, “Advertisers Are Getting Into the Game“, Washington Post, Thursday, March 2, 2006; Page D01.
Highlights:
“The ’80s-era Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles once promoted a pizza chain in an arcade game.”
“Sometimes, game fans embrace marketing if it’s entertainingly weird. In EA’s new boxing game, Fight Night Round 3, the Burger King mascot — the retro one with the oversized head and the burgundy robes — becomes part of a player’s in-game entourage if players complete a side-mission challenge. On game Web sites, some fans have posted comments that the feature makes them more likely to pick up the game.”
Continue reading "Scratchpad: Washington Post on In-Game Advertising" »
This post is a placeholder for comments on thesis proposal.
“This paper is designed to address the latter problem by compiling, arranging and analyzing the existing body of academic and industry knowledge to distill a set of guidelines for advertising in computer games. The main question it seeks to answer is how to design and place in-game advertising in a way that would recognize and respect the limitations of the medium while taking advantage of the unique opportunities it offers.”
This post is a placeholder for comments on Introduction: 1.The War.
“The war is on, and we are losing it. And this is one war we don’t even need to be fighting.
We love our audience, but it is only our fault if no one can tell. Instead of being a gentle and loyal lover, a prince charming always ready to help, never a nuisance, we collectively act like a paranoid stalker, obsessively collecting and fetishizing every little thing our audience leaves behind. We call our audience at nights and breathe heavily into the phone, or read a sloppily written script.”
This post is a placeholder for comments on Introduction - 2.The New World.
“You are standing at the door that is about to swing open to reveal sprawling cities, endless highways, virgin forests and other undeveloped property, so utterly devoid of anything branded that it is almost hard on the eyes, and the choice of what to make of it is now yours.”
Nich Maragos, “Study Shows In-Game Advertising Long-Term Bet“, Gamasutra.com, Feb. 27, 2006
“[MarketingSherpa’s] January survey of marketers showed that only 10% of respondents planned to spend on product placements within video games during the next twelve months, the lowest response compared to other new forms of advertising such as ads on RSS feeds (40%), blog networks (30%), and sponsoring podcasts (14%).
However, when asked which advertising schemes the marketers planned on investing in more than a year out, in-game advertising gained the biggest response, with 36% of respondents saying they intend to do placement within the games.”
The recent in-game U2 fan concert and the discussion on the SL forums prompted me to look for other celebrity-based avatars, and it turns there’s quite a supply and a growing range of available designs. IP issues aside, building and making available avatars based on a media property seems like an intriguing way to encourage fan involvement and ultimately to promote the real-world media product and the associated merchandise. The avatars could also be scripted to deliver automated in-game performances in 3D, a more interesting way to promote, say, a movie than running trailers on the in-game TVs. A virtual Michael Jordan could walk door to door peddling virtual Nike shoes (a hypothetical scenario, of course).
