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by: Alain Thys
When she was eight, my wife invented a game called "The Yellow Car Conspiracy". In this game, all the kids who participated, were on watch to spot yellow cars which might drive through their street, stop in front of buildings or engage in other types of suspicious activity. If all kids worked together - the theory went - they would surely uncover the mystery that lingered about all these yellow cars hovering through town.
MochiAds is the world's first advertising network for casual games. Comprised of two facets, MochiAds enables advertisers to reach a highly sought-after demographic through engaging, virally distributed Flash games and simultaneously provides game publishers an effective, non-obtrusive revenue channel to support their creative talents. Together, MochiAds offers a powerful and deep-reaching platform to deliver a memorable brand message.http://mochimedia.com/
Continue reading "In The News: Measuring in-game ads efficiency" »
Judging by the growing number of media clippings on the subject, I’m afraid in-game ads are turning into the next shiny thing.
“Agency Avatars,” AdWeek, October 9, 2006, Eleftheria Parpis. Quote from Leo’s chief creator Mark Tutssel: “This is right on the edge of a new space.”
“Virtual Worlds: The Next Realm in Advertising?” Brand Channel, Bill Nissim, undated (Sept 2006?)
“Video Games Now a Social Experience,” Ad Age, Gavin O’Malley, October 5, 2006
“Leo Burnett Buys Space in Virtual World,” Ad Age, Jeremy Mullman, September 28, 2006
“Advergaming: You Got It,” Business Week, David Radd, October 10, 2006
Piers from PSFK wrote in to point out that Anomaly (an ad agency in NYC) has had an office in SL long before Leo and BBH. I went to check it out and here’s a post card. Their offices are at Tinjin, on an island across from PSFK’s office.
The big news of the week: two large ad agencies, Leo Burnett and Bartle Bogle Hegarty, have announced plans to open offices in Second Life (links to the announcements).
Leo works with Millions of Us on an Ideas Hub that will become a collaborative space for the agency’s creative people (AdAge). The creatives will apparently have to learn the new interface and port their works as textures into the world. You can visit the commemorative tree marking the initiative at Millions of Us 190,82,23. Leo Burnett Toronto’s blog has the full text of the press release and a few comments. Csven at reBang also offers his thoughts: “Someone needs to tell these old agencies that the first rule of Web 2.0 (and Second Life) is: Don’t go around bragging about how you figured it out and are now (finally) going to set up an “ideas hub”.
Continue reading "Leo Burnett, BBH Ready Second Life Offices" »
Adotas does Q&A sessions with the execs from Massive, IGA and Double Fusion. The questions:
1. Has the industry grown large enough that you could consider other in-game advertising companies as serious competition, or is it still a wide open market?
2. In what direction is the in-game ad formats heading: display ads like on billboards, or in-game product placement?
3. Is there an industry standard for measuring in-game ads?
4. How useful do you think in-game metrics are, since games can be played both on and off-line on a whole bunch of different platforms?
5. What sort of games are more easily combined with advertising? What do you do for games that aren’t sports or set in a present-day location? What about fantasy, sci fi games, or even puzzle, arcade, and casual titles?
6. Do you think it’s possible in the future that some high-profile games could be entirely ad-supported?
Ariel Spoonhammer: A barrage of questions to Razor: How did the SL store get approved internally within AA? Why did you opt to sell clothes for what in SL is a significant amount of money instead of giving them away? Do you plan to advertise your store both in RL and SL? Do you think SL is the kind of place where AA’s “risque” ad strategy can go even more “risque”?
Continue reading "Panel on Marketing to Virtual Avatars, Part 5" »
“Does E3 Amount to a Video Game Upfront?“, Zachary Rodgers, May 10, 2006, Clickz.com
“Brands and their agencies are all over E3 this year, and they’ve booked wall-to-wall meetings with ad sales execs at the game studios and with the in-game ad firms that represent their games.”
“Digital Ads Expected to Hit $23B by 2010″
Enid Burns, February 21, 2006, Clickz.com
“A new report from analyst firm Parks Associates forecasts across-the-board growth in digital media segments. New categories like in-game advertising and mobile will show the highest gains, according to the study, likely because they’re starting from a lower base.
Emerging categories like rich media, in-game, and mobile advertising will show the most growth, according to the report. Internet rich-media ads are expected to experience a 31 percent compounded annual growth rate by 2010. The format will bring in an estimated $5.7 billion. In-game advertising will grow by at least 50 percent annually to $432 million. Advertising on a mobile platform is due to reach $2 billion.”
It’s been a month since my last post here, and it was a month spent on getting some (very little) actual writing done, and on working on other unrelated projects. Now that the thesis presentation is a week away and the defence is on May 5, it’s crunch time.
Anyway, I went to the Advertising in Games conference in NYC on Wednesday, thinking I would pick up interesting stuff for my work (special thanks to the organizers for giving me the press pass in recognition of my blog publishing career). As it usually happens, the event was rich in networking and less rich on unique content, but below are a few shots of the most interesting presentations (taking snapshots of the screen is much easier than writing the things down).
Continue reading "Advertising in Games Conference, Data Points" »
John “JCal” Callaham, “IGA Worldwide Interview“, March 13, 2006
Quotes by IGA’s CEO Justin Townsend:
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.”
Zachary Rodgers, “Midway Taps Double Fusion to Represent In-Game Ads.” Clickz.com, February 23, 2006
“Midway Games tapped Double Fusion to sell and serve dynamic ads in multiple games over the next several years. The only title definitely included under the deal is Stranglehold, slated for release in fall 2006.
Additionally, the company hired Atari veteran Sarah McIlroy to head its in-game advertising and promotional efforts. Whereas Double Fusion will represent dynamic ad inventory such as posters and 2D video placements in 3D games, McIlroy will court advertisers seeking deeper integration with the gameplay.
The Double Fusion agreement provides for dynamic, rotating ad placements in PC games — the first time Midway has engaged in anything other than static, permanent ad units.
Many see a great opportunity in dynamically serving ads to players of console games, but until connected consoles see wider adoption and equipment manufacturers like Sony and Microsoft decide how to approach the market, PC-based games are bound to provide the most inventory.”
Interactive Advertising Bureau added IGA Partners as a member (see full list). Massive has been a member already. One of the IAB’s objectives is “to organize the industry to set standards and guidelines that make Interactive an easier medium for agencies and marketers to buy and capture value.”
To do: find out whether IAB will work towards creating guidelines for in-game ads.
Russian in-game ad agency Enter Media (rus) worked with Nival Interactive, creators of the game “Night Watch” to integrate the Alfa Bank Express (rus) brand. The RPG tactic game, released in August 2005, is based on the namesake sci-fi book trilogy and a blockbuster movie about the struggle between the vampires (the baddies) and the Others (humans with supernatural abilities) and set in the modern-day Moscow.
Continue reading "Russian Experience in In-Game Brand Integration" »
The gaming industry publication Gamasutra asked game professionals (free reg. required for access) whether they though that in-game advertising was going to be important to the video game industry and what business models and placement tactics would make the most sense.
IMPORTANT REVENUE STREAM:
“[…] The brands, and their marketing dollars, will become an integral part of all entertainment mediums.”
- Brian Robbins, Fuel Industries
Continue reading "Gamasutra: Industry Professionals Discuss Game Advertising" »
