[tag]Gamevertising[/tag] can improve [tag]game design[/tag], that is the remarkable conclusion of [tag]in-game advertising[/tag] agency DoubleFusion . Ads in games can be tracked. This tracking gives information about the behaviour of the gamers and reveals which areas in the game are more trafficked than others. The technique seems somewhat similar to eyetracking.
Designers will know what areas of a virtual world are popular, allowing then to focus the game around these spots or making them more attractive. Possibly it also shows where gamevertising is annoying the gamer. By taking these facts into account game design will improve, according to the agency.
AOL has launched a [tag]video ticker[/tag] for [tag]advertising [/tag]within videos on its site. It’s somewhat similar to what Google and others already offer. A transparant banner is displayed at the bottom of the streaming videos. It appears 10 seconds into the video and remains for 15 seconds. If the viewer doesn’t click on it, the ad disappears. If a click occurs, a new video or Flash ad appears on the video player, which can later be restarted by clicking on a text link at the bottom of the window.
This again is a means to explore new ways of advertising. And it proves that the major players in the advertising market are serious about their attempts to establish a characteristic “[tag]advertising culture[/tag]” in new media. Unlike [tag]gamevertising[/tag], it is pretty annoying to have a ticker at the bottom of your video.
More on this subject: here. You can read the press release of AOL here.
Around the year 2000 the idea to advertise in games popped up. [tag]In-game advertising[/tag] or - even sexier - [tag]gamevertising [/tag]was born. It took a few years in the incubator to grow to a mature stage. And here it is now. Even [tag]Google [/tag]recently announced to get started on the [tag]game advertising market[/tag] before the end of the year. Fasten your seat belts as Google will certainly take the lead in this new race.
At the moment gamevertising generates already a turnover of more than $700 million. Expectations are that this will explode to a huge $2000 billion four to five years from now, say 2011 and 2012. This is more than a stellar growth! By that time advertisers will spend more on gamevertising than on television.
What’s the secret behind the success? Well, there are 2 bottom lines in this story. On the one hand there is the growing interest in [tag]online gaming[/tag] and [tag]video games[/tag]. Kids already spend more time playing games than watching television. And this tendency is taking shape among adults up to the age of 35 and beyond. On the other hand there is the phenomenon that can be described as the “[tag]gamevertising focus[/tag]“: players are more focused on [tag]in-game ads[/tag] than could ever be the case in traditional media. This leads to much higher recognition and brand awareness.
Moreover - and unlike with television or magazines - players are not easily annoyed by the game ads, as long as they are well placed in the game. When you go to a supermarket, grab some food, make the cash girl hand you over all the money and kill 3 people on your way out, it doesn’t bother you when you see the supermarket’s name all over the scenes you’re playing in. Nor that you see real brand names on the shelves and that you recognized the designer clothes the last guy you killed was wearing. In an interactive environment the ads and the [tag]product placement[/tag] are experienced as real. And that is what makes gamevertising so powerful.
Games as a means of job recruiting… that’s new. And that’s exactly what an intelligence service is doing to get new people on board. Look at this amazing story, that unfolds new possibilities for [tag]game advertisers[/tag] and the [tag]gamevertising [/tag]business.
[tag]Google [/tag]makes another move: it’s [tag]gamevertising [/tag]initiative will see the daylight before the end of the month. Earlier this year Google bought Adscape, an [tag]in-game advertising[/tag] company, for $23 million.
Google will first launch a beta test with Redwood City, California-based casual gaming startup Bunchball Games by embedding “video-type” pre-roll and mid-roll gamevertising ads in some of the games Bunchball offers. Rumors go around that by next week this first in-game advertising project will be announced by both Bunchball and Google. For now, it’s just ‘no comment’ on both sides.
In december the next step will take place. By that time Google will unfold its game-focused advertising strategy. An ad-supported version of the PC game [tag]Psychonauts[/tag] will hit the internet as a downloadable game. Free, I suppose, because the [tag]in-game ads[/tag] will provide the money to the editors.
According to some well known gamers, Psychonauts is not a casual game but an award-winning, story-heavy, cult hit. This “gamer’s game” from veteran adventure game designer Tim Schaefer and co-written by Erik “Old Man Murray” Wolpaw is now “out of print;” and can only be downloaded via Valve’s Steam network it can be accessed via such download sites as GameTap and Valve’s Steam network.
Is that the real innovation? It looks more like a try-out. It’ll probably take a while to get Google’s [tag]game-related advertising[/tag] plans out of the beta-stage. Anyway, this new move comes at a time when an increasing interest in [tag]gaming [/tag]and in-game advertising unfolds rapidly over the internet. To be continued.
