Unreal Estate
Castle: $2,053 (eBay resale price)
The article went on to point out that “assuming roughly proportional numbers for Electronic Arts' 225,000-player Ultima and other major online role-playing games - Mythic's Dark Age of Camelot, Microsoft's Asheron's Call, Funcom's Anarchy Online - the workforce toiling away in these imaginary worlds generates more than $300 million in real wealth each year. That's about double what the game companies themselves make in subscription revenue, a fact that poses them a single, nettlesome question: How - and whether - to grab a piece of the action?”
In-Game Marketing
However, game studios are not the only ones that should be thinking about how to capitalize on this unexpected derivative of popular online titles. Marketers also should consider where they fit into the mix. With a large marketplace for virtual goods and services, they could help players acquire expensive, new, or rare artifacts via sweepstakes or promotions. They also should consider aso how to integrate their brands within the online environments.
On Aprill 11th, 2005 Massive Incorporated, creator of the world’s first video game advertising network, announced that its network has successfully completed the beta testing phase and will expand its dynamic ad serving capability into 40 leading titles from 10 top game publishers before year’s end. Global advertisers, including Coca-Cola brands, Comcast’s G4, Dunkin’ Donuts, Honda Element & Honda S2000, Intel, Nestlé, Paramount Pictures, T-Mobile, Universal Music Group and Verizon, are utilizing Massive to reach the elusive youth demographic, particularly 18-34 year old men, a group that increasingly shuns television in favor of video games. For the first time, advertisers are implementing real time, in-game campaigns to a weekly audience estimated to reach several million gamers by the end of 2005.
Current titles in the Massive Network include Ubisoft’s “Splinter Cell Chaos Theory” and Funcom’s “Anarchy Online”, as well as “Mall Tycoon” and “Ski Resort.” Massive’s combination of leading publishers and premier game titles definitively demonstrates that contextual advertising in video games is the freshest and most effective way to reach a vast audience, allowing brand marketers to connect directly with their audience’s lifestyle.
In-Game Billboard Execution. (Splinter Cell)
Also Read: The Effect of Billboards within the Gaming Environment
Journal of Interactive Advertising, Volume 5, Number 1, Fall 2004
Massive’s pricing model mirrors familiar traditional broadcast media, charging a CPM against their gaming audience as they are reached. Massive’s technology allows for complete tracking of ads served and will provide complete, detailed reporting on audience reach on a daily basis. An ad impression is based on a minimum of 15 cumulative seconds of gamer exposure to an ad unit that meets our viewing threshold. Thus, an ad unit is not considered “served” until an individual gamer has been exposed to an ad for a minimum of 15 cumulative seconds during game play.
Sample In-Game Real Estate Tracking
Gamers reactions to this marketing approach has been so far positive. Particularly compelling is the attitude of gamers towards the ads themselves. Independent research has shown that they see real-world ads and product placements as an enhancement of a game's realism. An Independent Harvard Business School study shows that over 90% of 'core gamers' do not mind in-game advertising in their games. The attention they pay to their gaming environment translates to high brand lift and intention to buy.
Gamer FeedbackGamers care about their games – and the advertising in them. The following feedback was taken directly from Massive’s Publisher Partners’ Web sites:
“I love the idea of having actual advertisements in a game instead of fake, made-up companies. I’ve always wondered why more games didn’t try to do this.”
"I would like seeing a Coke machine, or a Pepsi machine, or (in this case) one that reads Diet Sprite. That's what it looks like in real life.”
“I think the ads are cool as long as they make sense…the soda machine looks awesome.”
“I think the in-game advertising initiative is brilliant. I play quite often and find the billboards enhance the reality of the game, are completely unobtrusive and dynamic.”
The Target
Obviously, when one thinks of online games they immediately jump to the “illusive 18-34 yo male segment”. This demo is true if you are trying to reach the Hardcore Gaming set. However, it is important to note that women (not men) dominate the online gaming universe. Females make up 53% of the online game players where men only make up 47%. Women (especially those 35-49 yo) dominate the Causal Gaming Category (Kart Rider mentioned in the news clipping is considered a casual game genre). As the following graphic illustrates, the major differences between Casual Gamers vs Hardcore Gamers are gender, game genres, and time/money spent playing online.
Keep the above in mind when considering in-game marketing tactics. Bottom line, using in-game promotions to reach both men and women is a viable tactic. Now stop playing around and give it a shot.
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