Is In-Game Advertising The Ultimate End Game?

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Permalink Reply by tucker on September 11, 2008 at 5:27pm

video game advertising is just more of the same.
It's sponsorship.

I personally am not a big believer in sponsorships.
I don't think they drive sales much.
However, it is true that the actors on the Red Carpet get free stuff to wear on it, and those companies sales do skyrocket as a result, so there is something to personality/product association. But I don't buy anything just because Puff Daddy said so. In Rhetoric, Harry, it's called Ethos. Speaker credibility. In the case of a video game media placement, it causes the user to associate some of the brand personality traits of the video game and project that onto the brand that is advertising. The question is, does that association actually lead to more sales, or just an interesting 2-second thought. I'm skeptical.

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Permalink Reply by Harry Webber on September 11, 2008 at 5:41pm

You make a good point young Tucker. But the question of whether or not advertising is effective in it's current gaming incarnation is moot. The issue at hand is whether of not in some new, hither to unrealized form or fashion Chevrolet can create even more desire for the gas-guzzling Corvette than it has in the past on retro shows like "Route 66." Is there a point where the game can enhance the brand experience. Your lack of believership in sponsorships is well placed in this arena. But what lies beyond the picture of a bottle of Bud in a billboard being blown up on "Grand Theft Auto"? Anything worthwhile?

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Permalink Reply by Bill Sellers on September 11, 2008 at 5:47pm

I would have to say skeptical as well. But I think it could depend on the product. If perhaps it was an advertisement for a new controller or an upgrade card or something gaming related... hell, even JOLT cola (do they still make that?) Then I think it could have a viable and captive audience. My son works for a GameStop, the barrage of kids is enormous but outweighed sometimes by the mid to late 20 something with the cheeto's stains on his Led Zep t-shirt. Or the 30 something, that could actually be homeless... I don't know what I could possible try to sell these folks, maybe pokeman cards or something?

Game companies routinely make sure they put trailers for their upcoming releases, so possibly cool movies, and I do mean ones with stuff exploding, or on the kiddie games, Little Mermaid type movie trailers coming to DVD or something.

The other big residual pay-off coming out of games I can see is music. My son's friends are always trying to figure out who that is playing while their stealing their next car, or shooting grandma at the mailbox. So, music co. might have a captive audience as well.

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Permalink Reply by Harry Webber on September 11, 2008 at 6:10pm

I wish they did still make JOLT. It was the savior of the all nighter back in the day. Your son's input would be invaluable in this discussion. Sign him up and allow us the benefit of his experience. Your observation about the older demos is what makes me think that this genre is ripe for expansion. Game platforms will ultimately become media platforms, just as the web went from an academic geegaw to a global powerhouse.

Your point on music is well taken, even though the Dance Games like DDR have recently migrated to rolling their own instead of licensing hits. I think the bigger idea may be music brands ( like my client Micheal Jackson) using game platforms as release channels simular to the way they are currently using YouTube.

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Permalink Reply by Bill Sellers on September 11, 2008 at 10:32pm

Music: My son is all into this 'death rap' he got into from some of his games. Afro-Samurai, Necro and others are in some of the shoot 'em ups. He tried to call it intelligent rap, and I kindly turned him on to KRS One, Tribe Called Quest and others. But nonetheless he is picking up the CDs of the artists he was diggin' on in the game. I know games like Guitar Hero (or something like that) got him and buddies listening to classic rock. Now if I can just figure out some way to get some Miles Davis into a game.

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Permalink Reply by Harry Webber on September 12, 2008 at 1:51am

Bill,

Lay this one one him. Once upon a time there was a musician. He went to Spain with some friends and they took him to see a bull fight. He was recognized immediately and the Empressario of the ring asked him if he would play the Paseo Doble. The trumpet solo that announced the entrance of the matadors and their cuadrillo into the ring. The musician said he would be honored. The Empressario said he would simply have to let the Generalissimo (Franco) know there would be a change in the program. The Generalissimo took one look at the black face of the Musician and said absolutely not. And the musician left the great Plaza De Savilla in shame.

The musician was not a man to forget such an insult. And he inquired about the Generalissimo's musical tastes and was told that the Generalissimo was a devotee of the 12 string flamenco guitar. And so it was that the Musician decided to record an entire album of Flamenco classics. And use every instrument in the Gypsy ensamble, but the 12 string guitar.

The key piece in that album was the great Joaquin Rodrigo's "Concierto de Aranjuez" Franco's favorite of favorites.
And "Solera" a tribute to the Paso Doble he never got to play. The slight was well noted by the Generalissimo and the album was banned in Spain. Though widely available in the Black Market the record caused an uproar among Flamenco afficianatos .

In the early 70's the musician returned to Spain and was invited to the ranch of the legendary bullfighter Luis Miguel Dominguin (father of singer Luis Miguel) who had gone into retirement. Dominguin had heard of the incident with Franco and said to one of his guests, how could this black American ever dare to attempt the complexity of the Flamenco form let alone the demands of the Paso Doble. To which
one of the guests produced a copy of the album and played Solero for the retired Matador

Dominguine was so moved by the musician's performance he ordered one of his fiercest bulls to be brought from the torills and released in the small bullring near the great hacienda. And after five years retirement Dominguine again faced a fighting bull with only a cape and a sword and put on a magnificent show for the
honored muscian. Dominguine later released to the Spanish press that the banned music of this American musician had so moved him that he was comming out of retirement to enter the bullring again.

In 2003, the album "Sketches of Spain" by Miles Davis was ranked number 356 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. If he doesn't want to here Miles after that saga, then there is no hope for the current generation.

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Permalink Reply by Thom Dinsdale on September 11, 2008 at 5:50pm

I think there are two things that videogames have going for them as a platform for advertising.

The first of them is the most obvious, and related to the defining qualities of the medium. Namely, the virtual worlds and simulated experiences that games create are intensely interactive . They require concentrate and commitment, it is very difficult to half-play a game and to do so is unrewarded and defeats the object. This is essentially a solution to the problem of audiences "Tivo-ing out" media.

This does create a profound challenge however. The easy (not to mention lazy) application of this would be to simply erect giant, virtual billboards and hope players pay attention to them. However, this wouldn't really solve any of the challenges advertisers currently face, rather than just substitute them into a different medium. A more effective application of branded content would be to find ways of turning these brands into believable and appropriate components of virtual worlds. A good example of this is Electronic Art's 'Skate', a skateboarding game which was sponsored by (you guessed it) skating apparell and equipment brands who payed to have their products injected into the game. The result is not only unobtrusive and appropriate but expected.

Anyone even remotely familiar with skating culture will know just how important and iconic the brands that surround it are. From Addidas to Zoo York, these brands are essential to the culture of skating and would be more than conspicious by their absence from a supposed virtual world based on that culture.

This raises an interesting issue. The "real world" has become so saturated by brands and advertising that its absence from simulations of that world seem awkward and contrived. Brands are essential to our conception of reality, and therefore have a very real and appropriate place in virtual reality.

Just take Rockstar Game's 'Grand Theft Auto' series. The huge, virtual urban environments which characterise that series are full of parodied and fictional brands. While they do exsist in satire, their presence illustrates that the jump of brands from the real to the virtual is not only appropriate, but in many ways essential to the authenticity of the games they sponsor.

The second big advantage which games have is that they are icnreasingly being built on expansive networks and databases of information. Both Sony and Microsoft have large online services which they use to connect users in-game, deliver content and modify and update software. These networks also make for great data mines and mean that those adverts which are delivered in games will be as appropriate to their audience as is humanly possible. This is what seperates in-game advertising from the product placement of broadcast, because the product on display can change based on the audience. The term "dynamic" is banded about often by those who are working in this quickly developing advertising format.

The advantage of this "dynamic" advertising is threefold. Not only does the advertiser know that their promotion is as targeted as possible but the flow of the audience's experience is not broken by branding which is innapropriate and irrelevant to them individually. Furthermore, advertisers can update and change adverts regularly, meaning that campaigns will never become outdated and can coincide with communications in the "real world".

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Permalink Reply by Thom Dinsdale on September 11, 2008 at 6:05pm

Just One More Thing...

I do not think that in-game advertising is the be-all-and end all. It certainly has it limits and is yet to be widely received by both audiences and clients.

However, it is in its infancy and in all likelyhood the best is yet to come. Because the rulebook has yet to be written and the pace of technological develop is so fast the only tangible limit on the potential of in-game advertising is the imagination of those that would use it.

This is all without commenting on the potential for videogame hardware/software as a distribution platform for other forms of entertainment and the recent explosion of the medium's popular, courtesy of the Nintendo Wii.

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Permalink Reply by Harry Webber on September 11, 2008 at 6:42pm

"Because the rulebook has yet to be written and the pace of technological develop is so fast the only tangible limit on the potential of in-game advertising is the imagination of those that would use it."

In one insightful sentence you have hit upon the key to the entire advertising dilemma as I see it. Do we as an industry possess the level of technological skill and imagination capacity to envision and then realize this amazing new opportunity.

It is obvious to me that this is the road map Microsoft is following. At this point they are the largest player with a foot firmly planted in both fields of endeavor. But like every other technology company MS is rabidly silo'd and their operating divisions are intense competitors for money and resources. So although the have the capability under one roof, I doubt whether they have the organizational vision to pull it off.

This is where the R&D departments of WPP and Omnicom should be focusing their efforts. But that's right. There are no R&D departments at WPP or Omnicom. So I guess it's up to us to work it out.

What i find fascinating about this potential is your statement that "The second big advantage which games have is that they are increasingly being built on expansive networks and databases of information." If ever there was a justification to look into the potential of this "Dynamic" Advertising Platform it would be in the ways in which through game play we can gain more insight into the decision making process of the advertising audience.

But overshadowing all of these potential benefits is the question of how we engage the non-gamer into the advergame and nutralize their "fear" of not having the "skills" required to come in and play.

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Permalink Reply by Bill Sellers on September 11, 2008 at 10:25pm

What about if it was looked at from a product placement point of view. Thom mentioned the Tony Hawk games... I grew up on the coast and surfed as a kid, the brands are very strong in that segment as well. Tony Hawk cut his teeth and skinned his knees on some of the same streets I frequented in VA. Don't know where I was going with that... But the thing I am getting at is, what getting into gaming did for his personal brand. He was all but gone from the scene. I would venture a guess that most of the first couple of X-Gamers just barely remembered him. On to the scene pops his first game and bam! here is Tony Hawk all renewed and fresh again, a staple in the skate scene. There were much better skaters in the time but he jumped on the wagon before it got past him. Anyway, too much Rum again... What I was getting to was that if a model similar to that of TV shows and movies, if product placement was unobtrusive (like the billboards spoke of) then I think it could definitely work. Creative placements in context to the game would be a must to keep it real.

On the database and dynamic delivery tip... Last year I did an advergame for a sponsorship deal. We tracked every aspect of usage, including who the viral components where sent to. All stored in a database for future marketing once this years game rolls out. We also had the ability to deliver different product messages at different stages of the game. We opted that out though in the hopes more folks would pass it on (you know how folks hate advertising). We didn't want to bring the client's brand compliance group into the mix to ruin the simple sponsorship feel. None the less, I think the tech is there already... I just think we wrestle very often with the fact that if we try to collect too much info or bombard with sales messages it kinda ruins the whole feel. Same with widgets. And we tried to follow the KISS rule where ever possible... hell, my mom(75) played and sent stuff out to folks in the family.

I can tell ya from experience though, as advergames go, it is hard sell to the corner offices of most of my clients. Possibly my, or the AE lack of ability to sell it through, but with most, just a touch-point without an opportunity to get folks into a sales funnel doesn't make much sense. Unless their brand building it's tough. The best way to sell something like that through would be in an integrated mix for an entire campaign and not just a stand alone. Similar to the microsite train of thought. But if your spending a few mil on a sponsorship deal, what's another few thousand for another place to put your logo?

Hope that made sense, another drunken post.

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Permalink Reply by Harry Webber on September 12, 2008 at 1:03am

I hope that's dark Puerto Rican Rum Bill,

The points you bring up about getting folks into the sales funnel is a big issue on any corner not just the office corner. We sometimes forget that interactive only gets 3% to 4% of the total marketing dollar. And a full blown video game can cost several million to produce.

So however it works, it needs to drive some form of revenue back to the client.
Where is the ROI? It's the same question as branded entertainment. The Tony Hawk scenario might give us a clue. Use the game to create the stars that drive the fans into the funnel to learn how to "be like Mike". But the game has to be all that and a bowel of grits for anyone worth his salt to want to be a star in it. Which comes back around to investment spending.

That's why I think the solution lies in more simplified game play that can attract a larger audience. Maybe some thing with cash prizes attached. Who knows. Keep thinking.

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Permalink Reply by Mary Baum on September 12, 2008 at 10:31pm

We know that role-playing games tend to skew male - yet our sales funnel in CPG and a wide range of other products will likely skew female.

Among Boomer and Gen X women, electronic gaming means puzzles - Tetris is, as far as I know, the only breakaway hit among women - and online versions of traditional card games. I also was an online jigsaw junkie for a while.

My daughter (now a college freshman) grew up with Mario and I think still likes to play the racing games, and I think she's planning to take her Wii to Boston in the spring. It did not make the cut for the current semester in Australia.

So, a couple thoughts:

How do we do product placement in a puzzle environment? I do see a place for prizes and recognition -- especially since puzzle games are already tracking high scores.

Now, since losing an hour of productivity to something as trivial as an online game is already a source of guilt to a lot of the people (moms) playing it, the sponsor probably needs to be doing things to assuage the guilt. The message might be: you do so much for everyone else that you deserve this time. Plus, here are other ways to handle your stress/pamper yourself. And as you rack up high game scores, you can win cool stuff for you and your family.

Next thought: Integrating gaming platforms. I've been reading stuff lately that says life online isn't necessarily always going
to mean life on the desktop.

Certainly we're all aware that soon hospitals will be issuing smartphones to infants in the delivery room, and they'll be texting before they learn to talk. But show me a house without at least one game console connected to the DSL, and I'll show you a house where it's hooked up to the cable modem.

So in practical terms we need to think about how gaming initiatives can integrate across those three platforms. As in -- do we introduce our puzzle game for Mom by bundling some sort of electronic media with the facial masque? Or mail a Wii disc to every address in Nintendo's registration database that has a woman over 30 (courtesy of a drivers' license-data overlay) that invites her to play for a spa vacation - or a Prius - in the Nivea Wii Relax, Wii Fit Games? Or push the game to her phone, perfect for filling those countless times she spends waiting for this or that . . . the carpool, the end of soccer practice, the pediatrician's waiting room, the line at the drive-through . . . a few minutes calming her brain, with a high score leading, maybe, to something really grand . . .

And possibly the whole thing has a social component. Last fall my daughter's senior class - both sexes - got into playing competitive Tetris on Facebook. For several months the same game they'd all been playing since the age of reason newly dominated their consciousness, all because it was on a new platform and they could all see their scores posted, so they know who they had to beat, and by how much, to take the lead. And that was with no prized - just bragging rights.

Finally, a thought about prizes . . . There's a body of research that suggests that material reward tends to cut into the intrinsic reward of doing something like playing a game.

And there's another body of research in the employee motivation business that suggests that noncash rewards motivate better than cash rewards. (So says the Maritz broad . . .)

So off the top of my head I kinda like doing product placements as prizes -- maybe lower-ticket items in fairly high volume, almost as thank-yous just for coming and getting on the scoreboard at all, and higher-ticket items for real achievement in the scoring realms.

And it may be that there's a whole variety of games to choose from - not just one - in the environment.

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