In-Game Advertising Reaching Audiences

Via Joystiq, a report that in-game advertising works quite well. From the article: "A new study released on Monday found that in-game ad campaigns resulted in a 60 percent increase in awareness of new brands. The study, commissioned by in-game ad creators Double Fusion and carried out by Nielsen Interactive Entertainment, tested various forms of ads in the PC game 'Metro3D.' And while the study reported some differences in the effectiveness of animated and static ads, Double Fusion's co-founder, Guy Bendov, said the results weren't what he had expected."

Comments

All you need to read...

[SoCalChris]

The study, commissioned by in-game ad creators Double Fusion

An advertiser releases a report stating that their method works, and it gets picked up by slashdot?

This is terrifying...

[Errandboy of Doom]

I use TiVo, AdBlocker, I even show up to the movies 10 minutes late.

Why do they keep finding me, wherever I hide?

What's next, my DM beginning with: "By the way, before we get started, I'd like you all to know that this dungeon crawl is sponsored by Jolt Cola and Lays Potato Chips?"

For now..

[pureseth]

I think it may work because people aren't used to seeing ads in games, and IMO they shouldn't. It was probably the same case online, when people weren't used to seeing ads on webpages, they may have noticed them more, but now most people are used to seeing ads on the net and usually disregard them.

If ads are put in games, people will most likely get more used to them after awhile and start to disregard them as they do now with website ads.

Re:For now..

[mnmn]

I strongly support ads in games. They can really make games cheaper. In time I think they'll make games free. Think of most yahoo and google services. Google isnt posting satellite pictures and petabytes of data storage for the sake of philanthropy. Their ad jobs really pay off, see how big google is now?

Starbucks in the 30s

[Castar]

I think the picture next to the Joystiq article says it all, really. A 30s mobster car driving past a Starbucks - just what I want to see if I'm trying to immerse myself in the world of Al Capone. Starbucks is everywhere in the present, now they're colonizing the past as well...

I don't mind ads in videogames, but there are two rules: I have to benefit somehow by seeing the ads (like a lower price for the game) and the ads have to avoid breaking the illusion. Anything else will just end up ruining the game, and making it worthless to both the player and the advertiser.

Of course, in practice this means advertising will only really be viable in modern games (unless you could cleverly work in some dystopian future where Coke-Glaxxo-Lockheed oppresses citizens. Does that still count as marketing?)

Puh-leeze!

[RM6f9]

I'll believe their ads work when I can see increases in sales independently measured and metered by the companies doing the advertising - "Brand Awareness" doesn't add one red cent to the bottom line.

Metro3D?

[eLDeR_MMHS]

Has anyone actually seen "Metro3D?" Some quick google searches just turn up a developer company (one that doesn't even appear to make PC games) and not an actual game.

Coming soon to World of Warcraft!

[Rakarra]

After a long hard battle, come in to Starbucks (now with locations in Undercity and Stormwind! Every other small town will have one within the month), put up your axe, and trade war stories over a latte!

Re:Maybe

[Luigi30]

Dole isn't a Japanese banana company. They're an American banana company.

Great for MMO's

[jessecurry]

I think that this new advertising medium holds a great deal of promise for some MMO's. For example, in CoH I would be just as happy seeing a subway as I would seeing the City of Gyros ad. Now it wouldn't have a place in World of Warcraft, but any time that it is unobtrusive I welcome it, especially if the revenue goes towards future enhancement or eliminates subscriber fees.

What kind of advertising do slashdotters want?

[rayblueline]

IANAAE (I am not an ad executive) but I have been working in the ad industry for a few months, so I read the comments on this thread with great interest because I'm always wondering what the future of advertising is going to be like. I mean, like most people here, I block every intrusive online ad that I see and if I had TiVO you can bet I would skip past the commercials, so given that the number one issue in my industry is ad advoidance, I'm wondering what kind of advertising slashdotters are okay with? Certainly companies require advertising to keep the wheels of the economy moving, but the challenge is to come up with advertising that people want to spend time with. I think this means that more advertising has to become opt-in but I also think it means that the distinction between 'advertising' and 'content' as two seperate things has got to go. Ultimately, I think that there's got to be no qualatiative distinction between those two things, but I'm curious what y'all think.

Re:What kind of advertising do slashdotters want?

[Dachannien]

There are a few things that can go into advertising that people will watch. I speak mostly from my own opinion as a consumer of entertainment products, so YMMV depending on who else you ask. But please, if there's anyone out there in a position of power that you can convert into a believer in the principle of Not Annoying Potential Customers, please do so :)

One is humor. People watch the Super Bowl to see two things: the game (and the associated cheerleaders, hehe) and the hilarious commercials that come out each year. Admittedly, I don't drink Budweiser, because their product sucks, but at least they make some damn funny commercials.

Two is informativeness. By this, I mean true informativeness. People are far less likely to mind a quick ad showing what's on TV next weekend, because it provides factual information about the show (excerpts are shown) and when it's on. Likewise, people don't mind actual trailers before movies (though sometimes the sheer vast quantity bothers people), because it gives them a chance to find out what's coming out next summer or holiday season, and gives them the feedback of one's peers as people mutter things like, "Yeah, that's gonna suck," between trailers.

Three, related to informativeness, is tailored interest. Here, I mean a matching of the interests of the viewer with the information provided in the ad. Channels that are already tailored for certain types of customer are great for this sort of thing - for example, an ad for history-related books or DVDs would do well on the History Channel, or an ad for a feminine hygiene product would work well on Lifetime (Television for Victims).

But the more narrowly-tailored the interest category is, the more likely it is that the viewer will take interest. This is why Amazon.com's product suggestions work so well, at least when their system's recommendations aren't thrown off by those gifts you recently bought your niece for her birthday. Also take Planetside for example, which recently started placing ads in-game. An ad for a new graphics card would garner a lot of attention there. Everyone playing that game is at least in the market for new graphics hardware (whether they can afford it or not). Unfortunately, SOE got suckered into running a bunch of Fanta ads, which is one step above running ads for feminine hygiene products there (which, afaik, they haven't done... yet).

One caveat here is that if customers feel like they're being spied upon, they will complain - Amazon gets away with it because when people surf Amazon, they're interested in buying something. The information Amazon provides makes shopping easier and more productive. But when people surf their favorite news website and get tailored ads, it feels like Big Brother is watching. That's why cookies are so often blocked, especially from Doubleclick.

Four is unobtrusiveness. This is the one that Intarweb ad execs really don't get (except for Google). The hallowed days of Punching the Monkey and Winning $20 are long gone, and people hate ads with a passion these days because they get more annoying instead of less. More and more people filter out ads because they blink and move and pop up/under and make noise and generally ruin a pleasant websurfing experience. Viewing an ad that gets past such filters may garner brand recognition, but it's in the context of "Fuck me if I'm gonna buy their product!" (This is the main reason I refuse to use Orbitz, and their TV ads don't help matters either.) On the other hand, most people don't bother filtering Google ads, because they're text, they don't blink/move/make noise, and frequently, they are related (if sometimes only tangentially) to the websurfing topic of interest.

The same thing applies to TV ads. Placing a gigantic ad for a channel's next show after every commercial break right on top of the show you're trying to watch and then making sound effects to boot pisses people off.

Game not Metro3D - London Taxi!

[fixmyship]

It seems that the game they used in the study is not a game called "Metro3D" but a game BY Metro3D called "London Taxi" (warning - babelfish translation), a Crazy Taxi-style game. More information in this blog.