Slashdot Mirror
In-Game Advertising Poised for Explosive Growth
bart_scriv writes "A new study from Yankee Group predicts a fivefold increase in the in-game advertising market over the next four years. The market, which grew from $34 million in 2004 to $56 million in 2005, is expected to reach $732 million by 2010. Although in-game advertising is currently controlled by a small number of independent networks (IGA, Massive, etc.), the study suggests that the larger game companies will eventually dominate the market by bringing ad serving in-house."
Whats the chance that they'll make more money on the advertising and just give the game away. I think this would be a great method of product placement. Worked great when the US Armed Services gave away 'america's army'. They could also update the ads either on a regular basis over the internet, or through patchs.
Heck, why not include some form of google ad sence that ties in with your brousing and PRESTO your new faverate video game not only sells you products but products specificly marketed to you.
Although I wouldn't play a game like this for free, people will soon be PAYING to be sold advertisements. Like when you sit and watch the newest pop film in the theater.
It's really nice to be able to support a user base of millions very few of whom ever choose to put any money into the game. At least in our platform, however, the advertisers have to be hand-picked to fit our "world", and the advertisement method and material have to be tailored by hand. It's hard to see what the role of a mediator would be in this kind of setting. Maybe consultant, but probably only before our platform is chosen as the channel.
I was the real korpiq until I woke up clowned.
2. "Advertising" as an industry will basically keel over and die, because products will eventually reach a point at which they will stand or fall on their own merits. The internet means that the exchange of information is certainly possible; all that remains is for people to realize that 99% of advertisement has nothing to do with the product and everything to do with making as much noise to get as much attention (negative OR positive) as possible.
This I think is an interesting point, as there is a Spanish clothing retailer called Zara that is a huge success story and is continuing to grow and make tons of money. The interesting part? Zara has never run an ad-campaign!
So is advertising dead? Perhaps not completely, we still need people to design and manage brands, those brands probably won't lean on traditional advertising as much tho. Last bit was just my uninformed opinion.
Some say he is made with ascii, others that he is eyeballed daily by millions. All we know is, he is known as the Sig
The advertising industry in a state of panicked paralysis. Lots of smart guys who've had a great ride for 30 years are terrified that it's going to end. Product placement, whether on TV, in films or in ads, is one solution they cling to, like Leo di Caprio clutching that bit of wood at the end of Titanic. Didn't do him much good, and it won't do them much good either...
Key issues include:
* does the user pay for the content? If not, as on TV, and users perceive that they are getting good content for nothing because it;s paid for by ads, then users will put up with it, as on TV; they may skip the ads, but they don't necessarily complain about it too much.
* is the user getting the content for less because of the ad? Again, if so, then users will put up with it - and a lot of the slashdot posts reflect this.
* does the ad make the content more real? e.g. ads on the side of football pitches; don't think many people would object.
* BUT - if the user IS paying for the contect, and its price is not coming down because of the the ad, and it's not adding to the realism of the content - then you have a situation where users will start increasingly to rebel at being forced to watch ads, and cease buying products because of them.
* another poster wisely commented that corproate greed will win - but not necessarily in the ad's favour. As I recall, someone from EA (I think in an IV in Edge magazine) pointed out that their revenue from ads is under 2% of their total revenue. They are not going to risk failing to sell Halo X for $XXX because they want to squeeze in a couple of ads which will generate a tiny amount of extra revenue.
* Stories about product placement's huge future are generally fuelled by people in the ad industry who need it, to save their industry. That does not mean it's going to happen.