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In-Game Ads Make Products More Appealing
Opposable Thumbs has the gist of a report indicating that in-game ads really are successful at increasing consumer interest in a product. "In a study that began in 2004 and included 600 gamers, gaming-advertisement firm Massive Inc.--a subsidiary of Microsoft--found that in-game advertising increased average brand familiarity as much as 64 percent. The study included two groups: a control group and a test group. Both played Need for Speed: Carbon, but only the test group was exposed to ads from Massive Inc. The study showed a 69 percent increase in automotive purchase consideration between the test and control groups made up of men between 18 and 24. The respondents also indicated that 'quick service restaurant' brands were 'cool' because they were advertised in games ('cool' is left undefined)."
n/t
They've been showing them ads for 3 years in a row? Poor sods.
Indeed!
I can understand product placement in games made by/for such corporations (i.e. Sneak King), but I really doubt in-game advertising sparks interest in the game itself (i.e. Battlefield 2142). Sure, they might promote the products advertised within, but in-game advertising, especially advertising in games that people pay for, is a major turn-off to many gamers.
After falling deeply madly in love with SSX3, I thought dnL soda and the Honda Element were pretty cool things.
;-} I got to sample and enjoy that particular product integrated in the game as the soundtrack, rather than just obtusely associated via in-game advertisement.
Not to mention the many albums from Astralwerks artists that I've bought as a DIRECT result of that game... tho that might be a seperate issue.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/10/19
No, I don't see any conflict of interest at all...
In a study that began in 2004 and included 600 gamers, gaming-advertisement firm Massive Inc.
Of course the company that offers advertising solutions is going to find that in-game advertising is effective! They have a direct interest in getting more advertisers and games to advertise in.
On the topic of in-game advertising, it can be implemented properly. I don't mind walking by a Coca Cola machine vs. a generic soda machine. And in Crackdown, there were some billboards, but they were in an urban area, so they fit in.
However, a lot of ingame advertising is insultingly bad. That's why I didn't buy Battlefield 2142 (completely unrealistic ads), and why I dropped my subscription to Planetside for a while (it damaged any sense of belonging in the game- seeing an ad for Jeep as you get in your VTOL aircraft).
And by "they" I mean the corporate sponsors. Do you think they care that people don't want to see advertisemnts before their movies, or for a full 20% of any given televised program? Maybe they do care, but they care about the bottom line more, the dollars lining their pockets. The same will apply to games eventually; advtisements can and WILL reach into every single medium they deem potentially commercially viable.
Really, I'm just waiting for the first Lightspeed Briefs ad to start rolling in my dreams...
I never spellcheck and I freely admit it. Save your karma for more worthwhile "lol erorrs" replies
ads in games as long as they make sense given the game's setting. If I'm playing a futuristic shooter I don't want a McDonalds ad, unless it's some kind of futuristic funny mcd's like store or maybe a destroyed billboard in a post apocolyptic setting.
There is no way in hell I'm purchasing a game that spams me, especially considering that games are close to $60 in price. When I play a game, I want to be immersed in the game itself and not some billboard-infested advertising zone.
When all else fails, run.
Because I have this terrible suspicion that the major cause of these results may have been scenes along the lines of "Hello, I'm a bored college student. Wow, you're going to pay me to play games for you? Awesome! What do you want me to say?"
How the hell do they define terms like "average brand familiarity," "cool," and "automotive purchase consideration," anyhow? How did they select the groups? Randomly, or were they already gamers who play these types of games to begin with? Where was the study published, and who were the prinicpal authors? Was it ever formally published, so that we can look up their methods for ourselves, or did they just ask a bunch of people to play games and fill out forms over the years? The obvious conflict of interest has been pointed out already.
Now, before the defenders rally, the disclaimer: I'm disinclined to trust marketers, marketing research, and anyone who uses phrases like "quick service restaurant."
and they have been in nascar games for while.
to $20 for a game with in-game ads as opposed to $60 for a game without in-game ads. Then, I am all for in-game ads.
If the price of the games stay at $60, then I want to know which games has the ads, so I can avoid them.
Scott Carr
For Great Justice! As if I don't get enough Spam in my email, I can now get Spam in my games. That's marketing for ya. If advertisers can't feed it down out TV sets and email accounts, they're going to get us in our games.
If somehow the game ads were linked to RealWorld or GameWorld rewards. eg. Phone order pizza chain could run some sort of real-time promotion scheme: quote some number or whatever and get a discount.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
they're going to get us in our games.
No they won't. Because I won't buy them.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
I make a special point to avoid products by companies that mess with my entertainment. Of course this raises brand familiarity, just not quite as intended. I also avoid pgame publishers that have done this to me once.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Sorry, what was I saying?
Yes, I am a smart ass; it's better than the alternative.
I know these ads really bugged me. http://www.nintendolife.com/games/wii/wii_sports/s creenshots/455303ecdbb01
And I don't even know what they're for. ;)
You don't really have the same kind of situation with Coke, or McDonalds, or Mopar autoparts outside of a vocal minority who usually have perfectly valid reasons to dislike the brand or product, and usually outside of the scope of the quality of the product. AOL makes an extremely easy case of mass advertising a service people wouldn't use, even if it was offered for free. There are thousands of products and companies that do not fall under this category of popular culture hatred. I think most people take a problem with companies they have valid reasons for not liking, and then pointing out how advertising is detrimental. I tend to doubt that AOL would have had 23 million subscribers in 2003 if they did not advertise. That their product did not stand the test of the market is really outside of the scope of a discussion of advertising.
Here's one reality: advertising is required. Companies must do it, in some form or another.
Unless you havn't watched television or movies since the dawn of time, you've been influenced by advertising, and more often than not, without even thinking about it.
When it comes time to purchase a product or a service, if you have been exposed to some form of advertising from a company, you will use that experience, subconsciously or not, as part of your purchasing decision.
I absolutely garauntee you own or use many products by companies to whose advertising you had been exposed to before you bought them, and it did not negatively affect your perception of that product or company.
All people are going to think for in game ads was "oh, those are those jerks flashing distracting crap at me while I was trying to play ______"
Well you'd better stop playing games now, because those jerks flashing distracting crap at you while you're trying to play are going to start quietly inserting contextually accurate brand names and logos at you while you don't explicitly make note of 95% of them.
I'm not trying to condone in game advertising. I'm neutral about it. If it makes sense and I don't really notice, fine. If it really breaks the game, then I just don't buy the game. Speaking of advertising, nothing prevents you from determining if a specific game's in game advertising is too intrusive or unrealistic before you lay down your hard earned cash.
"Old man yells at systemd"
I'm a TransFan, and bought the Transformers game (if you must know, I have it on PC and PS3 - the latter bought first, the former bought for a different reason other than to play it). So there are ads in it for Helio phones, which don't exist, it seems. Maybe in the US they do, but certainly not elsewhere in the world.
If it wasn't for the fact that I read Gizmodo and the like, I wouldn't have known that Helio was a phone carrier - I would've thought they were some sort of phone manufacturer (and like all phone manufacturers - what's so special?). The ads are hardcoded, they're in the credits and all that. Heck, I hear the Xbox360 version has achievements based on doing things with the billboards!
Problem is, should Helio go the way of Amped Mobile, it'll be more of a "WTF is this?" later on... (it already is, since Helio doesn't exist outside the US).
So maybe these people ought to make their ads more localised or something...
Ordinary internet posts could be replaced, either on the client or the server, by BUY BOB'S BUNS! in-between word advertising.
Those using pirated Tinysoft signatures(TM) are a real threat to society and should all be thrown in jail.
Stop printing these regular fluff pieces form companies that SELL IN GAME ADS telling us how In-Game ads are so great. For fucks sake, what's next? studies from apple saying apple macs are cool?
This isn't news, its the semi-regular pro-game-ads fluff bullshit. Stop printing this crap.
DRM-free indie games for the PC and Mac: Positech Games
In-game advertising could kill period games. You can't seamlessly integrate ads them into the game world (soda machines, ads on the race cars, restaurants in the city, etc.) If period games lose revenue then designers will only finance games with advertising in them. Either that, or the period games will be more expensive. Which means we get a flood of modern-day and sports games. No more Okami, Lord of the Rings, Final Fantasy, etc.
I find my suspension of disbelief when playing baseball games to be a bit lacking with all of the fake advertisements that replace the notable real ones (ex. the Citgo sign at Fenway Park). This is a special case, but it is something that bugs me.
Bury me in mashed potatoes.
When I drive in a race car game and see the same sorts of ads I'd see as a real race car driver, that immersing. Everyone wins. If GTA IV has billboards from real companies, that's cool too (though no company would dare, you get the point). In nascar games, walmart often sponsors the player's car. No biggie. It's all about realism, I guess. But you have to admit there is an optimal level where ads are going to not be too frequent. After all, ads are good, and they are real. Out here in the real world, I see billboards. I think a $60 game that you can play for 100 hours is a hell of a good deal. Beats the hell out of a $15 dollar cd or a $20 blu-ray movie.
I just saw that episode last night. We had ads in our.. (15 advertising mediums) ..but not in our dreams.
And you're absolutely right. They're advertisers and only care about putting ads in potentially lucrative mediums.
It feels just like the ads in movie theaters. I swore those off and have only seen 3 or 4 movies in that type of theater since it started. People have decided they will dislike it and complain, but just deal with it. When I explain my theater avoision to those people, they just look at me funny and compliment my ability to stand for what I believe in. (Yes, The Simpsons was definitely one of my conscious oversights)
I've never thought it was all that difficult, but the naysayers are too few and too far between for the corporate sponsors to even notice.
I have taken a vow to not buy any game that has in-game advertising, or any product that is advertised in a game if I do ever buy one. If there was enough of a grass roots movement towards this kind of boycott, we might be able to save games from the kind of intrusive, experience destroying presence of ads that television suffers from. Any gamer who gives positive feedback about in-game ads are simply reinforcing the corruption of games. In-game ads are never going to make games cheaper, just pad out the profits of greedy publishers like EA. When I buy a game, I want to be buying a product, not an ad-delivery system.
Give us this day our garlic bread and lead us not into vegetarianism but deliver us some pizza.
I relish the day when I see an iPod advertisement in Middle-Earth. I think Sauron invented it.