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Internet World: In-Game Advertising

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Games are becoming a powerful and credible media force. But should brands invest now or wait until further research has been done? Ian Delaney reports.

Games are becoming a powerful and credible media force. But should brands invest now or wait until further research has been done? Ian Delaney reports.

[This is a summary of a panel discussion between Maryam Bazargan, Director of New Street Media (who also acted as chair), Alison Walton, Head of Visual Engagement from Bunnyfoot and Nick Adams, Group Account Director at MindShare Interaction. I have not always attributed comments in the interests of being concise.]

The gaming market is maturing, as is the the profile of gamers themselves. Gamers now are typically men in their twenties - with the average age of a computer gamer being 29. There are 0.5bn gamers worldwide. Around a million copies of a 'triple A' [very popular] game will be bought in the UK, and millions more across Europe and the rest of the world. Each copy of that will be played by 2-3 people. Advertising in games, on the other hand, is relatively immature compared to other media industries - last year, just £10mn was spent in the UK on advertising. And the format is becoming mass market. The introduction of the Nintendo wii, in particular, is perceived as broadening and extending the audience for games. The platform is based, ultimately, around families and friends.

A few distinctions helped to clear things up. So-called 'advergames' are different from in-game advertising. Advergames are games created for advertising purposes that are sponsored by a particular brand and typically appear online, written in the Flash format.

There's also a difference between dynamic and interactive advertising. Dynamic advertising can be bought online at a moment's notice and often takes the form of billboard advertising bought in MMORPG games and games published through the XBox and PS3 'Live' environments. A typical example might be the signs that surround a football pitch or a car-racing track within a game.

Interactive advertisements, on the other hand, are more deeply immersed in the game itself. They might be objects, such as a soft drinks machine containing a clients' beverage of choice, football shirts sponsored by the client, or a themed area.

Alison Walton said that while banners within game world are a good start for companies, they are far from an ideal model. Bunnyfoot conducts eye-tracking investigation into user behaviour while they are playing games. What they have found is that gamers don't respond well to billboards in games. Their research had shown that there was nearly zero engagement with in-game billboards and that the ability of users to recall what brands had been shown on those boards was similarly low. Many gamers guessed at brands they might expect to see, as opposed to those that appeared, guessing Coke instead of Pepsi, for example.

The engagement levels of in-game advertising through billboards were found to be four times lower than those found with television advertising. She recommended that brands spend time creating 3D interactive experiences for gamers instead. Walton suggested that this was down to the nature of gaming - in a football game, for example, you keep your eyes on the ball, rather than looking at the scenery.

Nick Adams, for Mindshare, on the other hand, still sees lots of scope for billboards. One thing we don't really know about just yet are the demographical differences between the players of online games versus those who play console games. We do know that people who buy the latest consoles tend to be a bit older - they are expensive items after all. He felt that in-game billboards could extend the reach that brands are getting offline. Adams suggested that gamers are nocturnal creatures - perhaps playing for up to 40 hours a week - and that therefore brands will not reach them through other media. Mindshare has placed advertising from Nike, Unilever and Samsung onto billboards in the game Battlefield, and is testing 1000 gamers to gauge their effect.

The capital cost of entrance into in-game advertising is currently low. However, if you equate the CPM with other media, then the cost is actually rather high, perhaps up to £15, versus around £5 for television advertising. But this should not necessarily be off-putting, because at the same time, each individual title is likely to be played for around 40 hours. Existing measurements of reach, such as the page impression, won't really apply because they don't bear in mind any concept of engagement with advertising.

Best practice for interactive advertising is getting involved during the beta test stage and finding out exactly how users interact with the game and any advertising properties within it. Game developers vary according to how willing they are to work with advertisers, but many will suggest or create positive improvements if advertisers are involved at an early stage. Adams pointed out, though, that this is very time consuming and might involve 18 months work before the solution is delivered - not ideal for a brand that wants a quick hit.

Questions from the audience brought out the need for sensitivity when planning in-game advertising. As opposed to browsing the web or watching television where advertising is expected and accepted, UK gamers have already paid £40 for their experience and will very much resent any intrusive advertising in their game. Again, the need for and effectiveness of relevance was stressed. Reebok was well placed in a football game, but the same would not be true if they appeared in a shoot-em-up.