Advertising in video games

Advergaming (a portmanteau of advertising and gaming) is the practice of using video games to advertise a product, organization or viewpoint. The term "advergames" was coined in January 2000 by Anthony Giallourakis, and later mentioned by Wired's "Jargon Watch" column in 2001. It has been applied to various free online games commissioned by major companies.

With the growth of the internet, advergames have proliferated, often becoming the most visited aspect of brand websites and becoming an integrated part of brand media planning in an increasingly fractured media environment. Advergames theoretically promote repeated traffic to websites and reinforce brands. Users choosing to register to be eligible for prizes can help marketers collect customer data. Gamers may also invite their friends to participate, which could assist promotion by word of mouth, or "viral marketing."

Categories

While other categories have been proposed, Advergaming normally falls into one of three categories which are derived from an historical categorization technique normally applied to traditional media:

ATL (Above the Line) Advergaming

File:Chexquest.jpg

Chex Quest was the first CD-ROM advergame bundled for free with boxes of Chex cereal in 1996.

Examples of ATL advergames include promotional software.

In employing ATL advergaming, a company typically provides interactive games on its website in the hope that potential customers will be drawn to the game and spend more time on the website, or simply become more product aware. The games themselves usually feature the company's products prominently (often as "powerups" or upgrades). These games may consist of reworked arcade classics or original programming, and they are usually designed for Adobe Flash or similar multimedia software.

Game Industry trade resource Game Daily identifies New York-based marketing company, BrandGames, as the pioneer of advergaming in 1995. The earliest custom video games featuring integrated brand messages where developed in the era before substantial penetration of the World Wide Web and were distributed on floppy disk. These games were typically of a higher quality than the modern flash games and were distributed for free, often bundled with other products from the company advertised for. The first floppy disk advergames were developed to serve dual purposes — as promotional incentives that drive response and as media that deliver awareness. American Home Foods Chef Boyardee, Coca-Cola, and Samsung brands issued the first-ever floppy-disk advergames. Other early brands to use the format were Reebok, General Mills, GAP and Taco Bell which distributed games as "kids' premiums." The first in-box CD-ROM cereal box advergames were General Mills' Chex Quest (promoting the Chex brand) and General Mills' All-Star baseball (starring Trix Rabbit and his friends playing baseball against Major League teams and stars).

With the spread of broadband internet, ATL advergames have become more in-depth than the simple arcade style flash games and larger games that were confined to being distributed on disc only. A number of technologically advanced advergames have been released online for free through the sponsorship of companies such as Schick. Kuma Reality Games, for instance, has developed the advergame, The DinoHunters, as a full first person shooter based on the Source Engine. The DinoHunters is released for free through Schick's sponsorship and consequently Schick's products feature prominently in game. Accompanying machinima episodes have also been created alongside The DinoHunters to help advertise the products. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, Post-It has a flash game.

BTL (Below the Line) Advergaming

An Adidas billboard is displayed in the foreground of the 1994 computer game FIFA International Soccer (also, the electronic board that appears with every goal scored sometimes reads "Panasonic").

Examples of BTL advergames include militainment, recruitment tools, edutainment, and traditional in-game advertising.

In utilizing BTL advergaming, games are published in the usual way and cause players to investigate further. The subjects advertised for may be commercial, political, or educational in nature. Commercial examples are numerous and include advergames funded by Pepsi, 7 Up, NFL, Formula One, and most recently Burger King. Political/Military examples of BTL advergames include recruitment tools like America's Army, intended to boost recruitment for the United States Army, and Special Force, intended to promote Muslim resistance to the state of Israel. Educational advergaming is closely related to the Serious games initiative and falls under either Edumarket gaming or edutainment. Examples include Food Force (made by the United Nations' World Food Program) and Urban Jungle, an educational traffic simulation.

Another BTL advergame technique consists of advertising within a game itself. Since the intent of in-game advertising is typically commercial rather than political, some consider such advertisements to make up a category of their own. However as with the above-mentioned BTL advergame forms, it is the technique by which the propaganda is purveyed rather than the nature of its intended audience which defines in-game advertising as a subset of BTL advergaming and not its own category. In-game advertising is similar to subtle advertising in films, where the advertising content is within the "world" of the movie. Thus billboards, fliers, sponsored product placement, and the interplay between the player and these elements in the game allow for a great degree of virtual advertisement. Examples include billboards advertising for (and product placement of) Bawls energy drink in Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, and billboards for Adidas sportswear in FIFA International Soccer.

One company that is infamous for BTL advertising is EA. EA games frequently have advertisements on in game billboards,stadiums and other areas.

In-game BTL advertisement can be a way to combat costs that the game makers encounter and reduce the cost of the game to the consumer (especially games with monthly fees) while providing an outlet to advertise products. It also currently helps many people sustain free online games. This method of advertising in offline games is somewhat controversial, however, as players may feel the advertisements cast an unsavory commercial/avaricious pall over gameplay without substantial reduction in game price.

TTL (Through the Line) Advergaming

File:ILoveBees-Homepage.jpg

I Love Bees makes use of "link-chasing" and is designed to foster viral marketing.

Examples of TTL advergames include "link-chases," ARGs, and viral marketing.

A rare form of advergaming, TTL advergames involve the use of URL hyperlinks within the game designed to induce the player to visit a webpage which then contains BTL advertisements. The technique used to tempt the player into visiting the intended URL varies from game to game. In games like Pikmin 2 the player is given a cryptic message with an accompanying URL designed to pique the curiosity of the player. In games such as Enter the Matrix, Year Zero, I Love Bees, and Lost Experience, URLs make up a part of the background of the game such that certain plot details can only be learned by following the link given in the game. The knowledge of such plot details are typically not required to complete the game, but make for a fuller story for fans. Websites of this nature often lead players on to other links which again lead to further links, thus earning these games the label "link-chases." The tradeoff for TTL advertisers is that though use of the internet to find out extra things about a game might be enjoyable, gamers will not enjoy being given too much of a run-around with too obtrusive advertising to obtain important details about the game.

Product placement

A very interesting and promising promotional opportunity is the product placement in online multiplayer games - the deep integration of advertised products, services and brands into the gameplay. Most suitable for this type of promotion are two types of games - virtual worlds (eg, Second Life) and universal business simulations. Under the deep integration into the gameplay involves the creation of active game entities that enhance the player and increase the variability and interesting gameplay. For example, the emergence of a virtual bank with a real brand in the virtual world provides additional opportunities for transactions with the virtual currency. Or, for example, the integration of business-simulation of a new product with a real brand (for example, computers Apple) allows players to produce and sell a new group of virtual goods, which has a significant advantage over goods noname. The principal advantage of this type of in-game advertising is that such advertising to 100% of the audience is loyal, and almost all the players repeatedly and actively engaged in the virtual world with integrated gameplay brands. Especially these benefits manifest themselves in business simulations, because it is goods, services and brands are the basis of gameplay in them and the main objects of game action. Games based on the model of monetization through a deep product placement is very rare and they are just beginning to emerge. One of the most remarkable games with almost unlimited possibilities for such advertising - online business simulation Virtonomics. Game specially arranged so that it for advertising purposes can create any product, service, brand, company, artifacts, events, community, which will actively engage virtually the entire audience of the game.

Future of advergaming

As long as the game delivers a fun pay off, consumers consider it a relevant and valid cultural experience. In recent brand-impact studies, associating a brand with the fun of gaming is known to lift brand metrics such as brand awareness, message association and purchase intent. After playing a game, consumers are more likely to remember not just the brand or product itself, but to associate specific brand attributes with it.

The advergame industry is expected to generate $312.2 million by 2009, up from $83.6 million in 2004, according to Boston research firm Yankee Group.

Advergame industry statistics

• According to the Entertainment Software Assn., 42% of gamers say they play online games one or more hours per week.

Notable Examples

• Atari released the game Pepsi Invaders as commissioned by Coca-Cola in 1983 for that years sales convention. This was one of the earliest advergames. (Atari 2600, 1983).
• Purina had a mail-in offer for the Atari 2600 game Chase the Chuckwagon for customers of Chuck Wagon dog food in 1983.
• The Domino's Pizza chain shipped a game called Yo! Noid (NES, 1990).
• The McDonald's characters (Ronald, Grimace, etc.) starred in M.C. Kids (NES, 1991), programmed by Virgin Games. The same game featured a Virgin Atlantic Airways tail at the beginning.
  • Ronald McDonald also appeared in the Virgin Interactive game Mick & Mack as the Global Gladiators, where the titular characters are sucked into a comic in a McDonalds restaurant. In order to open the exit players must collect miniature "Golden Arches" logos scattered through levels.
• Cheetos snacks had two advergames starring Chester Cheetah: Chester Cheetah: Too Cool to Fool (SNES, 1992) and Chester Cheetah: Wild Wild Quest (Sega Genesis, 1992).
• 7 Up's Cool Spot (Sega Genesis, 1993) was created to advertise for the 7 Up softdrink.
• Life Savers launched the web's first major advergaming portal, Candystand.com, in March 1997. The website was acquired from the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company by Funtank in August 2008 and hosts advergames for a broad range of brands.
• Pepsi's Pepsiman (PlayStation, 1999) was created to advertise for Pepsi Cola.
• Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto III (PlayStation 2, 2001) contains in-game radio advertisements for various online services such as "sleepofflard.com," many of which redirect to the Rockstar website.
• General Mills packaged a game with Cocoa Puffs cereal, which included the main game "Sonny's Race for Chocolaty Taste", a demo of "Moop and Dreadly: The Treasure on Bing Bong Island", and a copy of AOL.
• General Mills' Millsberry (online, 2004) targets Middle school and Elementary school children and may be played at any age. It endorses General Mills cereal by featuring products such as cereal and clothing that players can buy on the website.
• In November 2006, Burger King began selling three advergaming Xbox and Xbox 360 titles for an additional $3.99 ($4.99 in Canada) each with any value meal. Known as the King Games series, these games include Sneak King (Xbox, 2006), Pocketbike Racer (Xbox, 2006), and Big Bumpin' (Xbox 360, 2006). They were all developed by Blitz Games' Blitz Arcade Division and were the best selling games of the 2006 holiday season. More than 3.2 million copies are believed to have been sold in the US and Canada alone.
• Universal Studios gained advergaming exposure in Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 (Xbox 360, 2007) where one may see billboards of films such as The Bourne Ultimatum.
• BMW' BMW M3 Challenge (online, 2008) includes both ATL- and BTL-form advergaming. BMW worked with 10tacle Studios to repurpose the GT Legends game, a race simulation game, to showcase the 2008 BMW M3.
• In October 2008, in-game ad firm, GameJacket, launched a Flash demo version of THQ's Nintendo DS title Lock's Quest via gaming sites. The notable difference in this version was the use of GameJacket's purportedly brand new dynamic geo-targeting technology to deliver territory specific ad spots in the game for the retail version.
• In Guitar Hero on multiplayer, certain parts of the stage may advertise something. This was seen mainly while online where advertisements for Coca-Cola and even a campaign poster for Barack Obama were seen.
• Trackmania Forever features a dynamic billboard advertising system.
• James Pond 2 featured as in-game product placement for the McVitie's biscuit company's Penguin Biscuits.
• Virtonomics MMOG Business simulation. The first special online game focused on opportunities for product placement

See also

• In-game advertising
• Recruitment tool
• Edutainment
• Militainment