- IAB UK Home
- /
- Internet marketing
- /
- Internet marketing guides
- /
- In-game advertising
- /
- Formats
Monopoly City Streets by Tribal DDB
Tribal DDB created the biggest online game of Monopoly ever, using Google Maps to take the game into the real world. More on Tribal DDB's award winning campaign.Formats of in-game advertising
IAB Jobs
Whilst for the consumer, advertising within games is seen to be ‘part of the scenery’ planning, executing and measuring these campaigns is a complex and in-depth process and one which generally, advertisers are not yet used to. The proliferation of the internet within gaming titles and the introduction of consoles such as the Xbox 360 has resulted in significant changes in how this medium is monitored and measured.
There are two main categories that the advertising falls into, the more ‘traditional’ static in-game advertising (SIGA) and the more recent – dynamic in-game advertising (DIGA). The latter has emerged as the internet has become more involved with gaming and as a result of the continuing rise of broadband. These two types of in-game advertising are measured and monitored in different ways, which will be explained in the following chapter. There are additional marketing formats and spaces affiliated with gaming, outlined below.
Advergames are a form of advertising in themselves, and thrive on the viral nature of the internet, relying on peer-to-peer recommendation to achieve maximum reach. Advergames are games that are created as part of a marketing campaign, spread virally or embedded in advertising on the internet purely to promote a product, and are particularly popular with FMCG brands. An advergame can either be a single execution or a branded site, and core marketing messages or aspects of an offline campaign may impact upon its design and theme.
Very often the products are featured as part of the game play and they encourage the much sought after dwell-time. A consortium of Yahoo!, Skive Creative and OMD Insight recently set out to understand consumer attitudes towards advergames in a study entitled ‘Game On’.
They found that over a third of the UK’s online users have played an ‘advergame’. The research revealed that advergames can deliver positive uplifts in brand awareness. Spontaneous mentions of ‘Ocean Spray’ were 4 times higher than those experiencing non-branded games. Online games that carry branded content also increase propensity to purchase the brand featured. Those playing ‘Juice Boost’, a fictional brand, were nearly 3 times more likely to buy the fruit juice than those exposed to non-branded games.
There are self-regulatory issues involved in the production and distribution of advergames, particularly when the games are aimed at a young audience, in that users should be made fully aware of the fact that the game is an advert. Furthermore, whilst advergames can be both engaging and effective, if they are distributed as virals it can be difficult to track how many people have received and played with the game.
Second Life, one of the most popular and fast-growing synthetic worlds has been the subject of many a press release over the past year. It has even been touted by the BBC as the beginnings of web 3.0; “a 3D collision with the collaborative, social aspects of Web 2.0.”
With a population of more than 1.1 million, Second Life is fast becoming a phenomenon and it is still growing at about 38% every month according to its creators, Linden Lab. It is also turning the stereotypical image of those who visit virtual worlds on its head. Females make up 36% of the residents of Second Life, but account for 44% of the usage hours. The median age is 31, according to Linden Lab CEO Philip Rosedale.
Enterprising residents of Second Life design buildings, clothes and objects that will aid people during their stay within the world and can make a healthy profit doing so. The Linden dollar currency within the game can be exchanged for real money. The Observer recently reported that more than 3000 residents earn real money from Second Life. The richest avatar owns a property empire worth $250,000 and employs 17 real-life people. It’s not just real estate where money can be made either. The BBC reported that one player earned as much as $70,000 a year creating clothes for female avatars. It would appear the same desires to dress well and look one’s best exists within virtual environments as within the real world.
However, even though you are controlling a character in a virtual world using your PC, and many marketers now have a presence within the site, Second Life should not be viewed as a game. It is closer in resemblance to networking sites such as MySpace and Bebo as it enables users to meet and interact with people and display their talents. Therefore this report will concentrate on games in their purest sense, rather than those which blur the boundaries between games and community.
Put simply, SIGA is when the adverts are hard coded into the game at the development stage. Whilst they are still very effective at creating awareness they cannot be measured or changed. At the moment, plot integration advertising and product placement in-game are still static, though these will very soon have the ability to be tracked and measured using the same coding that is used to track DIGA (the actual brand creative however, will still not be able to be modified as is done with DIGA campaigns).
Product placement in-game allows for complete integration of consumer products into the scenery of the game whereas plot integration is when the products play an active role in the context of the game, allowing the audience to experience specific product attributes e.g. drinking a can of Red Bull to give the character energy.
Aside from product placement and plot integration opportunities there are numerous other SIGA formats that can be explored, from signage to shop fronts, character useage, to vehicle sides, apparel, to stadium logos and episodic content to sponsorship. Creative can also be video enabled and be viewed in 3D. Chris James, Media Sales Manager at IGA Worldwide, states that “In theory anything in the real world can be replicated in the game space – it’s all about having ideas, context, communication with the gaming (networks) agencies or IGA and having a brief” The lead time for static advertising is a minimum of 3 months for the ‘outdoor’ type formats and a minimum of 6 months for product placement and plot integration.
DIGA is thought to be more accountable and measurable than any other medium in terms of the actual time spent with advertising, and can be planned and bought in the same way as any other media. It can also be updated and monitored at any stage during the live campaign. This is a new development compared with SIGA where, as discussed above, it cannot be altered, updated or measured. DIGA ad campaigns are present within the games, and can be changed as often as required. They allow brand campaigns great flexibility in that they are updatable, localised and tracked within the in-game space. Imagery can be static, video and/or audio, and many dynamic advertising campaigns are in the same formats as traditional outdoor media within the game, for example billboards, poster sites and stadium race track banners. Unlike SIGA, DIGA has a lead time of only a few weeks (much less than most traditional media) which further demonstrates how flexible this medium is for advertisers.
The in-game advertising agency IGA serve dynamic advertising through the PC and Massive (owned by Microsoft), through their Xbox 360. In both cases, players must be connected with the games live through the internet which acts as a portal, in order for them to see the DIGA. Around 60% of consumers with an Xbox 360 are playing games live and one could realistically assume that most PC game players will be connected to the internet whilst gaming. The majority of gamers on these platforms are therefore accessible to consume DIGA. Sony Playstation have so far been unable to do this as their console does not currently connect live to the internet. This means for Sony, that they can currently only serve static advertising for their clients. However, this is set to change this year with the launch of the PS3 console, which has a built in dynamic network model.
There are two main categories that the advertising falls into, the more ‘traditional’ static in-game advertising (SIGA) and the more recent – dynamic in-game advertising (DIGA). The latter has emerged as the internet has become more involved with gaming and as a result of the continuing rise of broadband. These two types of in-game advertising are measured and monitored in different ways, which will be explained in the following chapter. There are additional marketing formats and spaces affiliated with gaming, outlined below.
Advergames
Advergames are a form of advertising in themselves, and thrive on the viral nature of the internet, relying on peer-to-peer recommendation to achieve maximum reach. Advergames are games that are created as part of a marketing campaign, spread virally or embedded in advertising on the internet purely to promote a product, and are particularly popular with FMCG brands. An advergame can either be a single execution or a branded site, and core marketing messages or aspects of an offline campaign may impact upon its design and theme.
Very often the products are featured as part of the game play and they encourage the much sought after dwell-time. A consortium of Yahoo!, Skive Creative and OMD Insight recently set out to understand consumer attitudes towards advergames in a study entitled ‘Game On’.
They found that over a third of the UK’s online users have played an ‘advergame’. The research revealed that advergames can deliver positive uplifts in brand awareness. Spontaneous mentions of ‘Ocean Spray’ were 4 times higher than those experiencing non-branded games. Online games that carry branded content also increase propensity to purchase the brand featured. Those playing ‘Juice Boost’, a fictional brand, were nearly 3 times more likely to buy the fruit juice than those exposed to non-branded games.
There are self-regulatory issues involved in the production and distribution of advergames, particularly when the games are aimed at a young audience, in that users should be made fully aware of the fact that the game is an advert. Furthermore, whilst advergames can be both engaging and effective, if they are distributed as virals it can be difficult to track how many people have received and played with the game.
What about Second Life?
Second Life, one of the most popular and fast-growing synthetic worlds has been the subject of many a press release over the past year. It has even been touted by the BBC as the beginnings of web 3.0; “a 3D collision with the collaborative, social aspects of Web 2.0.”
With a population of more than 1.1 million, Second Life is fast becoming a phenomenon and it is still growing at about 38% every month according to its creators, Linden Lab. It is also turning the stereotypical image of those who visit virtual worlds on its head. Females make up 36% of the residents of Second Life, but account for 44% of the usage hours. The median age is 31, according to Linden Lab CEO Philip Rosedale.
Enterprising residents of Second Life design buildings, clothes and objects that will aid people during their stay within the world and can make a healthy profit doing so. The Linden dollar currency within the game can be exchanged for real money. The Observer recently reported that more than 3000 residents earn real money from Second Life. The richest avatar owns a property empire worth $250,000 and employs 17 real-life people. It’s not just real estate where money can be made either. The BBC reported that one player earned as much as $70,000 a year creating clothes for female avatars. It would appear the same desires to dress well and look one’s best exists within virtual environments as within the real world.
However, even though you are controlling a character in a virtual world using your PC, and many marketers now have a presence within the site, Second Life should not be viewed as a game. It is closer in resemblance to networking sites such as MySpace and Bebo as it enables users to meet and interact with people and display their talents. Therefore this report will concentrate on games in their purest sense, rather than those which blur the boundaries between games and community.
Static in-game advertising (SIGA)
Put simply, SIGA is when the adverts are hard coded into the game at the development stage. Whilst they are still very effective at creating awareness they cannot be measured or changed. At the moment, plot integration advertising and product placement in-game are still static, though these will very soon have the ability to be tracked and measured using the same coding that is used to track DIGA (the actual brand creative however, will still not be able to be modified as is done with DIGA campaigns).
Product placement in-game allows for complete integration of consumer products into the scenery of the game whereas plot integration is when the products play an active role in the context of the game, allowing the audience to experience specific product attributes e.g. drinking a can of Red Bull to give the character energy.
Aside from product placement and plot integration opportunities there are numerous other SIGA formats that can be explored, from signage to shop fronts, character useage, to vehicle sides, apparel, to stadium logos and episodic content to sponsorship. Creative can also be video enabled and be viewed in 3D. Chris James, Media Sales Manager at IGA Worldwide, states that “In theory anything in the real world can be replicated in the game space – it’s all about having ideas, context, communication with the gaming (networks) agencies or IGA and having a brief” The lead time for static advertising is a minimum of 3 months for the ‘outdoor’ type formats and a minimum of 6 months for product placement and plot integration.
Dynamic in-game advertising (DIGA)
DIGA is thought to be more accountable and measurable than any other medium in terms of the actual time spent with advertising, and can be planned and bought in the same way as any other media. It can also be updated and monitored at any stage during the live campaign. This is a new development compared with SIGA where, as discussed above, it cannot be altered, updated or measured. DIGA ad campaigns are present within the games, and can be changed as often as required. They allow brand campaigns great flexibility in that they are updatable, localised and tracked within the in-game space. Imagery can be static, video and/or audio, and many dynamic advertising campaigns are in the same formats as traditional outdoor media within the game, for example billboards, poster sites and stadium race track banners. Unlike SIGA, DIGA has a lead time of only a few weeks (much less than most traditional media) which further demonstrates how flexible this medium is for advertisers.
The in-game advertising agency IGA serve dynamic advertising through the PC and Massive (owned by Microsoft), through their Xbox 360. In both cases, players must be connected with the games live through the internet which acts as a portal, in order for them to see the DIGA. Around 60% of consumers with an Xbox 360 are playing games live and one could realistically assume that most PC game players will be connected to the internet whilst gaming. The majority of gamers on these platforms are therefore accessible to consume DIGA. Sony Playstation have so far been unable to do this as their console does not currently connect live to the internet. This means for Sony, that they can currently only serve static advertising for their clients. However, this is set to change this year with the launch of the PS3 console, which has a built in dynamic network model.
