Berens: Interesting. The thing that I think many, many ad agency people and marketers are still trying to grapple with is mobile. And, there is an increasing amount of mobile gaming. So, I am curious if you have a take on how advertisers can get involved with mobile gaming; what they should be doing; how AOL -- which has a pretty big mobile play with Instant Messenger -- is going to be facilitating advertisers getting involved with the mobile gaming universe?
Friedler: I do not really know how much I can say about that, right now. I know it is on their radar, but I cannot say, "Hey, here is a product that is really great. And, this is how you go out and, you know, capture the world with mobile gaming through AOL." I am still trying to figure out, where is the beef with mobile gaming? There are so many different games out there, and so many SKUs on so many handsets; I guess from an independent business point of view, I am trying to figure out are these mobile gaming companies viable? Are they making money; is there a "there" there? And, I personally do not have an answer to that. But, what AOL's plans are in terms of mobile gaming, I really cannot speak to that.
Berens: Let's start to wrap up with the holidays. I think you were talking about the holidays in terms of the content on GameDAILY. My impression is that, for the big titles that are going to be coming out for the holidays, in terms of the console games, it is way too late -- at this point -- for marketers to get their brands involved. I am thinking here of doing things like what Burger King and its agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky did with Fight Night 3, which is an Electronic Arts title, by having the King be one of the trainers-- that got a lot of press last spring. So, the two questions I have are: If you are a marketer, or an agency, and you want your brand involved in a game-- what is the lead time? Was it two years, you said, earlier? And, the follow-up question is: so if it is too late now for the holidays for brands to get their agencies involved with the games themselves, what are their other options, particularly on GameDAILY and Games.com, the newer URL?
Friedler: Well, I do not think it is necessarily too late to get involved with the games themselves, because as you were talking about earlier, community is an important part of the gaming experience. And a lot of the community experience is discussing games, checking out games, finding information about it. So, I would argue that you can be involved in a game; AOL has something called Inside The Game, which is something that is being revamped for the GameDAILY launch on the thirtieth. And, those are kind of in-depth guides, if you will….kind of like what GameDAILY used to call "Guides," which are very in-depth, and specific to a certain title. So, there are a whole bunch of opportunities to be involved in there, from a marketing and promotion, sponsorship point of view.
But, to your point, Brad, to be involved and integrated into a game -- like to have the King involved -- obviously that takes a much longer lead-time. There are people like Massive and, Exent, and Double Fusion who also have, you know, the dynamic ads-- that to the extent that you want your ads running inside the game. I think you can get a pretty quick turn around and get your ads up and running inside game play. (The only binding constraint there is really getting creative that works with the games, but each one of the vendors, I am sure is more than happy to help make that happen.)
But, in a pure integration sense, yes, I think it is too late for that. But, I would recommend calling one of those vendors, and seeing if you cannot be involved from a-- get your ads running on their network, type of thing. Or, if you want to be involved in a game experience, I would say something like Inside The Game makes a lot of sense to the extent you want to do something product specific. If you want to do something broader, such as being involved with holiday shopping, or family type of stuff, I think our Family Guide and Holiday Guide is an opportunity. And, other people have similar things, as well.
Berens: And, the Family Guide… I have small children, and it is always a big question on what is age appropriate for kids, and I think that AOL -- which has obviously positioned itself for many years as the family ISP -- at that point the marriage with GameDAILY makes a lot of sense. So, that seems to be a good fit, from my perspective, speaking as a parent for a moment, as opposed to as an editor.
Next: In-game advertising and maintaining audience approval
