Gamers are much more than date-deprived geeks: GameDAILY's CEO takes us on a tour of the different game consumers.

Let's face it, games are hot now. Xboxes, PlayStations, GameBoys and GameCubes are on the minds of many more people than game-enamored kids. Consumer brand advertisers have discovered the new, new thing this year -- reaching out to the elusive 14 to 34 male market with the help of video games. However all gamers are not created equal. How you play the game of reaching gamers depends on your goals.

Let me clear up a few distinctions that are important. There are three main categories of games that often get lumped together, but they attract vastly different audiences.

First are so-called casual games: mostly Web-based Flash games based on generic entertainment like pool, bowling or card games. These are found on casual games sites like MSN, Grab, and Pogo. They skew heavily towards 30-something women.

Second are advergames or try-before-you-buy casual games. These tend to have a richer graphical experience and can be paid for by sponsors or sold as stand-alone downloads. Advergame companies include Skyworks, Wild Tangent and 3dGroove. Downloadable games include Monopoly and a variety of PC-based titles. This audience is very broad, ranging from little kids (who play Sony's new recent Dr Pepper-sponsored Spider-Man 2 game), to women, to older men.

Finally there are video games -- the things your kids bug you to buy for them. These are also categorized as "retail games" since they are sold at retail price for major platforms such as Sony PlayStation 2, Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo (GameCube and GameBoy) and the PC Video games, which are also available in downloadable format over the Internet. Retail games are also called Interactive Entertainment and Entertainment Software: they represent over $10 billion of sales per year and consume a growing amount of attention of the 14 to 34 male demographic. In fact game usage during prime time is draining a lot of this audience away from TV.

So how can interactive marketers harness the growing power of people who like video games to grow their market penetration in this hardest to reach of demos? Several strategies make sense. The most obvious is advertising on Web sites that carry game content. A recent survey showed the Web as the place most gamers go first for information, ahead of magazines and TV.

But beware: not all gamers are of equal interest to marketers. For example, "hard core" gamers tend to spend 20 hours or more a week playing games. They tend to be much younger (who else who have so much time to just have fun?) and buy an average of 18 games a year. This doesn't leave a lot of extra time and money left for non-game products.

A step below the hard core is the fastest growing segment in video games, the "entertainment enthusiast." He tends to be a bit older, buys only six games a year and spend between one and five hours per week playing. In fact, the average age of players of Electronic Arts' Madden football game is in his late thirties. This guy is likely to spend his time doing other entertaining things, including buying movies and music, going out with friends and, yes, even playing sports. Entertainment enthusiasts are technology early-adopters, relatively high income earners and are looking for fun. They move freely from an iPod to an Xbox to a digital camera to their Ducati. These guys don't have time for the extreme level of detail found on hardcore game sites. Instead they want relevant info about and downloads for games that are not too geeky.

Game publishers such Electronic Arts (EA), Activision and THQ are working hard to expand the breadth of their products so they appeal to so-called "normal" guys. The first game generation is now loosing its hair and battling the demands of their kids for the latest and greatest new games.

The recent IPO of DreamWorks Animation is another sign that the line between movies and games (in this case both products are purely digital creations) is blurring. Similarly, a Spider-Man 2 moviegoer may go the game for himself, for his kids, or to share. Many sports games are now attracting a mainstream audience.

So how do you integrate gaming into your media plans? First pick your target audience and then decide which of the three major game types makes the best fit. If you want to tie into video games, find out whether or not your audience tends toward hard core or entertainment enthusiast. This data is not readily tracked by Nielsen or comScore, so you should check with the publisher or media rep to find out more. (There are also emerging opportunities like in-game sponsorships and ads; however, these are still highly specialized media buys that take considerable advance planning and commitments.)

Gamers like action, so exciting rich media campaigns work well with that audience. Streamed video ads have become very popular for gamers in the past six months. Here, for example, is a well-received "double corner peel" campaign for a movie aimed at the entertainment enthusiast target.

There are many ways to play the new and expanding game sector. There is a lot of opportunity to reach the tech savvy young male market in a cost effective way, while they are on their way to play.

Mark Friedler is CEO and co-founder of Gigex, Inc./GameDAILY, a leading provider of video game news, reviews, and free downloads that launched in 1995. He is a frequent speaker and panelist at industry trade gatherings including CES, E3, Digital Hollywood and events sponsored by Microsoft, IQPC, Jupiter Communications, Digital Media Wire, IEMA, SIIA and iHollywood Forum. He was chairperson for IQPC's conference "Best Practices for Marketing, Selling and Distributing Software over the Internet." Previously, Friedler was Director of Marketing at Reach Networks, Inc from 1994 to 1995; there, he managed marketing and sales of integrated services to Fortune 500 clients. 

GameDAILY is a leading video game media company that reaches over 23 million gamers each month through its destination site, http://www.gamedaily.com/, and a network of over 130 affiliated sites and portals. Its free business-to-business newsletter, GameDAILY BIZ, is the leading video game trade publication.