What if the biggest entertainment premiere in world history happened and you missed it?

What if there were the biggest entertainment premiere in world history and you didn't know about it? What if it happened this month, and what if it were completely relevant to advertising to the impossible-to-find young male demographic? How would you feel? Hip? Stupid? Blissful in your ignorance?

It really did happen, and I'll bet that you -- like most marketers -- slept right through it.

On November 9, I was in New York at the advertising industry's biggest trade event: AD:TECH. Our GameDAILY newsletter was covering the midnight launch of Microsoft's Xbox game "Halo 2" at Times Square's ToysRUs. I walked over there with Brad Berens, this newsletter's Executive Editor, past the several hundred person deep line and up to the executive presentation. Of the more than 5,000 conference attendees, Brad and I were the only two who visited the "Halo 2" launch. Later, Bill Gates said of the launch, "In the first 24 hours we'll have an opening that's [more] popular than any motion picture has ever had in history."

There is a reason he is the world's richest man: he is not often wrong. "Halo 2" did $125 million dollars of business in its first day.

My point is not to call the interactive ad world luddites but instead to point out that a seismic cultural and entertainment shift took place while the ad pros slept, ate, partied or did other stuff on that cold, November, New York night.

At a recent Billboard conference, Steve Schnur, Worldwide Executive of Music and Audio, said that today's kids will remember the theme music from a video game, their cell phone boot music and the sounds between game levels with the same fondness that we remember the Batman or Superman TV themes, movie themes or taglines from TV ads. Schnur then added that we need to get into the heads of young people today and that they are playing games.

Remember the "Blair Witch" Web phenomenon a few years back? A low budget movie launched lots of low budget imitators and changed the way Hollywood and advertisers viewed smaller independent movies.

This game thing is bigger. A lot bigger. Here's why: video games are still considered fairly niche. Within that niche "Halo 2" is a relatively niche game, and it is rated "M" for mature -- the video game equivalent of an NC-17 rating for a film, which is usually box office poison. This season's other game blockbuster, "GTA: San Andreas" from Rockstar is also rated M. However the early adopters, tipping pointers, heat seekers (whatever you want to call them) are buying both of these games -- and others like them -- more feverishly (in terms of money spent) than any mainstream blockbuster movie.

Games like these are indeed niche: they reach select audiences excluding (in theory) younger kids. There are, however, many mainstream games that are perfect for young ones and their families. These products are rated E and T (the game equivalent of G and PG). You can see a listing of all these good, wholesome games in this Family Guide on gameDAILY.com.

Young people -- those under 30 -- see games as a mainstream entertainment medium just like you thought of TV, music or movies. The shift has already taken place. Dollars are flowing into this medium.

"Halo 2" may sell 6 million copies before the end of the year. Paradoxically, this means that about 14 million people will play the game. Compare this to a blockbuster movie: perhaps 50 million people will see it in theaters and another 50 million would experience it on video. In that sense, movies have a 10 to one advantage when it comes to consumer touch. But if you consider that just two years ago it was rare to find a game that sold over $50 million during its retail lifetime, you can appreciate the shift.

These game players like speed, visuals, action, immersive worlds. They understand and buy technology. They live online: the top research tool for people who buy games is the Internet by a margin of two to one over magazines.

This is a wake up call to all of us in the interactive advertising and marketing world.

Maybe next time you will know about the big game launch happening around the corner. For now think about how these people can be early adopters of your interactive message.

They are out there. They have money, and they are waiting.

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, 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.