Since online gaming is reaching an ever larger number of customers, advertisers increasingly are developing branded games.
For years online gaming has been slowly climbing its way from what might best be described as ‘cult status’ to an online marketing force that is currently generating many millions of dollars in branded entertainment.
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Contrary to what your mother might have told you, playing computer games is no longer the domain of acne scarred and hygienically challenged young men with dubious social skills. In fact, today’s largest group of online gaming aficionados might just, well… include your mother.
According to a 2004 study for AOL, conducted by Digital Marketing Service (DMS), women over age 40 account for the largest demographic of online gamers today. While the mental picture of Rambo-esque hausfraus dominating virtual battle fields is hard to resist, this particular demographic has eschewed the first person shooter to become the dominant force of the casual gaming arena.
Casual gaming has been around for years and has slowly grown in popularity and acceptance. Sites like Pogo and Boxerjam have been providing entertaining word games, card games, puzzles and arcade style games since the late 1990s as a way of selling online ad space. While the relationship between gamers and advertisers has generally been cordial, the overall effectiveness of online ads on game sites has seen the same downward trend as the rest of online advertising in terms of effectiveness.
A recent study by IDG Entertainment revealed that, not surprisingly, devoted gamers, those who count game playing as their primary leisure activity, are responsible for 52 percent of the $14 billion spent annually on video and electronic gaming. Casual gamers don’t have the same impact on revenue and currently account for 28 percent of video game sales but only 13 percent of dollars spent. Because casual gamers are not a driving force of revenue for online games, advertising dollars are bridging the gap.
Since the goal of most advertisers is to drive some level of product branding, getting those brands in front of consumers has become a more relevant task than driving traffic to a website. Since casual gamers are spending more and more time in the game environment, why not brand the games themselves?
For Candystand.com this has been the primary objective from the start. Using online gaming modules developed by Skyworks, CandyStand currently offers visitors more than 60 different online games. According to Scott Tannen, head of digital marketing for WM Wrigley Jr. Company, CandyStand attracts four to five million unique visitors monthly who play the company's high branded games that range from herding sheep around to collecting tins of Altoids™ to trivia competitions sponsored by Lifesavers. The branding isn’t subtle nor is it obnoxious. However, it is dominant and the quality and range of the games gives visitors many reasons for staying on Candystand and other gaming sites.
And they are staying. According to a not-yet released study of 4,000 adults and 1,000 teens conducted online for Jack Meyer’s Business Report, 62 percent of all males and 47 percent of all females polled had played video games (online or console based) within the past week. Of these, men spent an average of one hour, six minutes per day playing online games while women spent an average of 42 minutes daily. Balance these numbers against the recent decline in television viewing stats and the picture of how Americans are spending leisure time starts to shift.
Since online gaming is reaching an ever larger number of ‘customers’, advertisers are actively looking for new ways to reach this audience. In November, Shockwave.com announced that they are developing an in-gaming advertising network for the company’s titles that will generate more over 50 million new advertising impressions. Shockwave.com claims to currently reach more than 20 million monthly visitors who generate more than 25 million game sessions. Right now the company can deliver a minimum of 10 to 12 million impressions a month and that inventory will grow to 50+ million impressions a month by early 2006 as more games are added to the network.
The appeal that branded games offer advertisers has several factors. One is that associating a brand with a pleasurable pastime converts to a positive branding experience. Branded online games also have the capability of becoming more viral than traditional or console games due to unique market penetration and demographics. Allan Restrepo, director of business development for Blockdot says “the viral aspect seems to be truly authentic -- being passed from friend to friend as a way to share the experience. The commerce aspects of this type of pass-along are deeply embedded and less prominent but are still effective.
Branded gaming also allows advertisers the opportunity to reach more targeted audiences. The average teen isn’t lining up to play Mahjong and most 50-year-old women aren’t dominating first person shooter chat rooms. By using game appeal as the incentive behind demographic selection, advertisers can allow target audiences to sort themselves out.
Branded gaming also enables advertisers to reach non-endemic audiences. For example, the people who regularly visit NBA.com can probably be classified as fans of basketball. However, for an advertiser looking to sell basketball sneakers, the demographic range of potential buyers will also be found outside the range of ardent fans of the sport. By creating games that are themed around basketball or the benefits that a good basketball sneaker offers, that advertiser can reach a much broader demographic that isn’t restricted to a narrow branding message.
The casual gaming audience is also a force behind the recent rise in personal wireless and handheld gaming. While many console games rely on fast-paced action and outstanding graphics to create total emersion environments, casual gaming on smaller formatted wireless devices is generally more focused on puzzles, card and board type games that can easily be played during moments of downtime.
The bottom line is that online gaming has reached social acceptability. There are now entertaining diversions for all types of game players just waiting to be found. Advertisers are creating reciprocal relationships with gamers to create entertaining experiences which create a lot of new advertising revenue. This just might be the online advertising model we’ve been searching for all along.
Additional resources:
GameSpot's SVP gives a rundown on the present and future of in-game advertising.
With over 14 years in the areas of interactive communication, training and marketing, Rob Graham is an in-demand speaker on topics of rich media advertising, online training and online marketing.