18/01: V-Lodge News Roundup 01/18/2007
IGA Worldwide, Acclaim Games, Double Fusion, Valve, and American Academy of Pediatrics, US Assemblywoman Lori Saldaņa, Lexus, Nissan, Audi, Second Life, Test Drive Unlimited, BuzzCity, Greystripe, American Advertising Federation, Circuit City, WindTangent, Bunnyfoot, IBM, Sears Holdings, OGPlanet, Albatross18, Orange and Wanadoo, ShoZu Inc, Nintendo, Run Athletics, Mario Bros, Burger King, and many other scary words-- what do they all have in common? They have shown V-related activity in the last thirty days or so, so you can find them in our first news roundup.
The last thirty days saw a good measure of news and events related to in-game advertising and product placement. Here are the briefs for the most noteworthy ones.
The last thirty days saw a good measure of news and events related to in-game advertising and product placement. Here are the briefs for the most noteworthy ones.
Deals and Announcements
IGA Worldwide upgraded its advertising platform to support Flash games, advanced reporting and city-level geo-targeting resolution.
The company also added Acclaim Games to its cohort of game publishers already using in-game ads for increased revenues (Atari and
Electronic Arts among them.) The exclusive agreement covers six MMOGs: "BOTS!!", "9Dragons", "2Moons", "DANCE!", and a couple of
upcoming titles.
Acclaim intends to stream in-game advertising into a number of upcoming massively multiplayer online titles.
"Our strategy is to offer multi-player online games that are free to play with in-game advertising, and offer optional virtual items for sale." said
Howard Marks (Acclaim Games) in an interview to Gamasutra titled
"Raising the Dead, Again: Can Howard Marks Revive Acclaim?".
Besides signing Acclaim, IGA also stroke a deal with Counter-Strike developer Valve: advertising will be part of the game's arena which warrants billions of views every month.
Double Fusion had a merry Christmas, raising $26.1m of investment in the latest financing round.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) stated that junk food commercials must be
banned from TV shows aimed at children. The concerns expressed stem from the increasing
rates of childhood obesity. Because children are frequent consumers of video games, similar
moves by health associations should be expected in this area. Which is exactly what
Campaign For A Commercial-Free Childhood
does: "The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (formerly Stop Commercial Exploitation of Children) is a national
coalition of health care professionals, educators, advocacy groups and concerned parents who counter the harmful
effects of marketing to children through action, advocacy, education, research, and collaboration among organizations
and individuals who care about children. CCFC supports the rights of children to grow up - and the rights of parents
to raise them - without being undermined by rampant consumerism."
On the legal side, US Assemblywoman Lori Saldana
was thinking of introducing a bill against spyware in video games: Privacy Experts: Legislation Needed To Curb Video Game Spyware.
Lexus joined Nissan and Audi in providing virtual car models for "Test Drive Unlimited" (Atari, XBox 360.) This year
players will be able to download and drive luxury sedans such as Lexus IS350. We've recently spilled some of our
thoughts on promoting cars in games; brand awareness development with
the younger audience is a good way to get more market in the future.
BuzzCity joined Greystripe's AdWRAP program to offer
myGamma users free, ad-supported mobile games. myGamma is BuzzCity's "international wireless networking community with paid membership".
Greystripe will enrich myGamma with 400 mobile games and applications delivered to a 1.5m audience across both Americas, Asia, and Europe.
Second Life is getting more attention from companies, clearly because it is a go-steady reality not so different from real life:
following Nissan's suit, Sears Holdings and Circuit City Stores, Inc has teamed up with IBM to put their properties into SL and "explore the
application of virtual worlds to business" (see Virtual Sears debuts on Second Life's IBM 'island' and
Circuit City stakes out Second Life).
WildTangent and OGPlanet launched an advertising channel in OGPlanet's MMO golf game Albatross18 (press release here.) Albatross18 is a free game with a 10m audience.
Research conducted by Bunnyfoot, UK, has confirmed our thoughts about billboards: advertising billboards in fast-paced action (shooter, sports, racing) games
do not work. Our gallery has linked YouTube videos that showcase Bunnyfoot's research conducted using eye tracking technology. Bunnyfoot also
offers assessment services for in-game ads.
French telecom/networking giant Orange (Wanadoo merger partner) is seriously experimenting with advertising in mobile content.
Coke, Saab, Travelski, Societe Generale and Mobifun are among the brands
taking part in the experiment. As usual with the channel, the users can request more info about the ad messages by initiating a call or though WAP.
Technology
ShoZu Inc announced a new mobile advertising platform for seamless, background delivery of ads to mobile devices.
Amusements
"Outside-the-game advertising" by Nintendo and Run Athletics: Mario Bros shoes.
Worth Checking Out
Ian Bogost reviews Burger King's successful trio of promotional games in
Persuasive Games: Promogames, Another Kind of Advertising Game.
BK's sales topped those of Gears of War, a bestselling XBox 360 shooter by Epic Games/Microsoft Game Studios. Here's a YouTube "Sneak King" Trailer video:
in our gallery.
Scott Steinberg's The Future of Videogame Marketing.
Business and Games Blog: Snapshot Experiment: Where Would You Place Ads?
Five gamers throw random and not so random ideas about where to place ads in games of various genres. Some of the answers deserve further development.
GameSpot: Most Despicable Use of In-Game Advertising. Just watch the video.
James Belcher of emarketer.com lays out amusing stats from American Advertising Federation based on
a study conducted in November 2006: Advertisers stick to the more familiar messaging channels, such as search and online video, almost dismissing advertising built into
video games, and at the same time they name video games among the preferred emerging ad media. 1% of budgets to spend in versus 20% of votes for video games as a very
effective medium - looks like the idea gets good reception, but the channel is still uncommon.
That's it for now, stay tuned to V-Lodge for more.
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The last thirty days saw a good measure of news and events related to in-game advertising and product placement. Here are the briefs for the most noteworthy ones.
The last thirty days saw a good measure of news and events related to in-game advertising and product placement. Here are the briefs for the most noteworthy ones.
Deals and Announcements
IGA Worldwide upgraded its advertising platform to support Flash games, advanced reporting and city-level geo-targeting resolution.
The company also added Acclaim Games to its cohort of game publishers already using in-game ads for increased revenues (Atari and
Electronic Arts among them.) The exclusive agreement covers six MMOGs: "BOTS!!", "9Dragons", "2Moons", "DANCE!", and a couple of
upcoming titles.
Acclaim intends to stream in-game advertising into a number of upcoming massively multiplayer online titles.
"Our strategy is to offer multi-player online games that are free to play with in-game advertising, and offer optional virtual items for sale." said
Howard Marks (Acclaim Games) in an interview to Gamasutra titled
"Raising the Dead, Again: Can Howard Marks Revive Acclaim?".
Besides signing Acclaim, IGA also stroke a deal with Counter-Strike developer Valve: advertising will be part of the game's arena which warrants billions of views every month.
Double Fusion had a merry Christmas, raising $26.1m of investment in the latest financing round.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) stated that junk food commercials must be
banned from TV shows aimed at children. The concerns expressed stem from the increasing
rates of childhood obesity. Because children are frequent consumers of video games, similar
moves by health associations should be expected in this area. Which is exactly what
Campaign For A Commercial-Free Childhood
does: "The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (formerly Stop Commercial Exploitation of Children) is a national
coalition of health care professionals, educators, advocacy groups and concerned parents who counter the harmful
effects of marketing to children through action, advocacy, education, research, and collaboration among organizations
and individuals who care about children. CCFC supports the rights of children to grow up - and the rights of parents
to raise them - without being undermined by rampant consumerism."
On the legal side, US Assemblywoman Lori Saldana
was thinking of introducing a bill against spyware in video games: Privacy Experts: Legislation Needed To Curb Video Game Spyware.
Lexus joined Nissan and Audi in providing virtual car models for "Test Drive Unlimited" (Atari, XBox 360.) This year
players will be able to download and drive luxury sedans such as Lexus IS350. We've recently spilled some of our
thoughts on promoting cars in games; brand awareness development with
the younger audience is a good way to get more market in the future.
BuzzCity joined Greystripe's AdWRAP program to offer
myGamma users free, ad-supported mobile games. myGamma is BuzzCity's "international wireless networking community with paid membership".
Greystripe will enrich myGamma with 400 mobile games and applications delivered to a 1.5m audience across both Americas, Asia, and Europe.
Second Life is getting more attention from companies, clearly because it is a go-steady reality not so different from real life:
following Nissan's suit, Sears Holdings and Circuit City Stores, Inc has teamed up with IBM to put their properties into SL and "explore the
application of virtual worlds to business" (see Virtual Sears debuts on Second Life's IBM 'island' and
Circuit City stakes out Second Life).
WildTangent and OGPlanet launched an advertising channel in OGPlanet's MMO golf game Albatross18 (press release here.) Albatross18 is a free game with a 10m audience.
Research conducted by Bunnyfoot, UK, has confirmed our thoughts about billboards: advertising billboards in fast-paced action (shooter, sports, racing) games
do not work. Our gallery has linked YouTube videos that showcase Bunnyfoot's research conducted using eye tracking technology. Bunnyfoot also
offers assessment services for in-game ads.
French telecom/networking giant Orange (Wanadoo merger partner) is seriously experimenting with advertising in mobile content.
Coke, Saab, Travelski, Societe Generale and Mobifun are among the brands
taking part in the experiment. As usual with the channel, the users can request more info about the ad messages by initiating a call or though WAP.
Technology
ShoZu Inc announced a new mobile advertising platform for seamless, background delivery of ads to mobile devices.
Amusements
"Outside-the-game advertising" by Nintendo and Run Athletics: Mario Bros shoes.
Worth Checking Out
Ian Bogost reviews Burger King's successful trio of promotional games in
Persuasive Games: Promogames, Another Kind of Advertising Game.
BK's sales topped those of Gears of War, a bestselling XBox 360 shooter by Epic Games/Microsoft Game Studios. Here's a YouTube "Sneak King" Trailer video:
in our gallery.
Scott Steinberg's The Future of Videogame Marketing.
Business and Games Blog: Snapshot Experiment: Where Would You Place Ads?
Five gamers throw random and not so random ideas about where to place ads in games of various genres. Some of the answers deserve further development.
GameSpot: Most Despicable Use of In-Game Advertising. Just watch the video.
James Belcher of emarketer.com lays out amusing stats from American Advertising Federation based on
a study conducted in November 2006: Advertisers stick to the more familiar messaging channels, such as search and online video, almost dismissing advertising built into
video games, and at the same time they name video games among the preferred emerging ad media. 1% of budgets to spend in versus 20% of votes for video games as a very
effective medium - looks like the idea gets good reception, but the channel is still uncommon.
That's it for now, stay tuned to V-Lodge for more.
