dia-log http://www.softwarespecies.com/dialog/ en-us Nucleus CMS v3.2 © Weblog http://backend.userland.com/rss http://www.softwarespecies.com/dialog//nucleus/nucleus2.gif dia-log http://www.softwarespecies.com/dialog/ <![CDATA[On V-Lodge Method and Spammers]]> http://www.softwarespecies.com/dialog/index.php?itemid=29
P.S. Those spam fighters. Hate 'em. Yesterday, an important message dropped into my free mailbox with a very well known free email service. Tagged as spam, of course. I'm always curious, just how much money spam filters make their authors? And how many possible business collaborations they get to kill for the money? How many emails get sold to real spammers? Collateral damage my ass. Is that a good price to pay for fighting viagra that so many people need anyway?]]> General http://www.softwarespecies.com/dialog/index.php?itemid=29 Mon, 12 Feb 2007 03:02:05 +0300 <![CDATA[V-Lodge Method: An Introduction]]> http://www.softwarespecies.com/dialog/index.php?itemid=28 Method.

Today’s game-based marketing is limited to primitive advergames, random customer engagements inevitable due to carpet-bombing billboard techniques, and barely legal mining of users’ behavioral data. As one would expect, users’ indignation against these techniques, their
opinions and their freedom of choice are ignored by the companies “doing business” in the area.

We believe that for game-based marketing to become a mainstream tool for product marketers, game developers, and publishers, it must evolve to complement and enrich gameplay through accurate contextual integration – instead of irritating players.

The point and the goal of V-Lodge Method are to counter the foul play by monopolies with talent and cooperation of developers and marketers.

Read more in this article on V-Lodge (PDF, public access)]]> V-Lodge http://www.softwarespecies.com/dialog/index.php?itemid=28 Mon, 12 Feb 2007 02:17:57 +0300 <![CDATA[V-Lodge News Roundup 01/18/2007]]> http://www.softwarespecies.com/dialog/index.php?itemid=27
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.]]> V-Lodge http://www.softwarespecies.com/dialog/index.php?itemid=27 Thu, 18 Jan 2007 03:58:05 +0300 <![CDATA[Wheels By Kilos: Ultimate in the Automotive Ratings]]> http://www.softwarespecies.com/dialog/index.php?itemid=26 http://www.wheels-by-kilos.softwarespecies.com/. Yes, this is the ugly truth that car makers have been hiding from you. :)]]> cars http://www.softwarespecies.com/dialog/index.php?itemid=26 Sun, 31 Dec 2006 21:42:51 +0300 <![CDATA[Context, Subtext, and the Seamless Ad Patent]]> http://www.softwarespecies.com/dialog/index.php?itemid=25 philosophy of marriages. Why is it relevant to in-game ads? Let's find out.They say that, in a marriage, there's always a person who loves, and another person who allows the love. So with in-game ads, too, the medium and the messages that use the medium as the transport are in one of two states: either the medium fuels the messages or the messages fuels the medium. Put simply, advertising coexists with games in either context mode or subtext mode.

(We warned you that it was going to be philosophy, didn't we?)

Context and Subtext



Context and subtext are two completely different ways to succeed or fail when you have been tasked with creating a piece of interactive entertainment that promotes brands, products, or services. Context and subtext are two types of synergy for promotional activities and games. Whether you succeed or fail does not depend on the type of synergy, just like in a real marriage it does not matter which of the sides allows the love – as long as both are happy.

Understanding of the differences and implications of context and subtext, however, is critical. One could suppose that context means putting ads in context, just like the Big Trio puts ads in the results of online searches. By a strange philosophical coincidence, this description betters suits the subtext synergy.

Context is when you create a game specifically to host ads; you craft a context. The most common examples of creating context are advergames and infomercials sponsored or co-branded by serious companies. Think Ford Racing (Ford's Mark Bentley Talks Licensing; Explains How Cars Get Into Games), for example, or AXE's crazy Pitman game that features an armpit on two legs. (More on context below.)

Subtext is when the ads are just one of the ingredients in the mix that makes up a game; you insert subtext. A good example of subtext comes from the movies industry: the Bond series. Not only the double naught spy had license to kill, he also drove fantastic cars – Lotus, the Jag, Aston Martin to name a few – used cool branded accessories and drank branded beverages. Agent 007 is heavily loaded with product placement, but suitably so. As for games, we have yet to see a nice example of subtext – drop us a line if you think you have one – although examples of mercilessly hacking ads into existing games or games that have already been designed are abound.

Both approaches to marrying ads to games have their uses and merits as well as issues. Today, games rarely, if at all, become the only means of advertising; because you engineer games into the advertising campaign as a whole (and you should), you get yourself a choice and some options.

You can read the rest of the article at V-Lodge. Click.]]> V-Lodge http://www.softwarespecies.com/dialog/index.php?itemid=25 Sun, 24 Dec 2006 20:21:21 +0300 <![CDATA[Electronic Ads... uhm, Arts!]]> http://www.softwarespecies.com/dialog/index.php?itemid=24 Since the announcement, there’ve been some properly heated discussions on the Internet: many gamers feel resentment because of the approach taken by the giant publisher. “They feed us with ad-infested games and don’t even decrease the price tags? EA won’t see my cash again.” Some of the gamers vowed to vote with their wallets and never buy games from EA.

There are voices that reasonably underscore the importance of funding that the developers get in exchange for bringing promotions into games. We’ve been hearing these voices for about ten years now, and it seems to make sense. In practice, you still pay $40 for “NFS Carbon” to play it on older platforms (PC, PSP, PS2), and you pay $50 to $60 to play it on PS3, Wii, or XBox.

Can this be justified by the development costs alone when EA will be earning additional millions for constantly streaming ads into games? The answer is, today, EA doesn’t care what you think. Dynamic billboards are just there.

Our gallery has some shots of ads in “Need for Speed Carbon”, and these give a lot to think about. For instance, how efficient is a billboard you consistently speed by at 200 miles per hour?

When you pitch Castrol SYNTEC in a game for people who don’t own sport cars just yet, is that because you failed to assess the audience properly or because you strongly believe in longevity of the oil lineup? See, if they had sport cars, they wouldn’t be playing NFS. They’d be off driving on real roads instead.

You can read the rest of the article at V-Lodge. Click.]]> V-Lodge http://www.softwarespecies.com/dialog/index.php?itemid=24 Mon, 18 Dec 2006 00:47:38 +0300 <![CDATA[Advertising in Middle-earth]]> http://www.softwarespecies.com/dialog/index.php?itemid=23 escapism because, in part, we do it to escape the stresses and disappointments of everyday life.

We do it with books, movies, and, of course, computer games. These worlds are attractive not only because of the cultural magic they carry along: there are set rules and guidelines that you can follow to reach certain satisfying goals. This is especially obvious with games where the rules are mostly simple, work as expected and are designed to please the consumer (pixel hunting isn’t a rule, so we won’t get into it here.)As we inevitably surface to return to the real world, the impression of our experience remains with us. And strong impressions which we get in consuming the media of our preference not only stay longer, but also interact with the real world in our minds on both conscious and subconscious levels. We compare the real world against the imaginary world, building parallels and intersections, fantasizing what ifs, and these comparisons often favor the imaginary. (Surely, there are plenty of examples of the contrary, and we yet have to discuss the realistic vs. unrealistic in the imaginary worlds, an important concern for ads weaved into games.)

Such is the nature of virtual reality: you build idealized images when reading books, you are fed with idealized images when playing games and watching movies. Yes, a game with garbage in it looks funny and resembles the real world more. But what a gamer wants isn’t garbage – garbage is plentiful as it is – he or she wants the idealized imagery. Why? Because escapism is voluntary. The despicable run-of-the-mill, glamour, shine of the contemporary media aren’t as bad as some people believe or are lead to believe. Not at all. Were it not for the bloody brain washers, where’d you get your massive doses of escape? One thing a thinking person does is filter the media and the imagery to taste.

The sequence so far: imaginary worlds, escapism, idealized imagery, comparison to the real world. So what spaceships don’t exist? Spaceships are cool. So what immortality is impossible? Elves are cool. So what the new BMW cars are crappy? “NFS: Most Wanted” still kicks ass. You get the idea.

You can read the rest of the article at V-Lodge. Click.]]> V-Lodge http://www.softwarespecies.com/dialog/index.php?itemid=23 Mon, 18 Dec 2006 00:41:31 +0300 <![CDATA[Deep Immersion]]> http://www.softwarespecies.com/dialog/index.php?itemid=22
Quite expectable, given the number of times each commercial runs. And it's not just the sheer volume of messages coming through or how we think about commercials that ruins the television's power as an advertising medium; it's the one-way nature of our contact with TV. We don't have control over what goes on on screen, except for the relatively new still-framing feature of digital recorders.

"I can switch channels alright, or even turn the blasted box off!" a friend countered once, as we were discussion television. Well, that's the whole point – the reason you switch channels or turn the blasted box off is, It irritates you with stupid broadcasts and intrusive commercials.

So that was a TV watcher. A game player, on the other hand, lives through a very different experience of constant detachment from the real environment, and in that process the only thing that matters to him or her is adequatly reacting to events of the game world. It is taken for granted that the game player is the center of the game's universe, the protagonist of the events unfolding. Unlike identifying yourself with an action movie hero, with games you really are the hero. It's the natural rule of the medium.

You can read the rest of the article at V-Lodge. Click.]]> V-Lodge http://www.softwarespecies.com/dialog/index.php?itemid=22 Mon, 18 Dec 2006 00:37:01 +0300 <![CDATA[Importance of Contextual Placement]]> http://www.softwarespecies.com/dialog/index.php?itemid=21
A new form of advertising came in the place of plain banners – contextual advertising. Tying products and services to context in which these products and services have the highest probability of being purchased isn't really new, so bringing the technique onto the Internet's playground was only natural. The most successful example of implementing contextual advertising, in terms of profits made, is Google with its AdSense and AdWords.

Contextual advertising is more profitable out of the box; it has inherently higher click-through rates and a longer-lasting impression. Because of the way it is channeled to consumers, contextual advertising helps overcome the unfortunate effects of ad blindness.

Although there are cases when the medium and the format does not matter (such as grand brands' commercials throughout Super Bowl and other sports events), for many large, midsize and small businesses contextual advertising is the most efficient way to reach potential customers. For instance, you can just be there when they search for your services on Google.

There is one problem, though. Ad blindness. Ad resentment. Ad hate. A miniscule mismatch, such as a person being in the wrong mood to accept your wording, is more than enough to filter out your ad from the conscience of the potential customer. The awareness of contextual advertising techniques will continue to build over time within the Internet audience, so the efficiency of the approach will not grow.

The focus of advertising now starts to shift more into the interactive stuff. Microsoft's acquisition of Massive, Inc wasn't accidental ("hey, this interactive advertising thingy seems to have taken off, lets buy it!"), in fact, Microsoft has opened a facility in Beijing early this year to research targeted, contextual, interactive advertising in its deepest. Interactive television, computer games, mobile games, are not just another media. These are the media that can channel information about your products and services through visual, textual, and audio cues in a carefully crafted context that makes such information not only tolerable, but welcome.

You can read the rest of the article at V-Lodge. Click.]]> V-Lodge http://www.softwarespecies.com/dialog/index.php?itemid=21 Mon, 18 Dec 2006 00:26:46 +0300 <![CDATA[Personalizer Beta Preview has arrived!]]> http://www.softwarespecies.com/dialog/index.php?itemid=20 Personalizer site now! We will continue the development with even more zeal than before, it's a promise. :-)]]> OurSoftware http://www.softwarespecies.com/dialog/index.php?itemid=20 Wed, 13 Sep 2006 00:57:12 +0400