I have found that the best way to think about the next generation of in-game advertising is to not look at the negatives of the current offerings but to instead list out the strengths of each medium and build on those. This way it is easier to find the similarities of both art forms and have them do a little co-op play.
Video Games: Fun, Interactive, Creative, Immersing, Multi-media, Addictive, User-controlled, Rewarding, Epic, Social
Advertising: Direct, Creative, Interactive, Captivating, Work best across multi-media, Momentous, Leads to benefit, Social
It really is a match made in heaven but the delivery is really the problem here. In the case of advertising they have throughout the history of the form had to piggyback or message their way into mediums like print, TV and digital communications.
So a little known fact regarding Marshall McLuhan’s famous, “The medium is the message”, the original title was “The medium is the massage”, subtle difference that resulted in an error in print that somewhat obfuscates what the book is really about. Massaging human senses with your message.
Games operate on so many sensory levels and require active cognitive interaction. Because of this it is a challenge to apply an advertising message. If the message is to be provided in stream (during game play) it will be competing with the games world, rules, and the users state of flow.
Despite this challenge, there are a couple of key places where in-game ads have been placed that make sense, but are still not optimal.
Let me break down the most common types of in-game advertising today and how they play to the strengths of the Video Game and Advertising mediums.
Game world (Real Integration)
VG Strengths: Immersing, Creative, Epic
Ad Strengths: Creating, Captivating, Momentous
This is what most marketers understand as in-game advertising. It is effective in much the same way that outdoor and display branding are in the real world. However, for a realistic integration the game needs to be HUGE. This has its own set of problems. Scale and opportunity cost. Not to mention that it does not fit inside of any kind of game.
Loading Screens (Pre-roll & Mid-roll)
VG Strengths: Multi-media
Ad Strengths: Direct, Multi-media, Captivating
We watch ads in between shows on television or before a movie starts. Why not put them in while a game is loading? Perhaps because it adds no value to the game and the fact that gamers hate loading screens all together. Besides, companies like OnLive are going to make sure the loading screen is a thing of the past.
Interfaces (Integration)
VG Strengths: Interactive, User-controlled, Rewarding
Ad Strengths: Interactive, Leads to benefit, Multi-media
What better way to say I don ’t care about your message than putting it into an interface where the user is being asked to progress through the experience. Now you can argue that billboards have a certain degree of effectiveness and it’s all about the foot traffic but, effective billboards are usually married to a bigger plan unlike the typical banner ad that is pervasive in interfaces. They do have their place and they scale pretty easily, the bigger issue is effectiveness.
Offers (In-stream)
VG Strengths: Rewarding, User-controlled, Interactive
Ad Strengths: Direct, Momentous, Leads to benefit
Offers in games that help a user overcome a barrier to continue playing or offer the player an advantage have been a powerful source of revenue for games that use the model. Players are interrupted during play, or after they have run out of a resource to sign-up for an offer to continue playing for free. This is almost a predatory form of advertising that will not lead to long term loyalty. Why? Because the user just wants to play the game and will do anything to keep doing it if that is the mode they are in. Time will truly tell if this model will be tolerated by game developers as new revenue models emerge.
Branded Virtual Goods (In-stream, integration)
VG Strengths: Rewarding, User-controlled, Interactive, Fun, Immersive, Creative
Ad Strengths: Direct, Creative, Interactive, Momentous, Leads to benefit
The newest form of in-game advertising applies almost exclusively to the social games space due to the scale necessary for this type of integration. The above example is a more generic approach, but typically the most effective way to connect the brands to gamers is to do a creative integration. Although it is early it seems that it is very effective. This is no surprise because the branded virtual good plays on many strengths.
I hope you found this informative. Please contribute to this conversation in the comments below and follow us on Twitter @TapMeJosh and @TapMeGames.
