Games advertisers play
Business 2.0: Cadillac tried a novel approach last year to get young male car buyers excited about its tricked-out V-Series Collection luxury vehicles. Rather than make its pitch through magazines, TV commercials, or online display ads, the automaker took its campaign to the Xbox 360.
Through an arrangement with Xbox Live, gamers were invited to download and put through their paces three virtual V-Series cars in a popular high-speed driving game called Project Gotham Racing 3. In less than six months, more than 240,000 players snagged the game. All told, they raced the cars more than 1 million times.
This in-game ad push seems to be paying off. According to EA research, gamers who played Need for Speed Carbon were more likely to consider and recommend the T-Mobile brand than those who didn’t. Half of the gamers who saw the promotions said the ads actually added to their enjoyment of the game. The game displayed a T-Mobile button on a simulated car dashboard that gets text messages.
Major agencies like Ogilvy, Omnicom and Publicis are focusing more on games. Publicis has recently expanded its games ad group from two people to 10. These moves aren’t just for bragging rights; Parks Associates estimates that the in-game ad market will be worth more than $600 million in three years, up from $120 million last year.
Filed under: Statistics, Trends