September 5th, 2009
Via The Guardian, an interesting commentary on The Attraction Economy and in-game advertising. As the article notes:
“…Whether you like the idea or not, in-game advertising is big business and it’s only going to get bigger. Earlier this year, Screen Digest predicted that the sector would be worth over £1bn by 2014 – commercial messages now appear in everything from PC casual titles to iPhone games and big console blockbusters. Once, it was all about getting a logo in at the start or end of a game, but the latest technologies from specialist agencies like Massive and Double Fusion involve inserting billboards, videos and even 3D objects into virtual environments.
All very well, but do people look at these invasive messages? Well, according to an article on the MIT website today, game violence is a good way to garner interest:
A team of European and U.S. researchers found ads displayed along with violent scenes to be more memorable to players than those shown with nonviolent content, even though players spent less time looking at them. The results are contrary to expectations stemming from research on television, where violence has been shown to decrease attention to advertisements. Developing a better understanding of the way advertising works in games could help game companies enhance their advertising strategies.
The team based at the University of Luxembourg created a simple driving game named AdRacer in which players needed to drive over targets to gain points, while adverts were displayed unobtrusively on roadside billboards. In one version of the game, the targets were just symbols, in another, players had to run over pedestrians to increase their scores. Apparently, “Those who played a violent version of the game [...] demonstrated significantly better recall of advertised brands than those who played the regular version.”
The problem is, although the violence seems to trigger something in the mechanism of human memory – it’s not always good news for the advertiser; the connotations can be rather destructive, negatively impacting the gamer’s opinion of the brand.
Other research has indicated that interactive advertising may be the answer. From the MIT feature:
Research published this month in the International Journal of Advertising backs up this claim. A team led by Thomas Mackay from Monash University in Australia found that driving a virtual car of a specific brand resulted in a significant opinion change in favor of the brand among casual game players.
Indeed, high performance Japanese cars like the Subaru Impreza and Nissan Skyline have received a boost in Western sales thanks to their appearance in the Gran Turismo series. Several manufacturers have even revealed new models and prototypes within the best-selling racing simulation, before sending them out to motoring exhibitions. Elsewhere, clothing brands and furniture retailers have made their latest lines available in games like The Sims, and in online communities: Italian fashion brand Diesel has a store in PlayStation 3′s Home community (more here), while EA produced a special add-on pack for its ‘life simulator’ Sims 2 filled exclusively with virtual Ikea products.
The key message, then, is that ads have to be malleable, useful or at least active within the game world to get noticed and remembered. As web advertisers are discovering, simply displaying a message on the digital screen is not enough – according to a recent survey by Saatchi and Saatchi banner ads only generate a 0.15% average response rate. These days marketers are talking about the “attraction economy” in which consumers are seduced into long-term interactive brand relationships – it’s all about emotional connection rather than shoving a logo in your face. And game worlds are going to be a great platform for this, because they are environments in which the target audience is already emotionally invested.
Violence points the way, but positive interaction with advertising messages is probably the future. One day the model from the latest Diet Coke advert may pop up as a helpful non-player character in a sports sim, or you’ll get a TomTom avatar to accompany you in open-world adventures. Last year Obama became the first major political figure to advertise in a game, but it was just on billboards. For the next election he’ll probably jump right into your car during GTA V and hit you with his latest health care reform initiatives as you shoot up the neighbourhood.”
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