Gen Wow

Back from Digital Hollywood

Just don't call us the Digital Hollywood Squares.

I was in Santa Monica this week to participate in a panel discussion on games as an advertising and marketing platform for entertainment and consumer products brands.

It was a lively discussion with executives from several of the online and mobile gaming outfits, and hosted by James Green, CEO of Giant Realm. Great group of people, and an interesting debate.

Some really intelligent (and funny) people aboard - which made it feel like a game show.

Peter Marshall, eat your heart out.

Read more, here.

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Back from DTC; Next Up: Digital Hollywood

Been a crazy month: Spoke at the Global Retail Executive Council event at CTIA in San Diego, then this last week, at the DTC Fall event in New Jersey. This week: a panel on gaming as an advertising platform at Digital Hollywood at the Loews Santa Monica Hotel in Santa Monica.

Should be a lot fun...and games. (Sorry.)

I'll post about it all next week.

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First Look: The Cover of My New Book, 'The On-Demand Brand'

Forgot to mention that during my speaking engagement at the Global Retail Executive Council at CTIA this week, I was able to share the first glimpse of the cover art for my new book, THE ON-DEMAND BRAND (Amacom/McGraw-Hill, Spring, 2009). Be sure to read all about the book, here. 

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Has In-Game Advertising Been Fragged Already?

It seemed (to some) like a great idea: Feature ads in games to gain the attention of hard-to-reach gamers. And hey, a Pepsi billboard in a racing game brings verisimilitude to the whole affair, right?

Well, placing ads in massively multiplayer video game Quake Live hasn't exactly played out well. Now the game is potentially going subscription based.

It's hard to tell if this really has anything to do with advertising. I mean, Pepsi or McDonald's or Starbucks seems wildly out of place in Quakes kill-or-be-killed, Dungeons-and-Dragons milieu.

To be fair, I haven't seen the game, so perhaps ads were placed around the game, as opposed to inside them.

But like Blyk's free, ad-supported mobile service - seemingly a sure thing in tough times - it may turn out that gamers prefer their pastime without commercial interruption, and are ready to pay for that.

Time will tell.

But for this particular ad-supported experiment, it appears it's game over.

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'Sim' Advertising: The Sims Gets More Realistic (And More Commercial) Than Ever

"Sims 3" may as well be called SimAds.

The latest installment of the popular videogames will feature dynamic in-game ads, which can be changed out when the game has a live Internet connection, according to reports in AD AGE.

In this, the first new Sims outing in five years, the simulated characters will venture out and about Pleasantville, where they'll naturally come into contact with paid advertising messages.

"Advertising is very organic to the 'Sims 3' experience," Steve Seabolt, VP-global brand development for the Sims label, tells the pub. Movie-theater posters and billboards will host ads, and EA will continue to integrate brands into the gameplay.

By way of example, Seabolt says: "Suppose your Sim had a tough day, or the Sim kids are out of control, maybe the Sim worked out -- that could be a moment for that particular pain relief," he said. "And they take that pain relief and feel restored, better rested ... less on edge."

In the past, the Sims have done deals with H&M and Ikea, letting users download branded content into the game. Now, H&M is asking for billboards to promote the fact that players could now dress sims in their fashions.

It's an interesting notion - leading to ask whether the Sims might create an in-game economy much like Second Life. Many advertisers have tried to integrate their brands into that virtual world experience, mostly to bail out after finding too few eyeballs in any one place to gain attention. But in a more defined environment like The Sims 3, perhaps advertising and commerce can find traction that has eluded their MMOG bretheren.

Or, you know, at least simulate them.

Read more, here.

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Sony PS3 Gets In-Game Ads

PS3 hopes to turn fun and games into serious business.

In what's billed as a breakthrough, today's Wall Street Journal is reporting that Sony has reached an agreement to allow ads distributed over the Internet to be inserted into PlayStation 3 videogames - signaling a potentially fruitful new revenue stream for game companies.

Today, the company will announce it will partner with IGA Worldwide, a company that places ads inside video games. We're not just talking about billboards inside, say, car racing games. It could also include virtual soda brands being consumed by virtual characters in the game.

EA will be among the first to advertise within PS3 games - to sell other games, of course, though that will be interesting if the ads appear in competitors' games.

According to stats cited from Yankee Group, spending on such in-game advertising, though small today, could top $1 billion by 2011.

PS3 and EA are hardly the first to create such ad venues. In my book BRANDING UNBOUND, I look at how brands like Jeep have long used in-game advertising to reach young males. Games like the new Grand Theft Auto IV offer advertising opportunities. And brands like Burger King and Toyota have been quite successful with branded games for Xbox and other platforms - including mobile.

Still, Sony's initiative brings new drive to the concept - especially to options like I look at in the book in which advertisers can insert ads based on time of year, specific promotions, as well as specific user profiles and preferences.

In other words, when it comes to in-game advertising, game on.

Read more, here (sub. req.)

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Business Week: MTV's Playing Games For All They're Worth

Games are serious business for MTV Networks.

Business Week is reporting that the music television network is betting its 5,000 mobile, console and online games and virtual worlds are the key to connecting with the youth market.

The appeal? They're like "digital crack," Jeffrey Yapp, an MTVN executive charged with developing new digital ventures, tells the pub.

How addictive? Total time spent gaming online hit 11.4 billion minutes in December, up 27% over the previous year, according to Web-traffic tracker comScore. "Of the traffic to our more than 300 Web sites," Mika Salmi, MTVN's top digital executive, tells the pub. "We know nearly half [of the visitors] have played a game."

The worlds and games are ad-supported, feature product placement, and are otherwise promotional to MTV's TV shows - ala Virtual Laguna Beach, where visitors can compete in paintball and other contests for points that can be used to buy garments, virtual or real, from Pepsi Style.

According to the pub, when Pepsi introduces new graphics on its cans in the real world, MTVN updates them on its virtual soda machines. If your avatar recycles a can after 10 sips, you get a free garment for your avatar or a 10% discount at the real Pepsi Style store online. For a more in-depth look at such models, check out my interview with Sibley Verbeck, CEO of Electric Sheep, the company behind the effort).

An MTV exec says nearly half of the visitors to its 300 websites have played a game while there.

With TV a harder sell for the youth market, these sorts of initiatives may be MTVN's ticket to more ad sales. That is, if they can do it without turning off their audience.

To read the Business Week piece, click here.

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A Whole New Game: Vivendi Takes Control of Activision

Vivendi will take control of video game publisher Activision in a deal worth $18.9 billion, according to USA Today.

This isn't just fun and games. The new public company, to be called Activision Blizzard, will bring to bare Activision titles like "Guitar Hero" and the Tony Hawk series, with Vivendi properties like "World of Warcraft" and "Crash Bandicot."

It could also mark the melding of console and online games, ala WoW (well, actually more like Xbox 360) - which could result in ad-supported offerings that match advertisers and gamers in all new ways.

A situation to watch - and play.

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'Grand Theft Auto IV' To Get In-Game Advertising?

Take Two Interactive Software, makers of the mind-bogglingly popular "Grand Theft Auto" game franchise, are hinting that the series may get in-game advertising.

PlanetGrandTheftAuto quotes executive Paul Eibeler saying: "To extend the life cycle [of Grand Theft Auto IV]...to take that product to the next level, we also have exclusive episodic content that will be available.

In-game advertising is just another area that we think is very, very exciting to take advantage of the type of content that people own...and microtransactions...I'll talk a little about this...

It's not just about shipping one box and then waiting for a sequel, but keeping that product alive in the marketplace. There is a tremendous amount of research that shows that anything in terms of downloadable content increases the box sales. So we will take our biggest brand (GTA) and have episodic content available in the marketplace. It's a way we are approaching games to maximize our revenue as we look into the next cycle.

In-game advertising...we have a tremendous experience base from our sports business where it is a natural part of the gaming experience. Today, we announced a partnership with Double Fusion. Double Fusion brings to us added context with the agencies...with giving us scale with Madison Avenue. So, we think that this is a growing area...one that we will walk before we run...one that we have a lot of experience in the sports side, and then we will move that now to all of our other types of content."

Hmmmm. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Fans and defenders of this violent franchise have always pointed to the fact that the game is just a game when critics blast it for its unsavory content. Now that real-life comerce is being injected into the game, can they make the same claim?

And what advertisers are going to want to associate with a series that some say glorifies car jacking and cop killing? Time will tell.

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