In-Game advertising, which culminates in ads showing up within computer games (PC, Video or Console), is nothing new. It’s been around for several years and has been prevalent in games by the massive EA Sports all the way through to virtual worlds such as SecondLife.
I started to pay more attention to this advertising channel when Massive Incorporated (owned by Microsoft) launched a dynamic in-game advertising solution, which allowed agencies to publish advertisers ads dynamically. The ads could be configured to show based on time and location specific elements.
In 2008 though, it looks like this advertising channel has come to the fore… with Google very recently launching their AdSense for games solution, allowing advertisers and agencies to publish their ads onto Games using the same underlying technology behind AdSense (the contextual advertising platform that publishes ads on Google’s content and syndicate networks).
This week it looks like Obama’s PR team has made a move into this channel with the following in-game billboard…
Massive Incorporated who seem to have the most experience in this advertising channel, estimate the in-game advertising industry to be worth 1.8 Billion US$ by 2010. It’ll be interesting to watch how this channel develops, and which brands selectively choose to advertise to a fairly restricted demo-graphic segment (so far at least). For more on In-Game advertising… read here.
Do any of you have any experience with this advertising model?
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