Game Ads to Double by 2012: eMarketer
Look to the browser, not the box, for the greater part of the growth in in-game advertising over the next four years, according to a new forecast from eMarketer.
Spending by marketers in the video game advertising space is anticipated to double by 2012 to $41 billion. But those ads are far more likely to appear in casual Web-based games than on the big-ticket consoles from Microsoft, Sony PlayStation and Nintendo.
The eMarketer report, “Video Game Advertising” by analyst Paul Verna, found that of the more than $500 million spent on advertising in the game channel in 2007, about 59% went to in-game ads, marketing messages appearing within game play—as paid backdrop signage for racing games, for example, as product placement, or in interstitial ads between levels of play. The other 41% went to create advergames, games specifically built to promote a brand or product.
Within the in-game ad segment, Web-based games will see the lion’s share of growth, increasing by a factor of 133% between last year (when spending hit $205 million) and 2012 ($478 million projected.) By comparison, spending on ads in console games ($90 million last year) will not quite double to $172 million in the same period.
Advergames—games created or customized to publicize a brand—will also grow in the next four years, reaching $350 million in 2012 from $207 million in 2007.
One factor holding back the expansion of ads in consoled games is the relative difficulty of applying metrics to the ads shown, the eMarketer report says. By comparison, it’s much easier to track the impressions and impact of ads in Web-based games, and advertisers prefer that measurability. That picture may change, however, as the installed base of gaming consoles becomes more Internet-enabled. With a box linked to a broadband connection, advertisers will be able to dynamically insert new ads into a game and then track their effect.
One analyst group quoted in the report, Parks Associates, expects that 84% of all in-game ads in console games will be dynamic; in 2006, only 27% were.
Both console-based games and advergames will also encounter growth restraints from a trend toward customizing existing games with brands rather than creating entirely new ones. The report cites the case of Staples, which customized the popular Shockwave Jigsaw game during back-to-school shopping season last year by building a Staples “Easy” button into the game player as a solve key.
