Honda, Verizon DSL, Coca-Cola and Universal Music are among some the latest brands to sign on with a new agency that creates video game ad networks to capitalize on the projected soaring growth of product placement within the games.
A dozen advertisers have signed on with New York-based Massive, Inc. to find new ways to bring their brands and messages to the 18- to 34-year-old male consumer via video game advertising. With 30 billion hours spent on game play last year in that group, the medium is an ideal way to target consumers, said Mitch Davis, CEO of Massive, Inc.
“Seventy percent of men 18 to 34 play video games,” Davis said. “The problem advertisers have is that they can’t reach these guys on TV. [Gaming] is their dominant form of entertainment. If you want to reach them, this is the most effective way.”
When it comes to TV, the target audience typically multitasks and often ignores TV commercials, Davis said. But with video games, marketers have a greater advantage to showcase their product because gamers “are fully engaged in video games,” he said.
Part of the allure of video game advertising is its realism, Davis said. “It’s what you see in real life,” he said. “It’s working for the gamers. They like it.”
Massive, Inc. just launched a new video game, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, published by Ubisoft, which features ads from Paramount Pictures, Honda and Comcast’s G4 gaming channel. The action game retails for $49.
As part of the arrangement, Massive, Inc. will digitally insert advertisements in games played on personal computers that are connected to the Internet. The advertisements will appear as billboards and posters in the videogames themselves, Davis said. The Internet connection allows the ads to change as players move throughout the game to keep the content fresh, he said.
And later this year, the company plans to expand the technology to work in games played on consoles, Davis said.
The ads, however, are not interactive. “It’s all about keeping people in the game and ads enhancing the gaming experience,” Davis said.
So far, the company has signed deals with 10 game publishers that will include its software in 40 games by year-end, Davis said. In addition to the other featured brands, Massive, Inc. has also signed agreements with advertisers including Paramount Pictures, Dunkin’ Donuts, T-Mobile, he said. In addition, Massive has formed a partnership with Nielsen Interactive Media to measure video game advertising in the network.
Davis predicted video game advertising would soar to $2.5 billion by 2010. The total ad market spent in the U.S. is $270 billion, he said.
“This fundamentally changes the economics of the advertising industry and will emerge over the next few years as the highest growth of media out there,” Davis said. “This will be like MTV was in the 80s and 90s. In time, I think [it will] rank in the top 10 media in the country.”
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