New Media: Advergaming

By Timothy R. Hawthorne

Q: Advergaming has been a hot topic recently. What are the benefits of using this new marketing medium?

A:Time is a marketer's ally. Infomercials' outstanding sales impact derives from the extra time they spend telling products' stories. The longer your viewers engage, the more likely they are to take action.

That's why online marketers seek "stickiness"--a website's ability to keep surfers onsite. To achieve this goal, many companies employ "advergames"--video games doubling as ads. Advergame.com estimates that half the U.S. population will play games online next year, while Mueller Wister estimates that half of online gamers play for an average of 25 minutes. Now that's an opportunity.

Most sponsors frame their games with branded borders. Others inject interstitials at specified intervals, or after gamers complete levels. Ideally, the game itself relates to the product. Whatever the strategy, gamers respond enthusiastically. Real Networks cites a 74 percent completion rate of its in-game video ads, and advergames commonly achieve 10 percent click-through rates.

A FEW EXAMPLES
Logo-based branding is easiest to deploy, but the best games go further. "Jelly Jumper" glues players to the Logitech logo via direct incentives to linger. If you complete enough levels, you earn coupons for 20 percent Logitech discounts.

CareerBuilder.com's "Age-O-Matic" artificially ages consumer-uploaded photos to illustrate what bad jobs do to people. The manipulated photos are funny, but their implication that bad jobs can destroy you feeds a need for its job-finding services.

The most effective games are those that connect with your target audience. The U.S. Army offers free online access to the America's Army strategy game in exchange for contact information. The recruit and gamer demographics overlap in many cases, and youth drawn to war games would seem friendly to military culture.

PC and console games provide the ideal scenario. Burger King's Xbox series and PC titles like "Lego Creator: Harry Potter" provide the best of both worlds. Not only do the brands benefit from high stickiness and exposure, gamers pay for these games in the first place. Such games' revenues stream steadily, even before brand impact occurs.

Advergames work because people enjoy gaming. This would seem to make them foolproof. But as the astounding popularity of Windows "Solitaire" proves, casual gamers prefer games they can win. Consumers should enjoy their extended time with your brand, not spend their minutes cursing in frustration. Make your game beatable. Who knows? You might have a winner on your hands.

Timothy R. Hawthorne is chairman and executive creative director of Hawthorne Direct Inc. He can be reached via e-mail at thawthorne@hawthornedirect.com.