A new report released by Screen Digest suggests that the growing gaming market is “impossible for brands to ignore.” The study, titled “In-Game Advertising: Market Assessment and Forecasts to 2014,” makes the claim that the relevance of gaming as a medium will make it an attractive commodity to ad buyers.
“Dynamic in-game advertising offers brands the same accountability as other digital platforms but in a more controlled environment than social display media and through a more standardized value chain than mobile advertising,” says Vincent Letang, Screen Digest Senior Analyst for Advertising. “Like online video pre-rolls, in-game advertising fills a gap in online branding, bringing familiar formats such as virtual billboards and TV ads into the gaming experience.”
To be fair, the report does acknowledge a recent “softness” in the in game advertising spend, but goes on to list a number of advantages the medium has over other delivery systems, concentrating on the increased opportunity to communicate with varied demographic groups that are increasingly hard to reach via other media (I’m looking at you TV). The Screen Digest report points to key examples from eBay, Nike, and naturally includes the Barack Obama campaign.
The data for this report was mined from a number of clients from a leading global media investment management firm GroupM.
“Games are proven recession-beaters,” opened Adam Smith, Futures Director at GroupM. “There are many ways in which advertising can help evolve business models for video games and we have only just begun to explore that potential. Given gaming is now a mainstream leisure interest, in-game deserves the same consideration as mobile and social media.”
And the icing on this ‘ooo…good news cake?’ – the Screen Digest Report concludes, “a combination of audience media habits and the unique advantages of dynamic in-game advertising” will drive this spending spree. It is estimated that by 2014 dynamic in-game ads will represent about 1.5 per cent of all global spending on digital advertising.”
So the question begs to be asked, who’s got it right here? With predictions like this, one would think that In-game advertising is THE spot to be right now, but let’s not forget about Microsoft’s recent slash and burn of their own Massive Inc. (ok, it wasn’t quite as bad as initial reports….but still), and IGA’s plea for either an injection of cash, or a buyer. We haven’t heard much from Double Fusion lately, the other, other white meat, but remember, back around the beginning of the year they added Media and Advertising vet Jana Friedman to the staff, and moved Monika Madrid up to the VP of Biz Dev chair. If Screen Digest has got it right, has Microsoft made a terrible mistake? Will we see a ramp up of smaller independent in-game advertising firms that specifically target helping similar independent game firms increase their monetization via the medium? Only time will tell, but obviously, there are two very differing opinions here.
