Posted by: schild @ 22:32:29 on 7/23/08
Protip: UnSub sent this in!
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In-game advertising in MMOs is a subject that tends to attract a lot of vitriol. Anecdotally a lot of players appear to enjoy the fact that their media consumption of choice doesn’t have that many ads. Of course, if you ignore the banner ads on fansites, the viral ads that get sent around of Mr. T hocking World of Warcraft, loading screens that talk about the new expansion pack, the advertising that occurs around the borders of some ‘free-to-play’ games and all the other ads that surround MMOs, then you can safely say that the current crop of MMOs is pretty ad-free. Especially while playing the MMO – there are typically no ads within subscription-payment MMOs at this point in time
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In-game advertising in MMOs is a subject that tends to attract a lot of vitriol. Anecdotally a lot of players appear to enjoy the fact that their media consumption of choice doesn’t have that many ads. Of course, if you ignore the banner ads on fansites, the viral ads that get sent around of Mr. T hocking World of Warcraft, loading screens that talk about the new expansion pack, the advertising that occurs around the borders of some ‘free-to-play’ games and all the other ads that surround MMOs, then you can safely say that the current crop of MMOs is pretty ad-free. Especially while playing the MMO – there are typically no ads within subscription-payment MMOs at this point in time
This is going to change. It is inevitable. Why? Because in-game advertising is being shown to work and it’s money for nearly nothing on the development side.
If you can remember back far enough, there was a lot of attention put on the fact that EA included monitoring software in Battlefield 2142 that would be used to generate in-game ads. There was lots of OMGNOEZ at the announcement and how the adware would ruin performance and lead to EA knowing EXACTLY what sites you visit, YOU PERVERT. Regardless of this threat, Battlefield 2142 sold as well as a Battlefield title tend to do and in-game advertising appeared on billboards throughout, courtesy of IGA Worldwide.
The results of this advertising are out – if you can track down “Digital advertising in 2142: measuring the effectiveness of advertising to the PlayStation® generation” (2008), you can see the details for yourself (and yes, someone needs to be smacked for using the term ‘PlayStation® generation’ with regards to a PC-only game that tends to attract older players). The kind of advertising looked at here is technically called 'dynamic in-game advertising' - dynamic because it can change thanks to the online environment. As a summary:
Research conducted by TNS Media among 603 serious ‘core’ players of B2142 (average play time in the last week was 12.5 hours) for five ads over three in-game billboard advertised brands (Nike / NKE6.0, Samsung and Sure for Men) saw slight increases in brand awareness for the three brands and also increased positive associations for those brands using pre- and post-exposure testing. The period of exposure was two weeks. That only slight brand awareness increases were recorded does show some potential issues with regards to how well the ads cut through in a game, but the big news is that those people who saw the ads generally thought better of the brand – something that every ad exec who wants to keep their job likes to hear.
In short, hard core players noticed the brands and thought better of them after seeing the ads in B2142. In-game advertising works. You might think such a statement is pretty bold based on only one study, but this is simply the first study that has reported its results out in the open. I’m sure plenty of other studies have been done – and would have to be done, for game developers to be convinced and for the in-game ad enablers to justify their costs – but those results have been more tightly guarded.
The other side is that in-game ads become a revenue stream for developers for what is likely minimal additional work. The companies that sell in-game ads would probably be pretty helpful and a populated online game with a consistently retained audience (i.e. the MMO) is an attractive target. It will probably be a while before the public has an idea of how much revenue MMO in-game ads generate, but it has been estimated that including in-game ads can add $1 to $2 in profit to each box sold (which, given per box profit might only be $5 or $6, is a significant jump) I can only imagine what the revenue figures might mean to longer-lived MMO titles, especially those with digital distribution.
Hence: in-game advertising in MMOs is on its way. You could argue that B2142 isn’t a MMO, but it certainly has the ‘multiplayer’ and ‘online’ side of things down. It’s close enough to serve as the case study.
Some people will rant and rave over this coming change. Really, they shouldn’t. The fact that advertisers are coming to MMOs in increasing numbers means that MMOs are being taken seriously. Suddenly the MMO demographic isn’t just 30 year-olds who wear stained anime shirts and are still living at home with their mother – MMOs are suddenly broad enough across the population to count. This is a good thing. MMOs are mainstream (enough) for the rest of the world to take notice.
Of course, this doesn’t give carte blanche for an advertiser to stick ads up on every square inch of in-game model space. The research paper stated the following does and don’ts when it came to in-game advertising:
Don’t alienate the gamer by:
• intruding at an inappropriate moment
• involuntarily taking control away from the gamer
• appearing out of context to the reality created by the genre/specific game (e.g. sportswear in a medieval war scenario)
• lacking the high level of creative input of the game's developers
• hi-jacking the gamers' attention by trying too hard
What the brand should ideally do is:
• seamlessly inhabit and enhance the games' alternate reality
• intensify some aspect of gamer involvement
• interact with the gamer (either 'live' or in choice of team, car, sponsor, logo etc.)
• be aware of issues of advertising to youngsters
• overcome resistance from the vocal minority of 'hardcore' gamers who decry the very idea of advertising in games through positive case studies
• produce a measurable degree of communication/product benefit
Interestingly enough, the results of the Nike / NKE6.0 indicated that the ad was too well tailored and too integrated into the scenery, indicating that for an ad to work in-game, it needs to stand out a bit to cut through.
To some extent, this generation of MMOs will be protected against in-game advertising for two reasons:
1) few MMO dev companies probably want to retrofit in-game ad functionality into their existing games
2) the dominant MMO setting is fantasy and in-game ads don’t fit in a fantasy setting.
WoW will more than likely never have in-game advertising – not that Blizzard needs the extra money – but the fact that it dominates the MMO fantasy genre so completely has assisted the increase in non-fantasy MMOs being announced.
Each one of those sci-fi / modern / post-apocalyptic / etc titles is fertile ground for in-game advertising to appear. City of Heroes / Villains is the first subscription MMO to retrofit dynamic in-game ad technology into the play space, with real ads replacing fictional ads on the in-game billboards. CoH/V’s system is optional – players can opt-out – and thus far only one ad has been shown in-game and only to players with US-based IP addresses, but it is only the start of what will become a growing trend. Hellgate: London, another EA title and one billed as a MMO, also launched with in-game advertising.
The risk of going down the in-game advertising path is that MMO developers will give over some of their control of the game in exchange for money. Arguably they already do this when they invite paying players in – which MMO hasn’t seen a “I pay my sub fee, so you must implement my ideas or I’ll quit!” in some way, shape or form – but the reality is that such a risk is small if common sense is used.
Provided MMOs don’t become addicted to in-game ad revenue, the actual influence advertisers can have will be minimal. Television, often associated with heavy and interruptive advertising, is strongly influenced by advertiser demands because it is the advertisers that pay the salaries and production costs. Without ad revenue, most television shows would take on a high school drama play-level of quality as production values were slashed. As such, when major advertisers tell TV to jump, TV generally jumps until it can’t jump anymore. MMOs that make the majority of their revenue from subscription fees and take additional revenue from in-game ads are probably not going to fall into this trap, especially if some common sense associations between MMO content and ad content are worked out first – Sociolotron probably isn’t the appropriate game to advertise Catholic Church events, while EVE probably isn’t the appropriate venue for Britney Spears CD launches.
[discuss]
If you can remember back far enough, there was a lot of attention put on the fact that EA included monitoring software in Battlefield 2142 that would be used to generate in-game ads. There was lots of OMGNOEZ at the announcement and how the adware would ruin performance and lead to EA knowing EXACTLY what sites you visit, YOU PERVERT. Regardless of this threat, Battlefield 2142 sold as well as a Battlefield title tend to do and in-game advertising appeared on billboards throughout, courtesy of IGA Worldwide.
The results of this advertising are out – if you can track down “Digital advertising in 2142: measuring the effectiveness of advertising to the PlayStation® generation” (2008), you can see the details for yourself (and yes, someone needs to be smacked for using the term ‘PlayStation® generation’ with regards to a PC-only game that tends to attract older players). The kind of advertising looked at here is technically called 'dynamic in-game advertising' - dynamic because it can change thanks to the online environment. As a summary:
Research conducted by TNS Media among 603 serious ‘core’ players of B2142 (average play time in the last week was 12.5 hours) for five ads over three in-game billboard advertised brands (Nike / NKE6.0, Samsung and Sure for Men) saw slight increases in brand awareness for the three brands and also increased positive associations for those brands using pre- and post-exposure testing. The period of exposure was two weeks. That only slight brand awareness increases were recorded does show some potential issues with regards to how well the ads cut through in a game, but the big news is that those people who saw the ads generally thought better of the brand – something that every ad exec who wants to keep their job likes to hear.
In short, hard core players noticed the brands and thought better of them after seeing the ads in B2142. In-game advertising works. You might think such a statement is pretty bold based on only one study, but this is simply the first study that has reported its results out in the open. I’m sure plenty of other studies have been done – and would have to be done, for game developers to be convinced and for the in-game ad enablers to justify their costs – but those results have been more tightly guarded.
The other side is that in-game ads become a revenue stream for developers for what is likely minimal additional work. The companies that sell in-game ads would probably be pretty helpful and a populated online game with a consistently retained audience (i.e. the MMO) is an attractive target. It will probably be a while before the public has an idea of how much revenue MMO in-game ads generate, but it has been estimated that including in-game ads can add $1 to $2 in profit to each box sold (which, given per box profit might only be $5 or $6, is a significant jump) I can only imagine what the revenue figures might mean to longer-lived MMO titles, especially those with digital distribution.
Hence: in-game advertising in MMOs is on its way. You could argue that B2142 isn’t a MMO, but it certainly has the ‘multiplayer’ and ‘online’ side of things down. It’s close enough to serve as the case study.
Some people will rant and rave over this coming change. Really, they shouldn’t. The fact that advertisers are coming to MMOs in increasing numbers means that MMOs are being taken seriously. Suddenly the MMO demographic isn’t just 30 year-olds who wear stained anime shirts and are still living at home with their mother – MMOs are suddenly broad enough across the population to count. This is a good thing. MMOs are mainstream (enough) for the rest of the world to take notice.
Of course, this doesn’t give carte blanche for an advertiser to stick ads up on every square inch of in-game model space. The research paper stated the following does and don’ts when it came to in-game advertising:
Don’t alienate the gamer by:
• intruding at an inappropriate moment
• involuntarily taking control away from the gamer
• appearing out of context to the reality created by the genre/specific game (e.g. sportswear in a medieval war scenario)
• lacking the high level of creative input of the game's developers
• hi-jacking the gamers' attention by trying too hard
What the brand should ideally do is:
• seamlessly inhabit and enhance the games' alternate reality
• intensify some aspect of gamer involvement
• interact with the gamer (either 'live' or in choice of team, car, sponsor, logo etc.)
• be aware of issues of advertising to youngsters
• overcome resistance from the vocal minority of 'hardcore' gamers who decry the very idea of advertising in games through positive case studies
• produce a measurable degree of communication/product benefit
Interestingly enough, the results of the Nike / NKE6.0 indicated that the ad was too well tailored and too integrated into the scenery, indicating that for an ad to work in-game, it needs to stand out a bit to cut through.
To some extent, this generation of MMOs will be protected against in-game advertising for two reasons:
1) few MMO dev companies probably want to retrofit in-game ad functionality into their existing games
2) the dominant MMO setting is fantasy and in-game ads don’t fit in a fantasy setting.
WoW will more than likely never have in-game advertising – not that Blizzard needs the extra money – but the fact that it dominates the MMO fantasy genre so completely has assisted the increase in non-fantasy MMOs being announced.
Each one of those sci-fi / modern / post-apocalyptic / etc titles is fertile ground for in-game advertising to appear. City of Heroes / Villains is the first subscription MMO to retrofit dynamic in-game ad technology into the play space, with real ads replacing fictional ads on the in-game billboards. CoH/V’s system is optional – players can opt-out – and thus far only one ad has been shown in-game and only to players with US-based IP addresses, but it is only the start of what will become a growing trend. Hellgate: London, another EA title and one billed as a MMO, also launched with in-game advertising.
The risk of going down the in-game advertising path is that MMO developers will give over some of their control of the game in exchange for money. Arguably they already do this when they invite paying players in – which MMO hasn’t seen a “I pay my sub fee, so you must implement my ideas or I’ll quit!” in some way, shape or form – but the reality is that such a risk is small if common sense is used.
Provided MMOs don’t become addicted to in-game ad revenue, the actual influence advertisers can have will be minimal. Television, often associated with heavy and interruptive advertising, is strongly influenced by advertiser demands because it is the advertisers that pay the salaries and production costs. Without ad revenue, most television shows would take on a high school drama play-level of quality as production values were slashed. As such, when major advertisers tell TV to jump, TV generally jumps until it can’t jump anymore. MMOs that make the majority of their revenue from subscription fees and take additional revenue from in-game ads are probably not going to fall into this trap, especially if some common sense associations between MMO content and ad content are worked out first – Sociolotron probably isn’t the appropriate game to advertise Catholic Church events, while EVE probably isn’t the appropriate venue for Britney Spears CD launches.
[discuss]