| Product Placement Makes a Virtual Leap |
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By Apryl Duncan You watched E.T. eat Reese's Pieces. Will Smith listened to his JVC stereo, drove a futuristic Audi and fought for the good of man in I, Robot. Spam jumped into the spotlight in Kill Bill Vol. 2. And don't forget the countless times a Starbucks cup has appeared in both television shows and movies. The new blockbuster Shark Tale touts its non-product placement. Names such as Coral Cola, Old Wavy, Gup and Kruppy Kreme pop up, some familiar takes on Dreamworks' Shrek 2 characters like Olde Knavery and Gap Queen.Product placement is big business. And it's getting even bigger. Video games are the new breed of product placement and the possibilities for advertisers are virtually endless. Not only can advertisers find the game's characters actually using their products but they can also update their in-game ads at any time and offer game updates through their Web sites.People are starting to turn to video games more than television. Video game sales topped box office sales last year with $10.7 billion. That number is expected to increase to $16.9 billion by 2008. Nielsen ratings show 12-percent of young males in the 18-34 demographic turned away from TV, with 20-percent of them playing more video games. More number crunching shows in-game advertising will increase from $200 million to $1 billion by 2008.The trend shows men and women both are increasing their video game play. Advertisers are taking notice and making the leap into this growing method to reach customers. Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is the world's largest video game publisher and has proven how successful video game product placement can be. The company reports ad revenues are up 60-percent this year.EA landed a multimillion-dollar product placement deal with Intel and McDonald's for The Sims Online. In the game, players use computers featuring those familiar Intel tones and they can buy virtual McDonald's food for their hungry sims. EA's Need for Speed Underground 2 features product placement with companies like Best Buy, Cingular Wireless, Old Spice and Burger King.The Sims 2, the new generation of The Sims, could easily be the game of the year. The first version of The Sims followed up with seven hugely popular expansion packs. The Sims 2 is already set to follow those footsteps, leaving the door wide open for product placement deals. EA already has an Alienware computer available for players to download and use in The Sims 2.Alienware's also running a contest with several different video game publishers to purchase a copy of a particular title, including The Sims 2, and you can enter to win your own Alienware computer. Ubisoft is currently using a Palm PDA in Splinter Cell. The company plans on using even more in-game advertising in the next Tom Clancy Splinter Cell release.Vivendi Universal Games has actually run into the problem of denying advertisers space within its Leisure Suit Larry title. Between alcohol companies wanting their products in the game and companies wanting the characters to wear their shoes, Vivendi drew the line and said no. The company will release future titles that use in-game product placement. Advertisers are now figuring video game advertising into their budget. Money previously spent on TV and print is now being redirected to in-game advertising.The interest in product placement in video games is increasing and the technology is already advancing to new levels. Massive Inc. is releasing new technology that gives advertisers a way to update their ads even after the game's release. You could easily see the ads changing in your game every day even though you bought the game six months ago. Advertisers have the opportunity to tailor your advertising based on timely advertising needs like the latest movie release or base the advertising on where you live.As the technology advances, your thirteen-year-old playing the latest video game may see in-game advertising strictly geared toward her. For example, an ad for acne cream. When you play the same game a few hours later, you see an ad for a hair loss product. Need help implementing a new sales or marketing program? We've got two suggestions: a) Check out our free marketing templates and tools on this site. There's ton's of them. You might want to bookmark the site now, you could be here awhile. Just become a registered member (it's free) of the myMarketingGuide.com website and you can download hundreds of other articles, templates and more. Don't worry, we respect your privacy. |
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