Advertisers get in on the game

With reports of first-day sales of Halo 2, the latest version of Microsoft’s best-selling video game, exceeding $125m in North America, it is hardly surprising that an increasing number of companies are waking up to using games as an advertising medium.

Last year, sales of video games topped $20bn worldwide, and the market for branding and advertising through games is growing: in 2004 it was worth an estimated £5m in the UK, according to branded entertainment specialists Cocojambo. This UK market is forecast to be worth £9m in 2005; internationally, it is valued at more than $1bn a year, according to Forrester, the research company.

Malcolm Russell, business director at WPP media buying agency Mindshare, says games publishers and advertisers are starting to embrace games as a medium.

Mindshare’s own research confirms that consumers born in the 1990s are watching 25 per cent less TV than those born in the 1960s and 1970s. “This group is spending more time playing games which really involve them and this is providing some exciting opportunities for advertisers compared to TV which is relatively passive,” says Russell.

But the games market is very fragmented, and advertisers have found it difficult to discover which titles are being developed, when they are due for release and who they are targeted at. In response, Cocojambo will launch the first quarterly online and print guide next week where global games publishers can advertise details of their games, including the territories they will be released in and the target audience, to help brands match up with particular releases.

With marketers looking at the mix of budget allocations for 2005, Michael Wood, director of Cocojambo, says he has been answering queries from advertisers interested in getting involved in games.

”For media buyers and advertisers over 35, games have been a novelty. But for teenagers and consumers in their early 20s, Halo 2 is part of the media landscape as much as Wife Swap,” says Wood.

Read the article: www.ft.com