Massive game advertising start up to the aid of desperate brands

Advertisers are desperate, says Katherine Hays, Chief Operating Officer of Massive, the US company that has just come out of stealth mode to lay claim to the world’s first advertising network for multiple games on multiple gaming platforms (Faultline October 25).  
 
The fundamental reason for this desperation is that the 30 second TV ad spot is no longer delivering the undivided attention of many sectors of the US buying public.  
 
In particular advertising is missing out on the 18 to 34 year old male, and if you listen to Hays, she believes that 70% of them are spending at least 5 hours a week on games. In early studies the really aggressive gamers play around 2 hours per night.  
 
“Despite the desirability of this audience the market for in-game advertising was only $10 million last year versus the $12 billion that was spent on US broadcast TV,” says Hays.  
 
These figures don’t quite tally with recent reports, with one from Yankee Group putting in-game advertising at around $79 million, but it is still a drop in the ocean compared to TV.  
 
“Advertisers are desperate because they the lack of ability to advertise in large enough numbers to people that are playing a diverse range of games. What they want is to aggregate 1 million or 2 million people on any given night in the right demographic, at the right time, just like TV,” said Hays.  
 
So far Massive has signed up exclusive deals with Vivendi Universal Games, UbiSoft, Konami and Legacy Interactive, and US coverage from Atari.  
 
“In the past, games only offered long term, permanent product placement. They offered no ‘quick reach’ needs,” said Hays.  
 
But now Hays says that the Massive network changes all that and reckons that she already has the advertisers on board. “We are targeting the top 100 advertisers in the US. Recently we employed a VP of advertising sales, and he found that he was being called by prospective advertisers. He said to me ‘In advertising you do not get proactive calls from businesses like General Motors, Coke, McDonalds and Citibank.”  
 
“Advertising agencies are being given a mandate to move budget out of TV advertising and being asked, ‘How do you plan to get us into video games?’”  

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