The politics of in-game advertising

You know that in-game advertising has gained acceptance when political candidates venture into the space. According to Associated Press, Barack Obama has purchased ad space from EA Sports to become the first presidential candidate to successfully utilize the medium.

In-game advertising touches an audience that is typically hard to reach — young males, roughly 18 to 34. EA Spokesperson, Holly Rockwood comments, “What we're trying to do is offer ads in games where we're simulating a real-world environment, so our racing games, our sports games lend themselves to that."

The ads purchased by the Obama campaign are appearing from October 6 to November 3 in Xbox 360 games such as "Burnout Paradise," "Madden 09," "Nascar 09," "NHL 09" and "Skate." These games are among the most popular in the EA catalogue of sports titles and are rated for play by the Entertainment Software Rating Board for everyone aged 10 and older.

Rockwood elaborated that the company accepts ads from “credible advertisers” and that the messages do not reflect the views or policies of the company. She added that one advertising agency that works with Electronic Arts had contacted the McCain campaign about advertising, but that the Republican’s camp passed.

"The State of the Console"...staggering

Nielsen's first study of the console industry is going to turn some heads. Lost Remote says, "the report clearly shows that much of the usage is taking place when people would normally be watching conventional TV programming."

Media Post says, "the study suggests that while Madison Avenue has become transfixed by other digital media, especially online, DVRs, and personal media devices such as the iPod, video games already are having a profound impact on the way people spend time watching TV for a very simple reason: Most video game consoles are connected to the primary or secondary TV set in TV households, and they are used primarily during traditionally peak TV usage time periods - especially among some of the most important and elusive TV audience demographics."

Key Takeaways:

• The console household universe has grown 18.5% sine fourth quarter 2004, compared to a 1.6% growth in the total universe of television households.
• Two-thirds of all Men aged 18-34 have access to a video game console in their home.
• The universe of connected console households (households subscribing to a service to connect their console to the internet) has grown to more then 4.4 million households, even before the newest Playstation 3 and Wii consoles are considered.
• In the NTI (Nielsen Television Index) fourth quarter of 2006, 93.8 million US Persons aged two and older used a video game console for at least one minute.
• In any given minute, approximately 1.6 million US Persons ages two and older are using a video game console.
• The heaviest console users accounted for 74.4% of all console usage and averages 345 minutes (5 hours and 45 minutes) of usage per day during the fourth quarter.

In-game advertising is going to really take off as more people get internet connectivity for their consoles. It also makes Microsoft's purchase of Massive seem pretty smart.

Second Life crosses million user mark

According to the Second Life blog, in-world residents now number over 1 million.  Not only that, they expect to sign up 50,000 new user today alone.

Second Life has been in the news lately with a number of major brands moving in-world. Recently Wired Magazine, Reuters, Intel and IBM all revealed Second Life projects. Advertisers like BBH and Leo Burnett are also moving into the new space. From an article in the New York Times today called "A Virtual World but Real Money," there are over 30 companies now in-world with scores trying to figure out how and why to join.

The buzz around Second Life could not be much stronger. Many marketers may be searching for a little perspective. 

Second Life is not a game.

Think back to the original definition of cyberspace by William Gibson: "Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts... A graphic representation of data abstracted from banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding, (69)."

Second Life is a virtual location where people can meet to have conversations, make friends, create items, build buildings and make money.

Second Life is not free.

Well, its free to create a character but not to own land or build objects. Many brands choose to create islands so that their brand will not be influenced by other brands or residence's creations in close proximity.  A private island costs $1,250 to create and $195 per month to maintain, before construction begins.  While that is a drop in the bucket for major brand budgets, it still represents a commitment to exploring a new medium.

Second Life requires a fast computer and Internet connection.

Rendering out virtual worlds requires horsepower.  To really see texture details you need a good bit of video ram.  For today's gamer the graphics will look 5 years old. Second Life, as its is presented today, requires patience and a willingness to suspend desire for graphic quality found in most current games. 

With so much momentum its hard to predict what will happen next for Second Life.  However, the population of multi-player virtual environments continues to grow rapidly and marketers may find that the best place to engage consumers is in a world in which they are already immersed. (Chart from MMOG Chart)