In-game advertising cases

One of the first high-profile cases of in-game advertising on next-generation gaming platforms saw international super spy Sam Fisher of Splinter Cell fame using numerous Sony Ericsson branded hardware as an aid on his missions. The environment of the Splinter Cell games is that of a high-tech, near future world, where cutting edge technology is a requisite to survive. The in-game exposure of Sony Ericsson in this game wasn’t limited to some posters on the wall or a start-up screen. Virtual action hero Sam Fisher actively uses the latest Sony Ericsson phone (the P900 at the time) to contact headquarters and uses a Sony Palmtop to pull up maps and information on his surroundings. The third iteration in the franchise also had Sam Fisher chewing Airwave bubblegum (without it having any impact on gameplay).
Since release the Splinter Cell franchise went on to become a huge commercial and critically acclaimed success. The game appeared on all sorts of platforms, including mobile phones. An oversight from either the game publisher or the advertiser was failing to realize the potential and appeal of the Sam Fisher character among its target audience. The in-game placement of Sony Ericsson would have been an ideal vehicle to promote the brand outside the game as well. But when the game started to appear on mobile phones the Sam Fisher character was used by Vodafone to promote UMTS and gaming on Vodafone devices, with the game even making an appearance in the Vodafone TV-campaign. Having two mobile phone brands associated with the game ended up confusing the consumer and diminishing the advertising effect. This didn’t stop Nokia from becoming the main sponsor for the fourth, yet to be released installment however.
This type of product placement was a first for the Splinter Cell series. Since then, the game franchise has featured advertisements from all sorts of companies. The PC version of the game also features dynamic in-game advertising software that allows remote switching of advertisements when communication campaigns demand it.

Game: Splinter cell

Publisher: Ubisoft

Advertisers: Sony Ericsson, Airwave

Promoting new cars by including them in popular videogames is perhaps one of the most prolific forms of in-game advertising. Although it is mostly never perceived as such by either the consumer or other advertisers. It used to be the case that game developers paid car manufacturers for a license to reproduce their cars in a game. The rapid growth of the gaming industry and the economics associated with it, changed this however. Backed by research statistics that videogame racing titles have a strong influence on car brand preference amongst young adult males, the inclusion in a gaming title or a marketing partnership with a race game developer has become highly sought after by the automotive industry.
Sony’s Gran Turismo is perhaps the most famous racing franchise currently in existence, only challenged in popularity by the Need for Speed games from Electronic Arts. In-game advertising in this title has become highly popular as a result. Gran Turismo has had the exclusive premier of the BMW ZX5 model for instance, before the car was put out on the market. Gran Turismo 4 saw a strong partnership between Nissan and Sony. The Nissan 350Z car featured in the game, but there was also a special PlayStation 2 retail pack made that featured the new Nissan model prominently on the cover. People who purchased the game or this pack could enter into a competition to win the Nissan 350Z. Such integrated cases of in-game advertising and promotional expansion have happened before with the Gran Turismo franchise. The 3rd edition of the game saw the Chrysler PT cruiser featuring heavily in the Benelux campaign. Chrysler even went so far as to put out a special edition of their Cruiser model, called the PT Cruiser Gran Turismo edition. A less likely brand pairing happened in Japan, where players could unlock a Nike concept car in the game. People who bought a special pair of Nike shoes and held the shoe box up to the Sony Eye Toy camera got access to this sci-fi car model.

Game: Gran Turismo

Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment

Advertiser: Nissan 350Z, DaimlerChrysler, BMW, Nike

Urban, classic rock radio station City FM was presented with a unique in-game advertising opportunity and a possibility for brand exposure in the 2005 Davilex produced PC title, Amsterdam Taxi Madness. In this game players take control of the wheel of a taxi in Amsterdam and ferry passengers as fast as possible from and to locations throughout the virtual city. With little regard for real world concerns like red traffic lights and fellow road occupants of course.
The environment in the game is a lifelike representation of real-world Amsterdam, complete with bus shelters carrying advertising and various other outdoor bill-board locations.
Presented with all these advertising opportunities in the game, JuniorSenior came up with the idea of including City FM, whose outdoor communications are often visible in numerous large cities in the Netherlands. In the final game, City FM is prominently displayed on a number of in-game advertisement carriers, with creative outings that represent what the radio station was doing with their real-world campaign at the time. In turn, City FM promoted the Davilex game on their radio station broadcasts.
It is interesting to note that the original idea as presented by JuniorSenior involved having the City FM radio station broadcast audible in the game, further increasing the brand exposure. Due to time constraints this couldn’t be implemented in the City FM/Amsterdam Taxi Madness campaign, but sponsored audio is featuring ever more prominently in today’s games. The world’s largest publisher, Electronic Arts, even started a special division to handle this specific element of its games, called EA Trax.

Game: Amsterdam Taxi Madness

Publisher:
Davilex

Advertisers:
City FM

Red Bull is an FMCG brand that has been one of the earliest in-game advertisers. Especially the Red Bull UK branch (perhaps because they are situated in the largest European gaming territory) has undertaken numerous in-game advertising initiatives, including branding in the very first Wipeout game, Judge Dredd and Worms. Their in-game exposure has ranged from static bill boarding to having the Red Bull soft drink as an in-game product that fuels game characters and provides them with an added boost of energy. As is the case with car manufactures including their latest car models in racing games, this latest form of in-game advertising really showcases product functionality and the brands USP’s to the target demographic.
The Worms game is named quite often as a model as how to do advanced in-game advertising. However, although the Worms/Red Bull case goes beyond just placing billboards in a game, the fact is; Red Bull never did anything with the gaming brands it was involved with for their real-world campaigns. Putting a sponsored product in a game so heavy handedly is a risk. The tongue in cheek air of the Worms game allows it, but a backlash from gamers is to be expected when every time their game characters need extra energy, they need to consume advertised energy drinks.

Game: Red Bull

Publisher: Various

Advertiser: Red Bull

A very successful game based campaign in 2005 and 2006 sees an effective pairing of game developer, retail and various FMCG-brands. Superkicks is a clear case of a forward thinking in-game advertising campaign. Superkicks is a game build around soccer and the age-old soccer card collecting mechanic. Through the game (aimed at a relatively young audience) players can learn how to play football, build a team and challenge other player online to a game of soccer. The game has been developed in conjunction with the Dutch national soccer organization the  KNVB and is distributed freely across a range of super markets. Hundreds of thousands of copies of the game have been distributed by super markets before the World Cup 2006.
The unique thing about Superkicks is the fact that player can upgrade their players and increase the strength and skill of their team by collecting special cards that carry special move codes. The cards can be bought at various retail outlets but are also distributed freely by various FMCG companies who carry the cards in their packaging or on their product. Players want to collect as much cards as possible (including the very rare ones) leading to a clear buying incentive. This makes Superkicks a unique collect-em-all sales promotion tool, that combines the popularity of gaming, soccer and the World Cup 2006. The game was promoted via press, free distribution, an extensive TV-campaign and print. Currently, with the World Cup still months away, Superkicks has 50.000 registered players.
Around the time Superkicks was released JuniorSenior produced another games based sales promotion for Unilever’s Unox, which allowed kids that bought Unox Knaks to experience the newest games first, by downloading demo’s off a special action-URL. Families that didn’t have a broadband connection to download these demo’s, were presented with a special offer by broadband provider Wanadoo.

Game: Superkicks

Publisher: Teamplay

Advertiser: Various

This in-game advertising campaign has Dutch roots and saw a pairing of the worlds largest game publisher EA with the worlds largest action sports brand, O’Neill. Initiated by O’Neill Europe who are located in the Netherlands, the snow board game SSX features riders that wear O’Neill clothing when racing downhill. The game was released at the end of 2005 and has always been a steady seller, often reaching more then 1 million units in sales.
O’Neill has a target audience consisting of 15 to 21 year old men so getting into games and gaming was becoming a necessity for them. This being the demographic that is more and more shunning traditional media and becoming harder to reach for advertisers.
Apart from dressing the in-game characters up in O’Neill garb, both parties also joined in several co-promotional activities together. EA has clothing sponsor deals with other brands as well. Reebok is the official sponsor of all the clothing in Electronic Arts’ Madden series for example.

Game: SSX On Tour

Publisher: EA

Advertiser: O’Neill

Reputedly costing more the US 1 million to make, a figure which was up until then unheard of in Advergaming campaigns, Mojo Master is an online only, fully advertiser funded game by Axe (Unilever). Axe had previously undertaken some branding exercises in popular games such as Burnout (EA) but wanted more.  
Mojo Master is essentially modeled after popular retail games like the Sims and its spin-off The Singles but is full sponsored and free to play online. Mojo Master is a fantasy game that has guys work their way through a list of pick-up maneuvers, using the moves on 100 virtual women, who have artificial intelligence and remember what the player does. The gamer is armed with Axe deodorant body spray, shower gel, deodorant stick and invisible solid, and every time he uses and Axe product it ups his "mojo" and he is able to work his way through all the women until he has "conquered" all 100 and becomes a "playa". It is currently unknown how many players participated in the game. It is expected though that more and more advertisers will go the Axe route when trying to integrate gaming in their campaigns. When an advertiser has total control of the content and gameplay, this ensures all the key brand messages are communicated.

Game: Mojo Master

Publisher: WildTangent/Axe

Advertiser: Axe

The most successful army recruiting campaign ever, in the history of the US military. America’s Army is a showcase for Serious Gaming and proof that in-game advertising isn’t just suited for FMCG companies or youth lifestyle brands. The US military (much more so then any other armed force in the world) has a long history of involvement in the entertainment industry. Especially with games and movies. The US military often funds games that shed a positive light on the army and its missions. Such is the case with games like Full Spectrum Warrior or Pearl Harbor. Almost every US military station is outfitted with an Xbox for the troops and more often then not retail games get modified for military training purposes.
America’s Army however is a whole different beast. Development was entirely funded by the military with the express aim to use this game as a recruitment tool. The game is distributed freely and is a free to play. Gameplay consists of online, squad based tactical maneuvering and shooting. While gaming, players get all kinds of information on the US armed forces and learn what it’s like on the battlefield. In return the game provides the military with a wealth off information on its users, allows direct marketing initiatives and a direct call-to-action for signing up and joining the military. Military services in other countries have so far been reluctant to adopt the same sort of recruitment campaign despite the fenomenal success. A poll by I for I Research said that 30 percent of young people who had a positive view of the military said that they had developed that view by playing the game. At the United States Military Academy 19 percent of 2003's freshman class stated they had played the game. Enlistment quotas were met in the two years directly following the game's release.

Game: America s Army

Publisher: US Army

Advertiser: US Army

When Sony PlayStation launched the PSP and showcased the download functionality of the machine and its games, it became clear that this portable gaming device could become an ideal marketing and advertising platform. Advertisers can now sponsor the development of extra tracks, maps and features of games that are already out in the market place. This means that the lead times for deciding whether or not to sponsor a game have shortened considerably. Also, it allows a more wait-and-see approach as to the games retail success.
For game publishers it is becoming ever more important to invest in after-sales activities. Often developers want to keep the momentum of a successful game and fan-base active until the sequel rolls along. Feeding gamers with extra levels, cars or special moves for their games is a proven mechanic to achieve this. These updates are downloaded by the consumer at their own will. So if an extra content download is obviously very heavily sponsored, the consumer still has the choice whether or not to download.
Often new downloads also cost a little money (to make up for development cost). If advertising allows gamers to obtain this content freely, it becomes even more attractive to download sponsored software. By giving savvy media consumers the choice to use content featuring advertising you don’t piss them off.
The Coca-Cola and Puma packs for games such as Wipeout Pure and Everybody’s Golf are a good example of sponsored after-release content. The packs feature extra designer tracks and airships and are of a very high quality. Consumer demand and interest for these tracks and ships was very high and the amount of downloads and resulting eye-balls for the Coca-Cola and Puma brands was significant.

Game: Wipeout Pure

Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment

Advertiser: Coca-Cola, Puma

A lot of in-game advertising is no more ambitious than just sticking a brand on the advertising hoarding of a virtual sports arena or some other static product placement. What it has lacked up until recently is a direct call-to-action mechanic that the medium lends itself so well to. Mechanics that see bought products unlock features in a game, or in-game achievements giving the player discounts on store items are now starting to emerge.
The popular Everquest II game for PC found an interesting way to keep players glued to their screen by aligning with Pizzahut and allowing players to order food directly from within the game.
Everquest is a so-called Massive Multiplayer Online game  (MMO). Players log in to a virtual world with their own character and go on quest together, undertake tasks and trade items. While playing the game they are always connected to the internet. The game has reached an incredible amount of subscribers (These are people lost to traditional advertising) and stories about the absolute addictiveness of this game have reached the media quite often.
Good thing then, that when people type /pizza during gameplay a pop-up window of Pizzahut appears in the game. Make an online order and you have fresh pizza delivered at your door within 20 minutes. Gamers don’t even have to leave their screens to provide for food anymore.
What’s next?

Game: Everquest II

Publisher: SOA

Advertiser: Pizza Hut