Advertisers Target Gamers

Games publisher Activision is focused on capturing videogame advertising dollars as a strategic priority, recently featuring McDonald’s burgers and fries as part of the adventure in its Extreme Skate game.

Activision reports that while advertisers spent $8 billion last year targeting American males aged 18-34 (who watched 30 billion hours of TV), 18-34 males spent at least the same amount of time playing video games but US advertisers spent less than $15 million on video game advertising. Industry analysts expect that to change.

Within a year, Nielsen Entertainment will start a gaming-ratings service to monitor consumers in sample households and report on what games they’re playing, which level of the game they’re on, and which ads they’re seeing.

New technology will allow advertisers to serve up targeted in-game ads. Massive Inc. is launching new peer-to-peer software in October that will allow advertisers to market a movie release in online PC games.

Major in-game advertisers currently include Nike, DaimlerChrysler, Nestle, Sony Ericsson, and Intel. Game advertising is cheap compared with TV ads, with many publishers accepting barter. Xbox receives 50% of its in-game ad payments as cross-promotions.

Spending on in-game advertising is expected to reach $200 million this year and could reach $1 billion by 2008.