While it might be old news that advertisements and big-brand shops in Second Life were a failure (now called “an experiment”), the Guardian UK recently weighed in on the development by comparing virtual worlds “going off the radar” to video games being “where it’s at.”
Global in-game ad revenues are difficult to target for this year, but in 2006 totalled 42 million (in pounds) and is expected to rise to 526 million (in pounds) by 2011 according to the Yankee Group, and this could even be an understatement.
Product placement, of course, is a natural fit for games with a significant automobile presence, or athletic games where the product tie-ins are automatic. But as consoles like the Xbox 360 become Web-enabled, the market for in-game advertisements multiplies and diversifies.
“Dynamic in-game advertising exploits the power of web 2.0,” said Guy Phillipson, chief executive of the Internet Advertising Bureau to the Guardian. “Enabling marketers to place their brands in front of gamers in real time; they can also update them, track them, and measure their effectiveness.”
But Phillipson also added, “respect for the audience is key – interrupt the gaming experience at your peril.”
While the arcticle is certainly an interesting one and it raises some debateable points, some sentences let me doubt, if it has been researched THAT well …
****************
[...] brands like US retailer Best Buy and computer vendor Dell Computers diverted LARGE CHUNKS OF THEIR MARKETING SPEND there, [... ] says Jack Linden, HEAD OF … LINDEN LABS
*****************
This reads more like a quick copy and paste job.
The bottom line is true, though: “Straight advertising” is all about the number of eyeballs I can reach through a certain channel. And SL has maybe 2 Million eyeballs to offer. Thats not really a lot on a global scale. Games have (substantially!) more. That’s it. True, but not actually a piece of investigative journalism
inworld vs online advertising/sponsorship breaks out as– fewer more intense vs more less relevant. And the inworld participants tend to be more online saavy which means potentially there is access to people that will tell a lot of people what to do = personal reccomendation. So what is engagement of a few loud mouths with some tech/social web credibility worth? A lot more than spewing google adwords all over.
Plus inworld is very cost effective (total gibberish about Dell btw!). On a CPA basis it should be the most effective. Yet, the issue is gross new customers/new sales generated, which will be low.
Net net–inworld ad and sponsorship opportunities will yield big results for the companies that do it right (so far…er…none have done this).
We of course have some ideas on how this might work! But right now biggest drag on more rl companies making some experiments is the baggage with the SL brand.