14 DAY TRIAL // Looks like all the companies that advertised their products inside video games are not obtaining the desired effect. Apparently, in-game advertising does not influence gamers, according to a survey by behavioral research agency Bunnyfoot and presented by GamesIndustry.biz.
The results of the survey were disastrous for the advertising companies that invested money into in-game ads, as the Bunnyfoot reports read: "current methods are not optimizing consumer engagement and are failing to influence the consumer in any significant way".
The behavioral research companies conducted tests of 120 gamers, all of them over 18, who had to play games like Gran Turismo3, NBA Live and Project Gotham Racing 3. As Bunnyfoot claims, the response of the players to the in-game advertisements was below any advertising standards. Considering that Bunnyfoot works with some important companies like Microsoft, NHS, PowerGen and McAfee, maybe their report is true.
Personally, I'm not a big fan of in-game advertisements but I know that they bring in a lot of cash for publishers and developers. Just Need For Speed Carbon borough EA some US$ 5 million from advertising. And that's 5 million bucks less to extract from production costs, therefore a few bucks off the final retail price of the game.
I'm not saying that in-game advertising is entirely good thing, but it has its good parts. Some of the in-game commercials are quite tasteful and integrated into the game's story real nice. Like in the NFS series, when you have to choose between O.Z. or BBS rims?Isn't that advertising? Isn't this advertising?