May 24, 2004
Music Plasma - music visual search engine
Posted by richard ting at May 24, 2004, 03:26 PM
Advergaming Grows in Reach and Power
Interactive Video Games Emerge as Major Ad-Supported Mass Medium
YORK, Pa. (AdAge.com) -- Nick Kang is the ultimate action hero. Taking on the Russian and Chinese crime syndicates in the City of Angels, Kang drives, fights and shoots his way across 240 miles of Los Angeles area real estate. Crime in progress? Kang is on the way. It's a Puma truck heist at the 3rd Street Promenade flagship store in Santa Monica. Nick Kang kicks butt and heads back to the streets for more adventure.
Kang is the virtual hero of "True Crime: Streets of L.A.," a video game from Activision. And Puma is one of Activision's marketing partners. Kang wears Puma clothing and occasionally drives past Puma billboards or benches in the virtually real L.A.
Play the game, buy the clothing
Players were able to watch video-game trailers on the Puma Web site and even buy Kang's clothing or footwear on a co-branded site when the game was released in November. Promotional winners could pick up Puma merchandise, and pre-release copies of "True Crime" were available at Puma stores.
Posted by richard ting at May 24, 2004, 12:30 PM
May 17, 2004
Product Placement Via Online Games
Marketers are increasingly turning to videogames--console-based, online, and so-called advergames that are built-to-order by advertisers seeking to create the ultimate in branded experiences. Product placement and promotion in videogames are part of the broader trend toward branded entertainment.
The trend is likely to spread across all media as marketers try to surround consumers with their brands everywhere they go. But there are unique opportunities in the online space. Take online games, for example. With each new plotline, episode, segment, or character downloaded, gamers can view new in-game advertising and promotional messages. The ability to swap out and update specific messages is easier with online games. The process also requires more monitoring and labor. With online games, there is an opportunity to interact with players, perhaps via instant messaging or opt-in, permission-based methods. There is the possibility of more data collection.
But how much intrusion will gamers accept? It's an entirely fair question. Poring over gaming blogs, MediaDailyNews reporter Ross Fadner noticed some strong reactions against heavy-handed, awkward efforts at product placement.
At this week's Electronic Entertainment Expo, otherwise known as E3, we can expect more developments in this area-this despite a few years of false starts. Despite the enormous success of its PC-based version of the game, Electronic Arts couldn't make a go of The Sims online. McDonald's and Intel appeared in the game. But no one can count EA out. At E3, the software publisher announced a deal to build online versions of its games for play on Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox Live online gaming service.
The deal will offer popular EA titles including NCAA Football, FIFA Soccer, Tiger Woods PGA Tour, and James Bond 007 in online versions for the Xbox Live service. I smell plenty of product placement opportunities here. Bounce Interactive Gaming, the new gaming unit formed under the banner of Y&R Advertising, and others like Starcom MediaVest Group's Play unit, are likely to jump on opportunities to negotiate integration on behalf of brand marketers. Media agencies, in particular, are in the catbird seat in terms of envisioning methods by which to streamline the process of brand integration for publishers and brands. But they can also be influential in creating branded experiences online that cause the least amount of disruption in the gaming experience.
But in the end, gamers will decide whether something offends or entertains, is valuable or simply gratuitous. For marketers, brand loyalty is at stake.
Tobi Elkin
Executive Editor
MediaPost Communications
Posted by richard ting at May 17, 2004, 05:32 AM
PointRoll Spawns A New Child--TomBoy
Who in the interactive industry isn't familiar with the PointRoll children: FatBoy, BadBoy, and TowelBoy? Today, PointRoll gives birth to its fourth child TomBoy, a gender-neutral enabling technology aptly named for its ad unit-neutrality.
PointRoll claims that TomBoy's value proposition to advertisers and agencies lies in the fact it can be deployed using any Web design tool, to any existing ad space, and file sizes can be unlimited.
PointRoll says TomBoy ads may contain any combination of messaging or imagery--video, audio, animation, Flash, Java, Gif, or JPEG. Within a TomBoy ad, says Jules Gardner, president-CEO, PointRoll, "you can build your own Web site if you want," in addition to being able to "track every conceivable action inside the ad."
According to Gardner, TomBoy won't expand, unlike other PointRoll offerings, because he says there's no need for it to. PointRoll's new ad campaign for the format says TomBoy offers advertisers "more K than you know what to do with."
