LA's biggest
convention of the year isn't the film industry's -- it’s the video game
industry’s! And marketers have something to learn.
The week of May 16th, the LA Convention Center was taken over by the video games
business when the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) came to town. And there
was a lot that online advertisers could have learned there to make their messages
more compelling.
The video games market is exploding onto the mainstream entertainment scene.
It’s invading buses, trains, and airplanes, and it’s on PSPs and
cell phones, and is dominating male living rooms across America. So what do
we know about guys who like games? They like action and challenges, and they
look to be invited to search for more about a product or service. Broadband
penetration among many game sites exceeds 90%, and these young guys are waiting
to be entertained. The bar is much higher on game sites than on almost any other
legitimate genre on the Web.
The
hottest area of new broadband advertising is streaming video. Many
agencies are now doing upfront buys for video streams like their TV counterparts.
Good inventory is hard to come by and prices are high. Video is hot now, and
many sites are running pre-roll ads in front of streamed content. This is a
compelling experience for broadband users that has high brand impact around
high demand content.
Game sites such as IGN have video features in a members-only subscriber area.
Gamespot also has a subscriber-only video area and a free video channel. Unfortunately,
its player allows both the content and the video ad to play at the same time
which, in my case, played the music of a Vonage ad while I was trying to watch
the Forza Motorsports video preview. GameDaily launched its own video channel
recently with a play list of rotating trailers and content with ads interspersed
after each pair of content pieces.
Looking at ads that run on video game sites such as GameDaily, Gamespot, and
IGN, we see that most of the ads are highly interactive with a lot of Flash,
video, and all the rich media formats.
Three specific ads are worth mentioning:
Assault on Precinct 13 DVD ad.
This full-page
interstitial points to a highly interactive site that includes movie trailers,
DVD bonus features, music, and downloads. When you get to the site, it starts
playing some Spanish-language hip-hop. It's cool, but a bit much to start having
your computer blare it out in the office. The site also includes photos, clips,
and an entertaining Flash game where you have to shoot a shadow figure moving
behind an open door. The game is fun, simple, yet entertaining and edgy. No
need for complex instructions; just blast away. The site is an entertaining
experience worth exploring for 10 minutes.
God
Of War game on PlayStation 2.
This gaming site looks promising. The look is cool and there are little animations
on the page that add some nice flourishes, as do the voiceover and background
music. However, the intro screen blares out with a monster's scream with no
option to mute as the page loads. In fact, there is no mute button at all for
the (loud) audio until you get two layers deep into the site and, even then,
it's hard to find. The graphics are very well done, but the site is Flash-heavy
and very slow to load which breaks the flow of the experience. Overall, the
site is a bit overdesigned without a compelling reason to use it. For example,
there is no request for user interaction (i.e., get more info, order the game,
join a board, etc.) which is something that's required for today's game sites.
Bottom line: I didn't get a clear picture of why I should care about or buy
the game in the five minutes I used the site.
Nokia NBA2K5.
The site is sponsored by Nokia's cool new handset, the 6255i, but is about the
Take 2 Interactive game "NBA 2K5" for PS2 and Xbox. There is not much
exciting broadband content on the site. Instead, it points users to tournaments
on both PS2 online and Xbox Live services with links for people to sign up or
buy the game. There is also a big prize: a three-day trip to New York for the
finals and a $10,000 prize for the best. The winners will be chosen from the
top 256 competitors on both platforms. It's a cool idea. I was searching to
see if the game was on cell phones. It's not, so Nokia's tie-in is just to be
hip in front of this audience. A subtle, tasteful, yet entertaining experience
without screaming broadband and rich media all over the place.
The young male game consumer wants to be entertained. These three ads show some
of the work that's in the market now trying to reach these broadband-enabled,
media-hungry consumers. Clearly, we are still in the early days of rich media
ads, and the video-game focused Web sites are the front line.
Three tips to make sure the experience is a good one for this customer:
Know your audience and what they want. If they are watching
video, give it to them. True, it's hard to measure accurately with clicks, as
most content is not easily click-enabled, and many young male users just want
the "watch and enjoy" part of video. But trust in the power of the
brand message of video.
Test the creative. Please. Too often, the video doesn't run
correctly, or the Flash file isn't tested. Make sure it works the way you want
it to before it goes live.
Be bold and try new things. You have a receptive audience out
there. Come up with big ideas (or ask your agency to push the envelope). Try
a frequency-capped buy on a game-focused site and measure the feedback.
I'm hunting for more cool broadband ads with compelling messages for games and
the game consumer. If you have any favorites, please email them to me. mark@gamedaily.com