Since the launch of AdWords in 2001, Google has grown into an advertising, video, and print ad, and has often been rumored to be on the radio and television. While many think that TV ads (ala Spot Runner) may be Google's next big move, they may be ignoring the biggest opportunity: in-game video game advertising.
Earlier this year Massive Incorporated, a video game advertising network, announced a landmark agreement with Major League Baseball and 2K Sports to provide strong advertising for the popular video game Major League Baseball 2K6. According to their media report, "Massive's network and technology allow MLB Advanced Media and 2K Sports titles to leverage powerful brand new message advertising in their games, symbolizing ever-changing and growing advertising opportunities in the live action sports industry."
Why Need Google Care?
The Entertainment Software Association put US sales of video game software and software at $ 7.3 billion back in 2004, a price that goes against the value of the Hollywood box office. In-game video game advertising is nothing new in the developing gaming industry - big companies have been buying stand-alone ads for games for years. New online game extensions have become commonplace. If reserved for PC Players only, console players have now discovered a new world of competition via broadband connection.
In a recent interview with TechNewsWorld, EA Schohn John, who manages the world's largest interactive game studio, was asked about in-game advertising: “Integrating in-game ads is a growing business as we see both advertisers and consumers wanting more. . It is an additional way to earn a small, but growing income. There is a power rating in this area with enabled ads. It's in the early stages [of] how the in-game ads will grow in value. ”
Starting with Microsoft's Xbox and Sony's PS2, and moving on to the next generation of online gaming with Microsoft's Xbox 360, Nintendo's Wii, and Sony's PS3, have become a visible guarantee that almost all players will be playing while connected to a broadband connection. With that broadband connection comes an opportunity for advertising that is hard to ignore.
Does History Repeat Itself?
A potential flaw in Massive Incorporated is that their ad network still only includes major advertisers. Massive's website does not provide specific information on how to purchase advertising, it only states that "blue-chip" advertisers can work with their "experienced" marketing team to start an account. I think it is safe to say that small businesses are not their target market. So while they use flexible ads, those ads are still only available to big business. Anyone familiar with online advertising can see the potential for history to repeat itself.
Back in 1996, long before Overture (now Yahoo! Search Marketing) and Google AdWords, a company called DoubleClick pioneered advertising website. Their downside, however, was that they needed a formal sales contract, limiting their customer base to large companies only. Overture and AdWords have made it easy for a small advertiser and a small site owner to participate in their ad networks, actually opening up their service to anyone on the web. A few years later, one would expect Google to take a closer look at what happened to Massive Incorporated. Massive may be the first to enter the market, but it is difficult to ignore the fact that the owner of a small business is always closed. Can Google Make Massive DoubleClick Next?
How Google Can Do It
Undoubtedly, by being the world's leading programmers Google is able to develop and improve Massive technology. It is also not difficult to imagine that advertisers pay per thousand dollars (PPM) for their text or image ads to be displayed on certain games, as they now do on certain sites. The hardest part for Google, however, will be the distribution of those ads.
Unlike registering websites to display their ads by copying certain code to their site, Google will need to work with game developers throughout the development process. This will be time consuming and could be very harmful to Google. In the same way that Massive has signed a contract with 2K, Google will have to sign major contracts with game developers and work with them for a few months to cover their ads.
This reinforces the fact that the big difference between what happened with DoubleClick and what could happen with video games is that it would probably be a lot of work for Google to spread their ads across multiple channels (i.e. multiple games). Since each game is set differently, no game like JavaScript is used in all AdSense ads. Every game will need to be compatible with each Google ad network. Hard: yes. Not happening on Google: no way.
When Will They Do It?
In my opinion it is not a matter of if, if a matter of when. The potential revenue from the gaming industry is too great for Google to ignore. Oh, and if you are still unsure, consider this: Microsoft, one of Google's biggest competitors, is also producing the Xbox 360. If Microsoft decides to integrate their newly launched adCenter into Xbox games, would it surprise anyone if Does Google oppose announcing an agreement with Sony or Nintendo to integrate in-game game advertising for PS3 or Wii?
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