Funny to read over on the Hollywood Reporter that advertisers are waiting for a computer-programmed metric on which to gauge the effectiveness of ads in videogames. From the article (Link):
“This is such a new market for advertisers that only some are willing to test the waters before knowing what they’re getting for their money,” he explains. “They see the value of video game advertising in that this is a highly sought-after demographic and difficult to reach through other media. And they’ll base their decisions on some of our data that we’re doing in a custom fashion. But, for video game advertising to hit critical mass, we need to have that ongoing metric. That’s when we’ll see explosive growth, like the 56% compounded annual growth we saw in Internet advertising, which we believe is largely due to the measurability of that medium. We think we’re going to see similar types of compounded annual growth for video games once we get measurement.”
…
“If you talk to companies like Massive Inc. [which serves dynamic advertising onto video games], they will say that they know who is seeing their ads,” Jackson says. “But what many advertisers are waiting for is somebody who’s independent to say, yes, that cola ad got 200,000 impressions within the game ‘Splinter Cell’ last week, for example.
They “think” but they’re not acting? What… there’s more than just statistical data in Nielsen’s television metric? I mean, I realize statistics is powerful stuff, but if it’s okay to fudge a few things for teevee, isn’t it okay to do the same for online activities? Heck, start calling people up and doing surveys if you want to verify Massive’s data. There has to be a creative, independent way to confirm their claims.
Oh wait, those guys are still locked into that vestige of a bygone era: the 30-second commercial spot. They’re o-k with fudging for television because it’s got a long track record and they can gauge the risk, but now they want independently-verifiable confirmation using some kind of embedded code that effectively removes all the risk (as if that will ever be possible).
I’m probably missing something here, but this sure seems to me like a bunch of sheep waiting for a border collie to lead them to water. No wonder things are taking so long. Stick those hooves in already.
via Blue’s News
{Update – I forgot all about this little gem: Link. Hey ad people, get some gamers to wear these things.}