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Pup no More
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Get in the Game by Chris Powell for marketingmag.ca
Quote:
As gaming increasingly chews into consumer time spent with traditional media,
marketers who don't want to be shut out are pushing their brands right into the content.
If you're a marketer or media buyer who thinks the notion of adding video games to your marketing mix is bananas...well, you might be onto something.
Last year, game developer Sega of America introduced a kid-friendly game for the Nintendo GameCube system called Super Monkey Ball. The object of the game is to guide a monkey encased in a transparent ball through a variety of mazes before time expires.
In a time-honoured video game scenario, players are rewarded with an extra life by collecting 100 of the bananas liberally scattered throughout each of the various levels. In an a-peeling bit of brand positioning, each life-giving banana features the Dole Food Company's distinctive sunburst logo.
Marta Maitles, director of communications for the Dole Fresh Fruit Company-a division of the Dole Food Company based in Westlake Village, Calif.-says the North American marketing initiative stemmed from a co-branding agreement between Dole Asia and the Sega Corporation of Japan. As part of the agreement, Dole bananas in Asian grocery stores bore a sticker promoting Super Monkey Ball.
"Sega was having such success with the game that when it came time to release it in North America, they asked Dole if they could have permission to keep the logos on the product," says Maitles. "Since the game itself was a very fun game and geared towards children as well as families, we thought 'it can't hurt.' "
Maitles says that since consuming Dole bananas extended the Super Monkey Ball character's life, the initiative was intended to generate a "monkey see, monkey do" response from younger players. Maitles says there's no empirical evidence the venture generated more banana sales, but there were calls to Dole's toll-free number from people pleased to see the Dole logo in the game.
Dole is one of a growing bunch of marketers harnessing the power of video games. It's an area some analysts, media practitioners and gaming executives believe is poised for explosive growth.
In a report issued in April, San Diego-based DFC Intelligence-a research and consulting firm specializing in interactive entertainment and the video game, streaming media and interactive television markets-projected that the worldwide market for video games, computer games and interactive entertainment hardware and software will grow to US$30 billion (C$41.3 billion) by 2007.
In yet another trend that speaks volumes about gaming's increased clout, many of this summer's blockbuster movies-including The Hulk, The Matrix Reloaded and the animated kids' flick Finding Nemo-were accompanied by a game spin-off. In some cases, such as Atari's Enter the Matrix, the video game delivers a storyline that runs concurrent to the movie it's based on-providing some of the back story the movie may not have time to deliver.
During his keynote address at the Canadian Media Directors' Council's annual conference earlier this year, Carat North America CEO David Verklin put gaming first on a list of seven trends to which people in the media industry should pay attention. Gaming, he told the assembled media directors, "holds a number of clues to the integration of advertising and content."
TIME FOR PLAY
One media agency has already given the (presumably swollen) thumbs-up to video game advertising. In June, Chicago-based Starcom MediaVest Group announced the creation of Play-a new division devoted solely to the consumer gaming market. Touted as the first company of its kind in the gaming space, Play will advocate the video game industry as a viable, measurable communications medium.
"In recent years, gaming has pervaded popular culture, the mass media and millions of households all over the world," said SMG CEO Jack Klues in a statement. "The gaming industry's financial influence is irrefutable. Larger than the motion picture box office in terms of revenue, and growing at three times the pace, gaming is a path to more than 145 million rapt customers of all ages."
Play will operate out of offices in Chicago and Los Angeles, but Paul Maher, CEO of Starcom MediaVest Group's Toronto-based operation, says the division's expertise will be offered to Canadian clients within the next couple of months.
"We see (gaming) as a valuable advertising medium and as a good learning experience in terms of how young consumers are changing the way they behave in terms of interactive communication," says Maher. "Play is not only about understanding the opportunities in gaming itself, it gives us a window into what happens in a more interactive media environment-which has implications across a number of different vehicles."
The allure of video games for marketers is two-fold, says DFC Intelligence president David Cole: It provides an avenue to a coveted demographic, while providing the type of "sticky, immersive content" that keeps consumers engaged.
Brian Coleman, director of marketing for Burnaby, B.C. -based EA Sports-a division of gaming giant Electronic Arts responsible for popular sports titles including the NHL, Madden and FIFA soccer series-says that a popular sports title can generate upwards of 100 hours of game-play.
"We know the hard-core consumers play the game on average five or six times a week, for one or two hours a session," says Coleman. "If I'm a hard-core NHL player, I'm playing full season and playoffs. I could be playing the season mode with my top three teams."
With North American gaming revenues having already surpassed box office receipts and closing in fast on the beleaguered recorded music industry, some gaming insiders are convinced the segment poses a challenge to other traditional forms of entertainment.
"The advertising community is waking up to video games because they're becoming increasingly more important in the entertainment mix of Canadians," says Ron Bertram, vice-president and general manager of Nintendo Canada. "When people go home and decide what they're going to do-watch TV, go for a walk, listen to music or play games-games are increasingly becoming one of the primary entertainment choices.
"As an advertiser and marketer, you have to be aware that TV's importance is dropping, radio's importance is dropping and video-gaming is more important."
But while marketers are expressing an interest in video game advertising, game manufacturers are also receptive to overtures from the advertising community. The reason? Well, money of course.
Many of today's games feature cutting-edge, photo-realistic graphics, complicated plot lines, licensed music and in some cases celebrity voice talent (Rockstar Games' crime saga Grand Theft Auto: Vice City features the voices of Ray Liotta, Dennis Hopper, Burt Reynolds and porn star Jenna Jameson; the upcoming Activision game True Crime: Streets of L.A. features the voices of Christopher Walken, Gary Oldman and Michael Madsen). All of these things cost money. Lots of money.
Developed from scratch-as opposed to simply grafting an update onto an existing gaming engine-an A-list title such as a Grand Theft Auto can be incredibly expensive to produce says Bertram (in a May state-of-the-industry speech, Interactive Digital Software Association president Douglas Lowenstein pegged the amount at between US$5 million to US$10 million, or C$7 million to C$14 million). "As technology develops, games get more and more expensive to make," says Bertram. "Anything that offsets the cost is obviously looked at."
While this doesn't mean we should expect to see characters like Lara Kraft or games like Labatt Blue Raider anytime soon, a precedent for such developments exists.
In the early 1990s, several prominent multinationals introduced branded video games for systems including the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), Sega Genesis and even PCs featuring popular mascots of the time. In 1993, Virgin Interactive introduced a game called Cool Spot, in which players controlled the popular 7UP mascot Spot. The same company also introduced a game called McDonald Land, in which players embarked on a quest, sanctioned by Ronald McDonald himself, to help retrieve the Magic Bag from the evil Hamburglar.
Other video games- all bearing the US$50 (C$69) price tag that games of the day fetched-featured Dominos Pizza's Noid mascot (Yo! Noid, which also included a $1 off coupon for Dominos Pizza on the back of the instruction booklet) and the Cheetos mascot Chester Cheetah (Chester Cheetah: Too Cool to Fool and Chester Cheetah: Wild Wild Quest).
Such tactics would probably flop now says SMG's Maher, since today's consumers can spot a marketing ploy at 100 Mario paces. "They see through obvious marketing exploitation," he says. "If it's just blatant in-your-face traditional marketing put into the gaming environment, consumers are too smart for that."
DFC's Cole agrees that such tactics weren't the future of in-game advertising and are unlikely to make a comeback. Cole says today's marketing initiatives focus mostly on product placement, which he calls "a very limited area."
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