You are playing a game on your mobile, or even online, and you have to score a goal. Look closely and you find that the scoreboard in the background clearly says Coca-Cola.
That's advergaming for you -- a juxtaposition of advertising and gaming, where a game on the mobile or an online platform revolves around a brand.
Increasingly, gaming companies are including brands in the games that they create for mobile and the Internet. Jump Games, for instance, is pretty pleased with the response to its six-month-old game featuring ITC's snack brand Bingo, which has already done one lakh downloads. Jump Games, that launched the mobile game Thums Up Everest Challenge in 2005, is now working with Coca-Cola and ITC.
Says the company's CEO, Salil Bhargava: "The medium may be new, but advertisers are accepting it rapidly due to its unmatched advantages."
Advertisers benefit as the medium is sticky: The brand is at the centre of consumer attention for between 5 to 8 minutes. Unlike in other media, the consumer cannot turn the page, switch channels or close the pop-up ad that may appear on the Net.
"Moreover, the medium delivers a clearly targeted demographic profile -- consumers between the age of 14 and 25 years," says Bhargava.
The game can also be used to collect consumer information through registration. Little surprise, then, that companies are exploring advergaming options for better brand recall.
Zapak.com has also attracted a number of brands. It boasts of over 4 million users, which has prompted brands such as Allen Solly, John Players, Cadbury, P&G, Ponds, Thums Up, Parle, Adidas, Garnier, NDTV Imagine, Sahara One, ESPN STAR, Airtel, Tata Sky, Cobra beer et al, to jump on board. Internationally, the format has been successfully used by brands such as BMW, Budweiser, Sears, Toyota, Taco Bell and Coca-Cola, among others.
In fact, some of the advergames became so popular that they started generating revenue through game sales. Burger King is said to have sold 3.2 million Xbox games in a six-week period during the holiday season. To be sure, the advergaming benefits don't accrue to the advertisers alone.
Rohit Sharma, COO of Zapak Digital Entertainment Ltd, sees a huge potential in the business for the gaming companies as well. "With the craze for gaming steadily picking up in India, we believe advergaming will account for more than 50 per cent of all gaming revenues in about three years." It's good news since the cost of game development is at an all-time high.
According to an analysis by the market research group eMarketer, video game advertising will grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 23 per cent, reaching $2 billion by 2011. In the US, it will touch $969 million during the same period.
Leroy Alvares, country head of Tribal DDB India, says advergaming will be the most popular digital advertising medium. "The only thing to be kept in mind is that the message should be integrated proportionately. The brand should not rob the game of its interest," he concludes.
