Sunday, June 12, 2011

Other Forms of Digital Marketing

I was recently playing a video game (not a usual thing for me) and while the game was loading, an advertisement popped up. I never knew that this digital medium was used to sell ads. I think it is a very effective way to market a product because a) you can tailor the ad to the user depending on the game or other data collected from the console and b) people are basically forced to watch the ad because they are waiting to play a game.

I think this type of advertising will continue to grow. If you can display ads while people are waiting AND those people can't just turn off the ad, you are more likely to grab their attention. One example of this is digital signage at queues for a store (grocery, electronics, pharmacy etc.). The downside is that you could alienate customers or cause them to completely tune out the ad if they feel it is too intrusive. Another example of this are screens that display ads at urinals in men's restrooms. I have even read that some of those ads are interactive.

As the world gets more digitized, marketers will continue to innovate the way ads are consumed. Clearly my examples have been around for a while but I'm curious to know what others think will be the next big thing in digital marketing (outside the realm of the internet).

1 comment:

nachoa18 said...

From what I know, in-game advertising has been out there for a few years now and is large and growing (it’s even trending to be a $1 billion industry by 2014 according to JJ Richards – general manager of Microsoft’s in-game ad subsidiary, Massive). And according to an article I read, it seems that in-game advertising works. A study conducted by Nielsen focused on the affect of Gatorade advertisements found in six EA Sports titles, and concluded that these game advertisements increased household dollars spent on Gatorade by 24 percent, and offered a return on investment of $3.11.

See full article:

http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/09/15/5115344-video-game-advertisements-will-make-you-buy-stuff

So Yes, I think that, with advertisers always looking for new ways to get into our unconscious need for buying, this form of advertisement will probably grow even further. It has even already started in mobile games as well (i.e. Angry Birds!).

Another nice article on the subject is:

http://www.yakkonline.com/2011/04/in-game-advertising-is-industry-selling.html