Not kids' play

Jean-Paul Edwards, head of OMD Media Futures at Manning Gottlieb OMD, says it is not hard to see why brands like in-game advertising -

"What is interesting is that it demands the consumer's attention, because if they are not concentrating on the game, they will die, crash, lose or whatever. In this media-fragmented world, where it is hard to capture people's attention, that is not something that is easily sniffed at".

Before I ask about its billing format, I read this –

“Users have to see ads at a given size and angle for 10 seconds for it to register an impression. Ads are then billed on a CPM (cost per 1000 impressions) basis. Other in-game ad specialists, including Double Fusion and Microsoft's Massive, take a different approach. They also require a user to have seen an ad for 10 seconds, but allow this period to be made up of half-second units, meaning that an impression can be registered when a gamer sees an ad on one occasion for 10 seconds, or glimpses it on 20 occasions for only half a second each time.”

But it is not without its share of issues. Dave Hompe, group media director at digital network Isobar, the issue with in-game ad measurement is the same one that affects all online advertising.

“In the TV market, everything is compared to the relevant impact of a 30-second spot. We do not have those multipliers for impressions, either for gaming or for standard online advertising. That kind of insight just isn't available. A lot of brands and companies are starting to see this as a challenge. The first stage is when clients say, "Let's assess relative efficiency for $1 invested in TV versus online versus in-game advertising." This is the ultimate prize. We are probably not at the point yet where can make that assessment, but we can see there is an absolute value in using multiple channels for campaigns. The tricky part is finding the right balance.”

On-line gaming itself is innovation at best. Now devising a metric could hardly be the stand-off. I think it’s just a question of time.

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