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In-Game Advertising works – if all parties involved observe the rules. Brands such as VW, Jack Wolfskin and Coke Zero already benefit from high recognition rates. Poor placement, on the other hand, may cause complete disregard for an ad, as Puma had to experience in the artificial testing environment. Gamematrix’ experimental eye-tracking analysis reveals the strengths and weaknesses of the medium. The study proves that it is not enough to be constantly present in the field of view – placement and design are the key elements for the success of in-game advertising. Taking the collected data as a basis, the researchers offer some essential guidance to the advertising and games industries.

Erding, August 25th 2009 – The analysis, which was carried through by gamematrix, the research department of 11 Prozent Communication, and the University of Offenburg, shows that in-game advertising can be effective – under certain conditions. “Product advertising only works in context with the brand, otherwise it remains unnoticed”, says Carsten Szameitat, research leader gamematrix, managing director 11 Prozent Communication. “Brands strongly benefit from in-game advertising as their recognition rates increase by 30 percent.” Thus, advertising in computer games is well suited to convey an image and to bring the brand to mind.

The following effects could be identified during the analysis:

– Money spent on games: About 60 percent of the respondents stated that they played computer games but did not spend any money on games.
– The average player prefers to play offline on a PC and in single-player mode.
– A memory test showed that brands represented in a game could be remembered faster after playing the game than brands, which were not represented.
– Popular brands could even be linked to their appearance in the game. Volkswagen for example reached a memory quota of 84 percent.
– Some probands believed to have recognized advertisings that did not appear at all. The respective brands might consider this for future advertising activities.
– Despite being constantly present (31 placings), the brand react was barely noticed and did not achieve more than 20 percent of the attention VW achieved with only one strong placement. This clearly shows the enormous influence of placement on the effect of an advertisement.
– The poor performance of badly placed ads also became obvious in the soccer game. Well-placed brands achieved twice the amount of advertising fixation than Puma, which was barely noticed because of its unfavourable placement in the artificial testing environment.

More information on: http://www.11prozent.de/englisch/study.html