RES: [casual_games] Advergaming

Wed Apr 12 15:36:37 EDT 2006

I have been involved in the type of Advergaming that James describes (custom 
built games to promote a brand or product) for the past six years. 
Unfortunately, I am limited in my knowledge by the fact that almost all of my 
work has been with one company. That said, in my experience, the most important 
factor to a client is how you represent their brand and how you can meet any 
marketing goals that they have established for the project. For instance, they 
might want to show off all 15 styles of their latest Trapper Keeper (one of my 
first projects...shudder).

To demonstrate that you have this ability, it really helps to show prior work 
that was for a client. When I was on the client side, we would see a lot of 
really talented game developers, but there was always this issue as to whether 
they could do _our_ brand. It is often the case that small game developers are 
lacking design skills or that they are really good at _their_ style, but cannot 
adopt someone else's. That would be a deal breaker for us.

Most of our work has been direct for the client and not through an ad agency. I 
agree that this might be harder to come by, but I believe it's a lot better deal 
if you can get it. From my experience, when you work through an agency, they are 
usually accustomed to hiring freelancers to do a project and are not willing to 
pay a decent rate for a game. They are a middle man and they are going to take a 
large cut from the work that you do. If you are making games in Flash, they 
often assume that a game will cost the same as a website, and that's a gross 
underestimation. Additionally, they can be a lot more critical of the work that 
you do, because they are going to push you as far as they can before they show 
your work to their client.

As far as finding companies that you could sell Advergames directly to, I would 
suggest checking out sites that have a lot these games, finding out who you need 
to contact, and put your best foot forward. A lot of these companies are always 
looking for new vendors. I suggest looking at kids sites like Cartoon Network, 
Nick.com, Disney, Lego.com, etc.

-austin

Austin Haas
Pet Tomato, Inc.
http://www.pettomato.com

Jairo Margatho wrote:
> Dear All
> 
>  
> 
> I usually think about advergames as a innovation in advertising mix. Of 
> course the advergame is not enough as add. but i´m sure that is one of 
> the best way to develop a brand or product concept.
> 
> The main idea is develop a casual game which target people who isn’t 
> catch by TV, radio and magazines, what i´m saying is that advergames 
> targets people who works in front of computers and has no time to watch 
> tv. So, you can develop adds for workaholics, casual players and kids 9 
> in fact this kind of games don´t target hardcore gamers).
> 
> Advergames usually are demanded by Add Agencies, so you should seek for 
> this kind of players. The biggest problem for me is to develop advergame 
> culture inside add agencies, specially in Brazil…
> 
>  
> 
> Regards,
> 
>  
> 
> Jairo Margatho
> 
> Business Director
> 
>  
> 
> Délirus Entertainment
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> *De:* casual_games-bounces at igda.org 
> [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org] *Em nome de *Thomas H. Buscaglia
> *Enviada em:* quarta-feira, 12 de abril de 2006 14:36
> *Para:* IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List
> *Assunto:* Re: [casual_games] Advergaming
> 
>  
> 
> I recommend putting together a portfolio demonstrating your studios game 
> capabilities and sending to every ad agency you could find...then let 
> them tell you want they want...and all you have to do is tell them how 
> much.  Direct pitching to end users (the companies that actually use the 
> advergaming) is way too difficult and besides they all already have ad 
> agencies that they rely on to do this sort of thing.  So all you really 
> need in a few internal advocates within the agencies.  And hip gamers 
> who already "get it" in terms of the value of interactive multimedia as 
> a marketing tool are in those positions already.
> 
> Tom B
> 
> At 01:10 PM 4/12/2006, you wrote:
> 
> Hi.
>  
> I was wondering what companies would be considered as "leading experts" 
> in Advergaming? I need some advice since the concept isn't something I 
> deal with on a regular basis and, thus, do not exactly know how to 
> "pitch" properly. What are the "selling points", who should I consider 
> as primary "targets" for an idea, etc.
>  
> What do you generally think of Adwaregaming? Is it a "dirty" field or 
> something that is going to grow and get better? Do games and advertising 
> mix well?
>  
> Some background on my thoughts can be found here: www.jonasantonsson.com 
> <http://www.jonasantonsson.com/>. Basically I have an idea that would be 
> rather expensive to implement. My gut feeling tells me that the idea is 
> well suited for advergaming if I could pitch it to the right people and 
> with the right points.
>  
> Regards,
> Jónas Antonsson
> CEO, Gogogic
> jonas at gogogic.com
> www.gogogic.com <http://www.gogogic.com/>
> 
> www.jonasantonsson.com <http://www.jonasantonsson.com/> < 
> http://www.jonasantonsson.com <http://www.jonasantonsson.com/>> 
> 
> 
> 
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