[casual_games] In-Game Advertising Hurdles

[Jeff Murray]

I've dealt with a lot of different brands and advertisers and I think
you nailed it on the head, Damon. The advertising world all too often
appears to have little or no knowledge of interactive. I wish I could
share some of the incredible things advertisers have asked for ... oh,
and it has to be less than 500kb in download size, full 3d, joystick
support, work on all platforms and cost less than a 2 second tv spot
during the wee early hours!

 

Being able to deal with and manage client expectations is the biggest
hurdle I've come across. Advertisers concentrate very little on
delivering the best within the constraints and are often so concerned
with the aesthetic that they overlook the actual experience. Without the
ability to understand the constraints of, say, browser-based delivery
and why they can't have that 1024x1024 50mb image as a 20mb cd-quality
mp3 plays in the background, is something that frequently crops up in
advergame dev. Having good client service managers to try and
communicate this is a great start, but not always the most practical
route.

 

Since I certainly don't want to slap logos on tired old concepts, it's
extremely difficult to get advertisers to think about 'how to build a
game AROUND a brand, not slap a brand ON to a game'. It's also extremely
difficult to get advertisers to understand quality over quantity - 'game
design by checklist' is what I call it - that's when someone has
obviously been through a bunch of similar games making a checklist of
features for their own version. Often 'game design by checklist' leads
to the mentality of 'if that game had x number of features, we want x
number more', when a much better approach would be to find the core
experience and concentrate on making that the most entertaining
possible. 

 

People remember good experiences a lot more than bad ones, so it makes
sense to try and make people enjoy the games rather than watch
slideshows of new and un-exciting product features - it's just that the
'old school' advertising folk just haven't caught on yet!

 

Rant over :p

 

Them's my two cents on the subject, anyways .. I should probably stress
that this is my personal opinion etc. disclaimer blah ;)

 

Jeff.

 

Jeff Murray  |  Director, Game Development

FUEL INDUSTRIES
tel: 613.224.6738
www.fuelindustries.com <http://www.fuelindustries.com/> 

________________________________

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://seven.pairlist.net/pipermail/casual_games/attachments/20080709/7fbf98ca/attachment.html>