Advergames and You

Imagine an advert that:

You don’t have to place
Lasts for five, six, even seven minutes at a time
Your customers will watch by choice
Your audience can interact with, rather than passively watch

It sounds like a fantasy, unless you’re talking about an advergame. Our 2009 advergame for Cancer Research has had over 36 years worth of direct interaction between supporters and the brand. Are you sure about placing that ad now? Let me tell you more….

We all know that with traditional advertising, it can be difficult to hold consumers’ attention. A typical TV spot gives you around thirty seconds to make an impression and print ads have to make their point almost immediately.

With an advergame however, you can hold a person’s attention for a theoretically indefinite amount of time. Advertising stops being a passive exercise when you give your customers something to engage with, allowing you to build customer loyalty through positive emotional attachment.

For example, our “Escape to Plastic Beach” game for the Gorillaz has an average playtime of around 8.5 minutes. That’s the equivalent of seventeen TV commercials, and the whole time the player is swimming in branded elements – sometimes literally.

Advergames can also reach places that traditional advertising can’t easily get to. An advergame has the same world of mouth element that a TV commercial or a print ad have, and it’s much more portable. Social networks like Facebook and Netlog have made sharing content easier than ever before, and this allows your brand to reach its audience without having to pay for a choice billboard or a prime slot on the television. If your game is good enough, people will come to you, rather than you having to go to them.

This portability doesn’t come at the expense of reach either, because an advergame can accumulate millions of plays. The game we made for Lily Allen, “Escape the Fear”, has been played nearly six million times since December 2008. The fact that we’re talking about a game that came out more than a year ago also neatly illustrates the third point, that advergames have a much longer shelf life than traditional advertising. A well made game will continue to attract players on a much longer timeline than a print advert, and will remain current much longer than a TV commercial.

36 million users and counting…

Let it Flow 36 million users and counting…

With so much of the word now online, advergames are the smart way of reaching your audience in a way that they will remember and talk about. And if you want to talk about return on investment for advergaming vs. traditional advertising? Advergaming is in a different league.

You know who to call. Jeff.

June 2010