Combos, 2-in-1’s, and other dynamic and even crazy combinations are now the in thing in almost everything. Food, music, shows, clothes… EVERYTHING. Even in gadgets and features in these certain gadgets are taking a sure-shot combination to success and marketability. And speaking of marketing, there’s this combo trend that combines gaming and advertising. Advergaming!

Advergaming is the concept of promoting a brand or product through online games. This is when a certain product or service posts its advertising campaign (a logo, banner, or a picture of a new product and/or service) at any part of an online game. Some have their banners placed at the side of the game screen, some are flashed while waiting for the game to load, and some are even right exactly at the game play.
But what is the edge of Advergaming, you may ask? The simple fact that internet is now the new media spells all the difference. Television may still be there but not all people have the time to watch. Radio is dying, and so is print. Everything is in technology. And since gaming is one of the most successful online industries, it is best to invest in it.

The online game hype and the need for companies to advertise are some of the roots that gave birth to Advergaming. Advergaming creates brand awareness making it easier to sell a product. With the proper market
research, a company would know who are their target market and would know how to target them.

Say for example a clothing brand. They could advertise in games that includes an avatar dress up, or a shopping game. There, they could put their brand names and can easily encourage the player to try on some of their products.

There are more techniques in Advergaming depending on how companies would take a look at it. It might be on different perspectives, but still they are on one branch of advertising.

Mobile games provide media companies with an effective way to promote digital content, products and brands to vital segments of their base.

Advergaming-on-the-fly makes it easy to develop your own game. With the net result of boosting brand impact from unique and engaging mobile game experiences.

Games are a rapidly developing segment of the global mobile market. The impact from iPhone and improved handset capabilities mark an important turning point. This means more people buying smartphones or feature-phones.

Mobile has become a way to express your personality and lifestyle and more importantly to provide entertainment when hanging out with friends, waiting around or travelling. Advertisers and agencies benefit from advergaming with effective, measurable and non-intrusive solutions to connect with their audience when they are immerse in mobile leisure.

Mobile advergaming will…

-        Complement your advertising scope with a new medium with penetration indexes above other media like TV or radio.

-        Allow you to interact with the user: making phone calls, participate in a ranking online, send SMS or collect data.

-        Create advertising mixed with entertainment, as the advertiser’s brand appears throughout the game

-        Create a community around the brand, shared and connected with main social networks such Facebook.

mmCHANNEL and its sister company Unkasoft are experienced partners for helping you to build your mobile apps, games or website. We’ve worked with over 100 household brands and their ad and creative agencies.

Watch our short clip on Mobile Advergaming

És temptador afirmar que les aplicacions de Facebook són una pèrdua de temps. Que tenir una granja virtual és infantil o que es tracta d’un joc per a frikis que mai surten de casa. Però no ens hem d’oblidar de mirar l’altra cara de la moneda; es tracta de jocs fins a cert punt addictius que mouen quantitats gens menyspreables de diners.

Zynga, la companyia de jocs per a xarxes socials més exitosa (amb jocs com FarmVille, YoVille o Zynga Poker), segons algunes estimacions, guanya 250 milions de dòlars cada any. Com monetitzen el seus jocs (tots els quals són gratuits)? De tres maneres: en primer lloc a través d’anuncis, després a través de transaccions de béns virtuals i per acabar, amb programes de generació de leads (usuaris interessats en comprar un servei).

Per monetitzar qualsevol joc o startup, cal obtenir un volum significant d’usuaris, ja siguin nous o recurrents. Com aconsegueix FarmVille que juguem més d’un cop, que hi juguem dia rere dia? Les claus són la gratificació postposada (un cop plantada una collita, haurem d’esperar un mínim de dues hores i un màxim de tres dies per poder recollir-la i guanyar diners), fomentant els regals entre usuaris (per afegir-hi viralitat) i demanant constantment que publiquem notícies sobre el joc al nostre mur.

FarmVille atreu 11 milions d’usuaris cada dia, i creix a un ritme exponencial, amb 1 milió d’usuaris nous cada setmana.

Entrant al terreny de la publicitat, durant la setmana passada i coincidint amb la celebració de Halloween, es podien comprar Carbasses i altres decoracions característiques. Durant aquesta setmana, el que es pot adquirir són marques d’aliens i una vaca alienígena. Les oportunitats per incorporar-hi productes o fins i tot per lligar-ho amb llançaments de películes són infites. I donada la gran popularitat d’aquests jocs així com la repetició diària de la visita, podem aconseguir arribar al nostre públic objectiu per un nou canal.

Total Immersion debuts first facial recognition Augmented Reality Facebook application: “Go Hamster Go!”

Ranked #1 AR application of 2009 by several sources.

It’s two in morning and I can’t sleep.
Today we moved part of Hyzonia, essentially its Core and global services to a new server. Finally. It’s a Windows 2008, and I quite surprised how smooth this transition was, so far.

I’m trying to stimulate! the moods in the company. I’m trying to be more passionate, talk and make people talk more. The goal is to make most of everybody’s intelligence. Everyone should feel she has an effect on business decisions. I don’t need man power, I need mind power. It requires quite a force to shake this high inertia, change opposing company. I’m relaxing many rules, and I’m handing over many decision making tasks to my team. We gotta be a team that play together with our minds not our muscles. I’m already seeing some results and I expect to observe a measurable improvement in a matter of few weeks. We are starting new exciting projects, some of them are just show-offs (read it releases) and some are absolutely new crazy wild ideas.

Sometime I feel I’ve lost much of my passions, but I’m trying hard to prove it’s a wrong, evil feeling. Most of all Richard Dawkins is helping me to remember I supposed to be more a scientist than a boring business man.

My team is energized since we got somebody in NetAd to work with our game customization API. Back in two week ago I was arguing that the whole customization API was a waste of time, I was thinking nobody will use it and eventually it would be our job to customize the games. I’m happy (indeed) that I was wrong. And you know there’s nothing more funnier, more relaxing than being happy because you were wrong.

Anyway, we launched HyzoGames that contains some samples of the customized games. We’re trying to keep Hyzonia Twitter account active. So if you care, follow us there.

No, I can’t take it anymore, ‘night!

Are you an old school gamer? Do you have a blog? Do you like Robots? Here are some images free for your use! AO-Maru is a real digital hero…born in 3d and able to go back in time to days more…pixelated.

This image is free for your use under the JesterArts End User Agreement: http://www.jesterartsillustrations.com/eula Larger sized images available on my website.

By Kristin Snyder
October 8, 2009

ADVERTISEMENT OR GAME?

What do you get when you combine a commercial with a game? You get advergaming! Advergaming is the practice of using video games to advertise a product, organization or viewpoint. It can be played on the internet or even on your mobile phone. There are advergames for all ages, with some advertisement are subtle while others are more direct. The gaming industry is very large and it continues to grow, but does incorporating brands within the game work?

It comes down to interaction. Instead of consumers watching a :30 second commercial, advergaming allows consumers to interact with a brand for an extended period of time. The engaging nature of advergaming holds the attentions of consumers longer, allowing e-tailers to educate them about new products or product features.
Further, advergaming lines up with social networking when one consumer emails the game or link to friends and they forward to their friends, this aids in extending the advertising reach.

In January, 2009 ComScore released a study which showed that “the category has grown 27 percent during the past year to 86 million visitors in December 2008, while the total time spent playing online games has jumped 42 percent. Americans’ total share of Internet time spent playing online games grew from 3.7 percent in December 2007 to 4.9 percent in December 2008.”

ComScore

ComScore

Advergames are typically free but some sites do require consumers to create an account, and sometimes actually pay to play the games. In addition some advertisers just throw their logo on any game, games that do not have any correlation with the brand. If budgets allow, advertisers need to create custom games that integrate the brand into the game in a function that creates a natural association.

The facts are in, advergaming works. It is time to try this advertising medium, if you do, do it the right way and spend the money to create a game that makes since for your brand. Don’t be just another PacMan game with a logo thrown on it.

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