Is there a diet coke in my counter strike?

Michael Wood from Tweed London
Product placement in computer games

Massive bought by microsoft

Video games is experiencing a massive growth in popularity

Main players: Massive, Tweed London, Double Fusion, ITA

Advertising in games ranges from arcade machines to ipods

Ages playing computer games:
6-10 (100% playing games)
11 – 15 (96% playing games)
16 – 24 ( 85% playing games)
25 – 35 (63% playing games)
36 – 50 (50% playing games)
51 – 65 (17% playing games)

In-game advertising (static and dynamic)
Static: strengths tailored brand experiences possible, you can make your brand part of the storyline.
weaknesses: very long lead times, difficult to locate potential titles, poor audience tracking and measurement. Price (100.000 – 150.000). Audience 100.000 – 2.000.000. Expected return increased awareness of message.

Dynamic: Strengths cpm cost, strong tracking, quick deployment, strong audience targeting.
Weaknesses: Limited number of titles, limited brand expression (in the future the technology could be used for product placement in TV and films). Price ca. 30 euro CPM. 20.000 – 200.000. Expected return: increased awareness in specific geography, target audience etc.

Advergaming (creation of games specific to your brand or product). Strengths: Tailored brand experiences possible. Weaknesses: Long lead times, unpredictable audiences size, poor audience tracking and measurement. Contextual brand relevance is hugely important. Burger king producing games for x-box live and are selling them at discount prices.
Advertisers: visa, nokia, orange, p&g, tesco, budweiser, burger king. Cost: 20.000 – 500.000. Audience size 20.000 – 2.000.000. CTR of up to 1%.

Sponsorship etc.

Market size 2010: 1 – 3% of US mediaspend.

2007: A very important year: New technologies and new consoles. A huge increase in online connectivity. Time, place and demographics will become increasingly possible to specify.

Problems:
A lack of simple (and replicable) deployment method
Lack of credibility
Too few titles
Too small an audience
Lack of knowledge (from agencies)
Too few case studies

Summary:
Video games is a leading media
All advertisers need to recognise this
FMCG advertising should have a video strategy
in game will grow rapidly over the next 5 years
advergamers will increase in size and ambition
Games will not be ruined by advertising