Promo - January 2009 - (Page 8)

10 Dr Pepper 11 retail 15 interactive 16 EXPERIENTIAL THE PLAYERS Casual Games, Serious Marketing Now that the flood of pre-holiday advertising for console and computer-based games is finally receding, it may be time to remember that for many people, game playing is truly a casual affair. Rather than sitting down to a marathon, hours-long session of strategy or a massive, multiplayer game supported by a fridge full of energy drinks and snacks, they tend to grab a few free moments on the Web to try their skill at one of many simple games that they can start and stop as time demands. Growth in gamer audiences, time spent, mean more engagement with brands/Brian Quinton is not the ads placed inside the games, the report notes, but the amount of engagement created with the game and thus with the sponsoring brand. In the Blockdot poll, 74% of respondents said that if they play a game title once, they will play it four or five times, and 67% said they pass along game links to their friends or challenge them to beat their high scores. That’s a pretty high engagement potential— even if Kewlbox users may be more disposed than the average person to respond well to games. Another factor powering marketer interest in free branded online games is that their attraction goes far beyond the stereotyped young-adult male audience. In fact, teenage and young adult girls and older women are two of the fastest growing audiences for online games generally. Research from comScore Media Metrix last August found that the number of female gamers in the 12 to 17 demographic shot up 55%, to 4.7 million, from the level comScore found in August 2007. The gaming population among women 55 to 64 increased almost as much, Casual games like Mah-Jongg help Hearst Web sites build repeat visits up 43% year and marketing opportunities. over year, with 4.4 million now describing themselves as game players. Women 18 to 24 also saw a substantial 35% increase in players. To appeal to these female game-players—and to offer ad opportunities to the brands that want to grab their attention—Hearst Magazines has augmented the gaming features on the Web sites of a number of its women-oriented magazine titles, including GoodHousekeeping.com and Redbook.com. Game pages on those sites now offer popularity rankings and reviews, leader boards showing top scores, and an “e-mail a friend” button to draw in other players. The games themselves are casual titles that are familiar Back in October, Blockdot, which produces casual games and advergames and hosts them on its Kewlbox.com Web site, came out with a survey of casual game players on its portal that seems to underline the effect branded advergames can have on the brands that sponsor them. In a poll of 1,000 Kewlbox.com players, 83% reported having positive associations with companies that sponsor free Web games, and 70% said they are more likely to buy from companies that sponsor those free games. The advergaming component with the greatest impact 8 January 2009 / WWW.PROMOMAGAZINE.COM / Promo http://www.Kewlbox.com http://www.GoodHousekeeping.com http://www.Kewlbox.com http://www.Redbook.com http://www.promomagazine.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Promo - January 2009

Promo - January 2009 Contents Editor's Note Casual Games Dr. P and the Roses Outside the Cup Geek�Chic Expresa Tu Hispanidad Jump Start Commentary The Show Must Go On Fed Up Q&A: Smart Food Agency Center Resource Center Gray Goes Green Index of Advertisers

Promo - January 2009

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