Regular broadcast advertising is just not what it used to be. While ratings numbers decline due to time people spend online or on their cell phones, people who do watch TV may record and fast-forward through commercials or watch shows on DVD, seriously diminishing the impact that ads will have. Additionally, grown men are using their TV for more than just cable programming. Video games today are a huge part of the entertainment landscape.
A generation of gamers are all grown up and they're not playing NES games anymore. Many feel the nightly call for an online shooter title of some sort, and for many of these gamers, they'll buy and play a game religiously for months with their buddies. In order to reach this new generation of consumers, advertisers will not only have to look toward games, but also integrate with them to get a level of engagement that will get these players' attention.
Enter Massive, Microsoft's in-game advertising company. They've finagled a deal to put a scavenger hunt relating to the movie Tropic Thunder in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2. We talked with Jay Sampson, VP of global sales for Massive, about this new "player initiated" in-game promotion.
Viva In-Game Ad Promotion
In order for something like this to come to fruition, all of the parties really needed to come together. It's not simply a case of Massive proposing the idea; Paramount had to be on board with using their movie and Ubisoft had to be fine with such a large integration within their game. In the end, everyone was enthusiastic for the idea, truly creating a "perfect storm" for the promotion.
"It was really the brainchild of Ubisoft and them working with our integrations team and sales development team," explained Sampson. "We assess every title on our network for ad relevance and work with the publishers to make it happen. If [a game is] set too far in the future or is historical or is a fantasy piece, we pass on it. Assuming the game can be integrated with ads, we look for placements that work in the game's environment. We're looking to not over commercialize the game—we're looking to find the best placements in the game. As we look at it, we want to put in about five to six minutes of ads for every hour of gameplay that players experience. The reality is that we want placements that catch the player's eye and don't saturate the environment."
"Through the integrations we've already worked into the game, we've tagged placement for ads before hand; we didn't have to re-architect the game at all," he continued. "Ubisoft worked with ad packaging on the idea—we just had to put together a series of events that was compelling to the gamer and the marketer as well, and it just works well for the SKU. In all ways, it worked out perfectly."
I'm the dude playing the dude disguised as another dude!
For those that haven't seen any trailers or ads for the movie, Tropic Thunder is a comedic film about prima donna movie stars filming a Vietnam War movie and being dropped into the middle of a real, contemporary conflict. The movie's setting, and its target demographic, mesh well with Rainbow Six Vegas 2.
"It makes such a good fit for Paramount because of the way the movie and game match up," commented Sampson. "Promotions like this can be done in numerous markets; this could be done in consumer package goods to soft drinks. [Paramount] is one of our first advertising partners and one of our most consistent customers. The stars aligned, the Paramount team loves innovation and firsts and trying new things and then also Ubisoft has been one of our best if not most progressive publishing partners. I think we've carried six Clancy games, and it's because they not only create great games, but also because they've been early in their adoption of dynamic ads."
"As I mentioned earlier, we worked with the studio to find the right placements for ads beforehand," he detailed. "We've constructed a series of events in the game where you get nine inventory elements from nine different billboards.