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Player engagement and In-game advertIsIng jeffrey bardzell, ph.d. shaowen bardzell, ph.d. tyler pace

Player Engagement and In-Game Advertising

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In this paper, we present an analysis of physiological engagement with advertising-rich video games. Physiological engagement was measured with OTOinsight’s Quantemo™ neuromarketing measurement platform. Analyzing the results from three separate physical traces in combination with eye tracking and interview data, we present a series of five insights for the design and dissemination of future in-game advertising.

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Page 1: Player Engagement and In-Game Advertising

Player engagement and

In-game advertIsIng

je f f rey bardzel l , ph .d . • shaowen bardzel l , ph .d . • ty ler pace

Page 2: Player Engagement and In-Game Advertising

In-game advertising (IGA) refers to the use of computers, the Internet, and video

games as a medium for the delivery of advertising materials. IGA is one of the fastest

growing forms of advertising in terms of yearly spending and anticipated growth.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers estimates total spending on in-game advertising to reach

$1 billion by 2010. The increasing popularity of in-game advertising can largely be

attributed to both the increasing popularity of video games in general and the desire

to reclaim the 18-35 year old male demographic, which is rapidly turning away from

television towards video games.

In this paper, we present an analysis of physiological engagement with advertising-rich

video games. Physiological engagement was measured with OTOinsight’s Quantemo™

neuromarketing measurement platform. Analyzing the results from three separate

physical traces in combination with eye tracking and interview data, we present a

series of five insights for the design and dissemination of future in-game advertising.

InsIghts

1. More recent ads are more readily remembered.

2. Highly visible placement compensates for low brand knowledge.

3. Brand knowledge compensates for low ad visibility.

4. Engagement and brand recognition are positively linked.

5. Context-appropriate ads build positive brand associations.

execut Ive summary : :

Copyright © 2008, One to One Interactive www.onetooneinteractive.com 1

Page 3: Player Engagement and In-Game Advertising

Copyright © 2008, One to One Interactive www.onetooneinteractive.com 2

In-game advertIsIng

In-game advertising (IGA) refers to the use of computers, the Internet and video games

as a medium for the delivery of advertising materials. IGA is one of the fastest growing

forms of advertising in terms of yearly spending and anticipated growth. The projected

revenue growth for in-game advertising and the ability to recapture the waning 18-35

year old male demographic has brought major attention to in-game advertising.

Microsoft and Google both acquired in-game advertising startups within the last three

years: Massive, Inc., and Adscape Media, respectively. Additionally, numerous other

startup firms such as JOGO, NeoEdge, Double Fusion, IGA Worldwide, and Game

Creative are competing in the new game advertising arena. Finally, leading media firms

are developing an increasing interest in game-based advertising. Among other in-game

advertising ventures, One to One Interactive partnered with Ubisoft to deliver Comcast

branded advertising in the popular action game Rainbow Six: Las Vegas and its sequel

Rainbow Six: Vegas 2.

Even though the interest in in-game advertising is high, in-game advertising is a relatively

new and growing domain; accordingly, research is also in its infancy, as standard vocab-

ularies and evaluative approaches remain in development. To facilitate our discussion of

in-game advertising, we begin by distinguishing among three general types of in-game

advertising that have emerged: static, dynamic and online advertising.

stat Ic In -game advert Is Ing : :

Static in-game advertising is the oldest form of in-game advertising and for commercial

purposes dates back to the early 1990s, when sports games began placing static banner

ads for popular sports brands into their products (Figure 1).

FIgure 1: static In-game advertising, FIFa soccer 1994.

Page 4: Player Engagement and In-Game Advertising

Copyright © 2008, One to One Interactive www.onetooneinteractive.com 3

FIgure 2: dynamic In-game advertising, s.W.a.t. 2005. advertisers are

able to swap ad posters in and out of the game at will.

dynamIc In-game advertIsIng

Dynamic in-game advertising first appeared in the mid 2000s and depends on the

relatively recent ability for video game consoles to access the Internet. Network access

enables game publishers to dynamically serve and change ads in games (Figure 2)

based on a variety of criteria (e.g., time, season, demographics, and geography).

OnlIne In-game advertIsIng

Online in-game advertising refers to immersive online advertising environments, such as

the interactive areas in the virtual worlds of Second Life devoted to The L Word, NIke, and

the Pond. These 3D immersive advertising environments may include features ranging

from simple street banners to detailed recreations of a prominent building, car or other

product (Figure 3).

FIgure 3: Online In-game advertising, such as the site for the l Word in

second life, is a 3d immersive and interactive advertising environment.

Page 5: Player Engagement and In-Game Advertising

Like all media, audience demographics are important to achieving success with in-game

advertising. The video game market is typically divided into two categories: casual and

hard-core. Casual gamers are predominantly female, ages 35-49, and play games

<10 hours a week, primarily when they need to take quick breaks and relax. Hard-core

gamers are mostly male, ages 18-35, and play games >15 hours a week. The present

report is focused on advertising aimed at the hard-core gamer market. In recent years

18-35 year old males, a key marketing demographic, have partly transitioned away from

television and movies, focusing more spending on video games, making video games the

fastest growing entertainment media sector (PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 2007). In-game

advertising is seen as the latest medium through which advertisers can reclaim access to

these consumers and build brands with the latest generation of gamers.

Copyright © 2008, One to One Interactive www.onetooneinteractive.com 4

FIgure 4: Breakdown of gamer demographics (entertainment software association, 2008).

Ultra Casual/Non-Gamer I Casual I Transitional/Moderate I Hardcore I Ultra Hardcore - “Obsessive”

entertaInmentLooking to take a break and relax. sOcIal

May play as much as a professional.Primary motivation is to spend time with

friends and meet new people.

PrOFessIOnalPlay to Win, Regularly Increase Skill

FEMALE

25-34

> 10HRS/WEEk

MALE

18-49

15+HRS/WEEk

Page 6: Player Engagement and In-Game Advertising

Copyright © 2008, One to One Interactive www.onetooneinteractive.com 5

One of the primary struggles with in-game advertising, especially when oriented towards

hardcore gamers, is managing the level of context appropriateness a particular ad has inside

its game setting. Gamers are receptive to ads that are appropriate or natural to the game

world. Appropriate ads provide the opportunity for gamers to make additional connections

between the game and reality through positive brand associations. Figure 5 demonstrates

an example of context appropriate advertising where Comcast, a regular sponsor of real

world sports, has an ad displayed in NBA Live 08 in a location analogous to that of real

basketball arenas.

However, not all in-game advertising remains context appropriate. Figure 6 shows a context

inappropriate use of advertising in the Counter-Strike first person shooter game. Counter-

Strike is an open source game that allows for any person or company to perform edits to

the game and rerelease the software. In this example, a user edited the game to include

excessive Subway advertising. Both Counter-Strike gamers and Valve Software, creators of

the closed source engine used to support Counter-Strike, took quick action to remove the

extremely context inappropriate advertising from their game world (Anderson, 2006).

FIgure 5: context appropriate In-game advertising. comcast is part of the background table

in a position where advertising normally exists in real world nBa games (nBa live 08).

FIgure 6: context Inappropriate In-game advertising in counter-strike. In 2006 subway

heavily advertised inside a military themed first person shooter game.

Page 7: Player Engagement and In-Game Advertising

Copyright © 2008, One to One Interactive www.onetooneinteractive.com 6

Despite the challenges of developing in-game advertising and matching it to a context

appropriate game setting, the in-game advertising market is expected to grow rapidly

in the near future. In their 8th Annual Global Entertainment and Media Outlook Report,

PriceWaterhouseCoopers projects that the video games industry will grow to $47b

annually by 2010 (Figure 7).

While $47b is a smaller market than television ($227b) or movies ($104b), the video game

sector is the fastest growing form of advertising media. The annual compound growth rate

of games sales is expected to hit 11% annually by 2010, which is double the growth rate

of movies and television (Figure 8).

A high compound annual growth rate corresponds to overall advertising sales. According

to both PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Yankee Group, spending on in-game advertising is

expected to grow from its current $90m to nearly $1b annually by 2011 (Figure 9).

Finally, advertisers are not the only party hopeful for the future of in-game advertising.

Game publishers see advertising as a method for increasing profits, offsetting escalating

development costs and introducing new revenue models for the games industry, such as

free-to-play ad-supported games.

MedIa sales IN 2010

games $47

movies $104

tv $227

FIgure 7: media sales (Billions).

FIgure 9: In-game advertising (millions)

$1,000

$900

$800

$700

$600

$500

$400

$300

$200

$100

$020112006

FIgure 8: compound annual growth rate

12.0%

10.0%

8.0%

6.0%

4.0%

2.0%

0%

GaMes fIlMsTV

Page 8: Player Engagement and In-Game Advertising

Copyright © 2008, One to One Interactive www.onetooneinteractive.com 7

study desIgn

The effectiveness of in-game advertising is a growing topic among advertisers, researchers

and game publishers. Current metrics that measure in-game advertising are primarily

limited to ad impressions. Ad impressions have a troubled history as an effective adver-

tising measure for web, print and other traditional media. As evidenced by the work of the

Advertising Research Foundation and others, measures of engagement are rapidly replacing

impression based metrics for advertising research. In-game advertising is contained within

one of the most dynamic, visually stimulating and cognitively demanding media to date,

and as such provides a very challenging and poignant medium for measuring engagement

instead of impressions.

The study presented in this report explores the use of a broader range of metrics for

measuring in-game advertising. In particular, the study looks at whether or not players

actually look at ads, which and what type of ads they remember, and player associations

with in-game advertising. To achieve the goals of this study, a multi-modal approach to

digital media evaluation was used, which combines traditional behavioral and interview

assessments of user experience with the measurement of biophysical responses while

exposed to advertising materials.

OTOinsight’s Quantemo™ system served as the foundation of this study on in-game adver-

tising. Quantemo™ allows for the simultaneous capture of multiple biophysical responses

(breath rate, heart rate, galvanic skin response, body skin temperature), in addition to

eye tracking and click tracking information. After recording the biophysical measures,

Quantemo™ combines all of the measures into a single, representative measure of

physiological engagement. The Quantemo™ Physiological Index (QPI) serves as a single

point of reference for the overall level of physical engagement (or disengagement)

exhibited by a research participant. Positive QPI scores represent stronger physiological

engagement, while negative QPI scores represent weaker physiological engagement.

Analysis of eye tracking footage, QPI and interrogative data provide the basis for the

insights put forth in this report.

This study focused on user engagement of in-game advertising inside sports-based video

games. Sports games are among the earliest and most successful adopters of in-game

advertising. Generally, advertising in sports games is both high quality and highly prevalent,

giving participants an optimal opportunity to engage with ads in the games. In total, 11

games were chosen for the study. Games were selected based on two criteria: average

industry reviewer score and type of sport. High average industry reviewer scores were used

to ensure game quality and popularity (highly rated games are often best sellers); we also

sought to represent a variety of different sports. Multiple games for each sport (e.g., football,

basketball, racing, etc.) were used to account for variations in both advertised brands and

implementations of in-game advertising.

Page 9: Player Engagement and In-Game Advertising

Copyright © 2008, One to One Interactive www.onetooneinteractive.com 8

Figure 10: Breakdown of Selected Games provides a breakdown of the games featured

in the study. Each game is listed with its average industry reviewer score as reported by

Gamerankings.com, in addition to the median Quantemo™ Physiological Index (QPI)

calculated using the data collected from all study participants. As previously mentioned,

positive QPI scores indicate heightened levels of engagement while negative QPI scores

indicate disengagement. Overall, QPI scores for games in this study range from a

maximum of 2.3 for Guitar Hero 3 to a -2.074 for College Hoops 2k7. The implications

of high and low QPI scores in regards to the effectiveness of in-game advertising are

discussed in greater detail throughout this report.

Eight individuals participated in the study. The average age of participants was 25

with 2 female and 6 male participants (a proportion that loosely represents hard-

core gamer demographics). All participants were given a questionnaire, in which

they identified their video game playing history as well as knowledge about the

sports represented in the games selected for the study. Average weekly video game

playing was 7-10 hours and average years playing video games was 6-10 years for

the study subjects.

Burnout Paradise 87% .608

college hoops 2K7 81% -2.074

guitar hero 3 86% 2.300

nBa live 08 73% 1.132

nBa street homecourt 83% 1.805

madden nFl 08 83% -1.939

Project gotham racing 4 86% -.609

sega rally revo 77% .124

skate 87% -.619

tony hawk Project 8 82% -.604

virtuatennis 3 80% .389

GaMes aVG. INdUsTry

reVIewer sCOreMedIaN

QPI

FIgure 10: Breakdown of selected games including average industry

reviewer score and median QPI.

Page 10: Player Engagement and In-Game Advertising

Copyright © 2008, One to One Interactive www.onetooneinteractive.com 9

Each participant was shown prerecorded game play video clips from each of the

11 games. Game play clips, instead of live game play, were used for several reasons. First,

ad density and placement varies by game, and we wanted to ensure that each game the

subjects engaged with had reasonably comparable amounts of exposure to advertising.

Additionally, hard-core gamers are also spectator gamers, spending a great deal of time

watching game play when not actively playing. Finally, biophysical measures are easily

affected by various stimuli, and reducing a participant’s physical activity is one means

to control for extra noise in biophysical signals.

All game play clips were shown in a random counterbalanced order to account for the

time at which an ad was seen. After viewing each clip, participants were asked to fill out

a brief questionnaire inquiring about their most and least favorite moments in each video.

Finally, after viewing all the clips, participants were asked to identify as many brands

as they could remember from the videos. A list with both real and false brands was

provided to facilitate the brand recognition task.

general FIndIngs

Several general findings were developed from the study. Primarily, these findings validate

the research method, in addition to demonstrating broad behaviors associated with

exposure to in-game advertising.

First, the time a video was shown did not affect the level of physiological engagement with

a video. It is important to balance exposure to the game play videos and advertisements

to control for users who might become disinterested with the study prior to completion.

Disinterest with the study, and not necessarily the content, can artificially impact the

physiological measures recorded to calculate the QPI, especially with material presented

at the end of the study. In this study, participant reactions to videos were consistent

regardless of when they were presented. In other words, a video was just as engaging

(or disengaging) when it was shown to a participant first, last or somewhere in the middle.

Second, participants’ physiological reactions and the resulting QPI calculations were

consistent among the most and least engaging videos. Consistent QPI scores for the

extremes of the engagement spectrum provide early indication that the QPI is a

consistent and reliable measure of engagement.

Third, for 90% of participants, brands were remembered at a rate greater than chance,

which demonstrates actual recognition based on their exposure to in-game advertising.

At the core of this study is the hypothesis that in-game advertising promotes brand

recognition, and our results confirm this hypothesis.

Page 11: Player Engagement and In-Game Advertising

Copyright © 2009, One to One Interactive www.onetooneinteractive.com 10

Ins Ights : :

In the following sections, we summarize the findings from this study under the headings

of the primary insights derived from analysis of the QPI, eye tracking and interview data.

InsIght 1: more recent ads are more readily remembered

Exposure to in-game advertising is largely directed by the forces of frequency and

recency. Frequency refers to how often an ad is delivered to the player during their

gaming session. With some games, impressions might be delivered every couple of

seconds, while in other games ads are delivered more sporadically every few minutes.

Analyzing for frequency and recency, we discovered that recency has a more potent

effect on brand recognition for in-game advertising. The majority (80%) of our

research participants remembered all of the ads from the second half of each video

clip. This effect holds true even in the earliest game play clips shown to a participant.

Additionally, Figure 11 demonstrates that while only 12% of brands participants

remembered were shown early in their game play clips, a striking 88% of remembered

brands came from the end of game play clips. Furthermore, QPIs tended to be higher

towards the end of a game play session (where more brands were remembered),

which lends further credibility to the association between heightened physiological

engagement and future brand recognition.

FIgure 11: recency effect for In-game advertising. Brands displayed later in

video clips were more likely to be remembered and correspond to a higher QPI.

average 12% .23 88% 1.26

% Of early BraNds

reMeMBered

earlyQPI

% Of laTe BraNds

reMeMBered

laTeQPI

Page 12: Player Engagement and In-Game Advertising

Copyright © 2008, One to One Interactive www.onetooneinteractive.com 11

This finding is consistent with the peak-end theory of memory, which states that once

a memory moves from immediate short term memory, people remember the peak

(best) experience and the end experience in the most accurate detail (kahneman, 1999).

A combination of the information density of video games and the length of game play

sessions (30 minutes or greater) may limit the active recognition of brands to game

locations located at the peak or end of game play.

Placing ads in terminal game play locations, such as menus, finish lines, save points, etc.,

is one strategy for maximizing the strong recency effect discovered in this study.

Figure 12 demonstrates an example of a terminal in-game ad in Guitar Hero III. Pontiac

is highlighted in the background of the stage during the final seconds of the song. A

strong Pontiac logo is one of the final images seen by the player and thus more likely

to be remembered past the short term.

FIgure 12: recency effect, guitar hero III. the Pontiac logo is

prominently displayed at the end of the song.

Page 13: Player Engagement and In-Game Advertising

InsIght 2: highly visible Placement compensates for low Brand Knowledge

In-game advertisements with the most prominent visual placements were remembered

more frequently than less prominently placed ads by those with limited knowledge about

the sport depicted in the game. High knowledge about a sport entails knowledge about

the brands and sponsors associated with that sport. This brand knowledge barrier can

be overcome by increasing the visual prominence of the advertisement.

As an example from this study, most participants reported little to no knowledge about

car racing. However, racing brands were among the most remembered by all participants.

The brands that were most often remembered benefited from particularly strong place-

ment as large, central banners (which were often in terminal locations) or as smaller ads

affixed to objects that were constantly in view, such as the race car itself. Not surprisingly,

the visually prominent locations accounted for the most eye gazes and views from the

eye tracking data. Visually prominent ads are seen and remembered, even in fast paced

game play.

Figure 13 and Figure 14 offer two examples from the study that demonstrate successful,

visually prominent ad placement. A large, clear Potenza banner is seen in Figure 13 at

the start/finish line of the racetrack. Players start the race under this banner, pass through

it on every lap and end their course under the banner. Potenza was one of the most

remembered brands presumably because of its unique position as both a terminal

and frequent advertisement. Figure 14 displays a Subaru logo on the back of a blue

Subaru race car. Even though the advertisement is relatively small as a percentage of the

overall display, it is easily remembered due to its fixed position on the player’s primary

object of focus. As evidenced by the eye tracking footage, the Subaru ad was the most

viewed ad of any in the study due to its fortunate placement.

Copyright © 2008, One to One Interactive www.onetooneinteractive.com 12

FIgure 13: Prominent ad Placement, Project gotham racing 4. the Potenza

logotype is prominently displayed in the center of the screen.

Page 14: Player Engagement and In-Game Advertising

InsIght 3: Brand Knowledge compensates for low ad visibility

As an inverse to Insight 2, knowledge about a brand increases recognition and recall

when the advertisement is placed in a location with limited visibility. Ads with limited

visibility were more readily remembered in games which depicted sports most familiar

to the participants. Even though eye tracking footage shows fewer eye gazes for ads

with limited visibility, the brand recognition was as high as visually prominent ads for

participants with high knowledge about the sport.

Figure 15 and 16 highlight two examples from the study where advertisements with

limited visibility were remembered by participants with high knowledge and exposure

to the sport. In Figure 15, a Honda ad is displayed on the left side of the screen; however,

the iconic Honda logotype is mostly obscured by other in-game objects. Figure 16

shows two soda machines on the right hand side that feature the Sprite logo. In both

cases, participants familiar with tennis or basketball successfully identified the brands

even though the advertisements were small, peripheral, and even obscured.

Copyright © 2008, One to One Interactive www.onetooneinteractive.com 13

FIgure 14: Prominent ad Placement, sega rally. the subaru logotype is

fixed to the back of the player’s car and is always on screen.

Page 15: Player Engagement and In-Game Advertising

Insights 2 and 3 together lead to the conclusion that, like most advertising, it is important

to understand the existing relationship between the brand and the consumer. Advertising

a brand unknown to the game’s audience will require more prominent placement in

order to be effective and vice versa. The extent to which game players do or do not

exclusively play games that represent their real world interests is largely unknown, so,

as an example, it is up to advertisers to determine whether or not consumers playing

the latest football video game are also real-life football fans familiar with brands

commonly associated with football.

Copyright © 2008, One to One Interactive www.onetooneinteractive.com 14

FIgure 15: limited ad visibility, virtuatennis. the honda logotype, while pushed to the side, was noticed by

participants who rated the highest on knowledge about tennis. honda is a regular sponsor of tennis events.

Page 16: Player Engagement and In-Game Advertising

InsIght 4: engagement and Brand recognition are Positively linked

This study discovered a developing association between a player’s heightened

physiological engagement and the ability to correctly identify brands from their exposure

to in-game advertising. Inversely, negative or limited engagement with a game had

an adverse impact on player ability to remember brands. Figure 17 shows a developing

trend between an increase in physiological engagement (evidenced through the QPI

measurement) and brand recognition. In this study, 42% of brands remembered came

from more engaging (QPI > 1) games, whereas only 30% of brands remembered came

from games with average engagement levels (QPI < 1).

As with the recency effect detailed in Insight 1, peak-end memory theory supports the early

association between engagement and brand recall. Peak experiences are likely to be the

most engaging and therefore have the strongest and most accurate residence in memory,

making brands associated with those moments more likely to be successfully recognized

and recalled. Unfortunately, identifying engaging moments within games in which to place

advertising is a difficult matter. The exact qualities of what makes a given game experience

engaging to one person instead of another are unknown. Only thorough, primary research

into player engagement with anticipated game titles may help in the media buying process,

when the goal is to build brand associations through peak experiences.

Copyright © 2008, One to One Interactive www.onetooneinteractive.com 15

FIgure 16: limited ad visibility, nBa street. sprite logos in the edges of the screen were consistently

remembered by participants who rated the highest on knowledge about basketball. sprite is a regular

sponsor of nBa events and games.

average 42% 1.08 30.15% 0.87

% Brands FrOm engagIng

games

FIgure 17: recency effect for In-game advertising. Brands displayed later in

video clips were more likely to be remembered and correspond to a higher QPI.

avg. QPI engagIng

games

% Brands FrOm Base

games

avg. QPI Base

games

Page 17: Player Engagement and In-Game Advertising

InsIght 5: context-appropriate ads Build Positive Brand associations

Context-appropriate advertisements, which constitute the majority of those in our

game play clips, were universally rated as a positive aspect for each game in our study.

Advertisements which support and extend the game world and provide more oppor-

tunities to create connections between the game and reality positively impact the

gaming experience, thereby facilitating positive brand associations with game players.

All study participants encouraged the use of context appropriate ads as a means for

increasing the realism of the game world. As one player stated, “It wouldn’t be sports

without ads.”

However, advertisers participate in the fine line of balancing game play and fun with

realism. As more real world ads enter game worlds, the perceived realism of the world

potentially increases. As realism increases, pressure is placed on gameplay rules and

mechanics also to behave more realistically. If players perceive too great a disconnection

between the realism of the depicted environment and the gameplay rules and

constraints, the game becomes absurd. For example, in the study, the two participants

most knowledgeable about racing stated that the city streets in Project Gotham

Racing 4 (Figure 18), carefully recreated based on New York City complete with a variety

of real world brands, were too real, in the sense that they disrupted the game’s fantasy

that one would actually be able to race on New York streets. It would be more plausible

to race through a city’s streets if they are distanced enough from real life in some way,

such as stylization, abstraction, etc. Advertising is not, of course, solely responsible for

the negative impact of realism experienced by the participants, but advertisers should

be aware of the potential for their advertisements to change the game experience in a

variety of ways, not all of them beneficial or obvious.

Copyright © 2008, One to One Interactive www.onetooneinteractive.com 16

FIgure 18: Fine line of context In/appropriate advertising, Project gotham racing 4. several participants

commented that the almost excessive amounts of real world branding inside the racing game made the

tracks feel unreal because it’s not possibleto race on real streets like the game depicts.

Page 18: Player Engagement and In-Game Advertising

Copyright © 2008, One to One Interactive www.onetooneinteractive.com 17

cOnclusIOn

The findings of this report suggest that in-game advertising can be highly effective, even

among players who profess little to no pre-existing knowledge about brands they see

in-game. Visual placement and frequency are critical in reinforcing brand recognition.

Identifying strategic visual locations for ads, rather than slapping them onto any visible

surface in-game, is paramount for achieving success with in-game ad campaigns.

However, a balance must be maintained between utilizing the best visual locations for

advertising and not breaching the barrier of player-perceived context appropriateness.

The expectations for in-game advertising are high, but the ability to meet and measure

those expectations is challenged by the very nature of video games. Video games, more

so than any previous media, are highly immersive, interactive, and visually dynamic

media, and accordingly their cognitive and physiological demands make the evaluation

of in-game advertising unusually difficult. Metrics based on impressions and screen

time may no longer be relevant or helpful when distributing advertising in the latest

generation of highly immersive digital games. Instead, as this report demonstrates,

in-game advertising may be better measured in terms of player engagement and context

appropriateness. Positive links between user engagement and brand association are

constantly developing; this report provides early evidence that positive physiological

engagement leads to increased brand recognition.

Overall, the chief finding in this report may be the affirmation of the importance of

conducting primary research to quantify player engagement with appropriate game

titles in order to facilitate the media buying selection process and ensure both higher

brand recognition as well as improved acceptance of in-game advertising among players.

reFerences

1. Anderson, N. (2006). Following the money: how Subway ads ended

up in Counter-Strike. Retrieved August 3, 2008 from:

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060116-5985.html

2. Entertainment Software Association. (2008). Essential Facts about the

Computer and Video Game Industry. Retrieved August 3, 2008 from:

http://www.theesa.com/facts/gameplayer.asp

3. kahneman, D. (1999). Objective Happiness. In D. kahneman, E. Diener, & N. Schwarz,

Well-Being: The Foundations of Hedonic Psychology (pp. 3-25). New York: Russel Sage

4. PriceWaterhouseCoopers. (2007). Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2007-2011

5. Yankee Group. (2007). Advertising and Games: 2007 In-Game Advertising Forecast

Page 19: Player Engagement and In-Game Advertising

amPlIFyIng user engagement

New knowledge about human behavior brought to light by social and neuroscience

has fundamentally called into question the old mental models of how advertising

and marketing work. Gone is the notion that consumers make decisions in a

linear think-feel-do way and behavior is guided by rational-only principles. Instead,

memories, emotions, associations, and thoughts play a primary role in how

individuals relate and ultimately engage with brands.

OTOinsights is a primary research offering that is breaking new ground in neuro-

marketing to offer clients advanced and scientific levels of insights into how their

consumers engage with them across the landscape of new media channels.

To learn more about OTOinsights, visit www.otoinsights.com

cOmPlete One-tO-One sOlutIOns FOr Brands, agencIes, and PuBlIshers

OTOinsights is a One to One Interactive company. Established in 1997, One to One

Interactive is the first enterprise to assemble a complete solution for brands, agencies,

and publishers executing one-to-one marketing strategies. By bringing together one

of the nation’s leading digital marketing agencies, the world’s most comprehensive

portfolio of permission marketing platforms, unique performance-based social media

networks, and cutting-edge neuromarketing research techniques, the companies

of One to One Interactive build informed and creative customer/constituent strategies

on the belief that digital media’s ability to enable engaging one-to-one dialogues is

the future of marketing.

To learn more about One to One Interactive, visit www.onetooneinteractive.com

OTOinsights

529 Main Street, Charlestown, MA 02129

617.425.7300

www.otoinsights.com

[email protected]

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