Ads in Videogames Pose a New Threat To Media Industry
When executives at DaimlerChrysler AG's Jeep division wanted to promote an extra-rugged version of their Wrangler brand last year, they commissioned a videogame that allowed players to drive a Wrangler Rubicon up steep inclines and across rivers. The game -- "Jeep 4x4: Trail Of Life" -- was relatively inexpensive to produce and the company gave it away online.
Within six months, 250,000 consumers had downloaded it and handed over their names and e-mail addresses to Jeep. Nearly 40% of them said they were considering buying one of its vehicles.
Jeep says it sold hundreds of the limited-edition, $29,000 vehicles to people who played the game. Videogames are so effective as advertising, "it's shocking," says Joel Schlader, Chrysler Group's senior specialist for interactive marketing and games.
For years, videogames have been stealing away consumers who might otherwise have been watching television or reading a magazine. Now they're beginning to attract business from some of the U.S.'s most coveted advertisers, part of a broader assault by new media and technology on the traditional ad industry.
Levi Strauss & Co. and Procter & Gamble Co. have paid to appear in the upcoming "Nascar 2005: Chase for the Cup" game, which is generating over $1 million in ad revenue for its maker, Electronic Arts Inc. A successful player earns the right to drive a car emblazoned with the Levi Strauss Signature logo and race on a Levi Strauss branded track. A pit crew composed of characters animated to look like P&G's Mr. Clean changes tires between laps.
Players of Ubisoft Entertainment's "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow" have to use a Sony Ericsson phone to advance in the game.
The U.S. Army is spending several million dollars a year on videogames, including producing the "America's Army" PC game, available free online and from recruiters on a CD-ROM. Players go through a virtual boot camp complete with a barking drill instructor before undertaking simulated missions. "We want to put this where kids are spending their time," says Col. Casey Wardynski, project director for the game. A survey the Army commissioned found that young adults were more likely to have heard of the videogame than of its other communications efforts.
Advertising in videogames is still a tiny fraction of the overall advertising market and videogame manufacturers will be dwarfed for a long time by large publishers and television networks. In addition, game makers worry that there's a limit to how many ads they can cram into a game before they offend players.
But the industry is benefiting from a philosophical shift on the part of major marketers. With many ad budgets still constrained, companies are more willing than ever to experiment with new ways to reach consumers that go beyond a static page in a magazine or a 30-second TV spot.
Chrysler Group executives say their videogame-related marketing is coming at the expense of other traditional media. Bob Gilbreath, brand manager for Procter & Gamble's Mr. Clean, says worries about the effectiveness of traditional ads prompted his foray into videogames. For Ford Motor Co.'s Volvo, reaching the young, affluent videogame audience is key, says Phil Bienert, a Volvo e-business manager. By contrast, "you look at the TV ratings and you start to say, 'Gee, is this the best place to get bang for my buck?' " he says.
Volvo was so taken with how its S40 model appeared in Microsoft Corp.'s "RalliSport Challenge 2," that it turned video footage of the game into a TV commercial. The auto maker is also paying to develop a game for videogame consoles. Advertisers have in the past commissioned games for PCs, but have rarely branched out into games for consoles, such as Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 2. Those games generally have bigger production budgets.
People who play games are particularly attractive to advertisers because they spend longer, more intense periods of time with the product than they do with TV. It takes about 40 hours of playing to complete some popular adventure games. Because ads are built into the games, consumers can't dodge them by using a digital video recorder or slipping off to the bathroom.
Helping to stimulate interest, Madison Avenue is setting up specialized videogame units. Publicis Groupe SA's Starcom last year became the first major ad company to launch a division that helps clients get their products into videogames. WPP Group's Young & Rubicam recently announced similar plans.
For years, game makers had to pay to use consumer brands in games or they simply gave away ads in return for promotion. Now that game publishers are demanding payment, their business is starting to look like print publishing, where companies count on revenue from advertising as well as product sales.
Electronic Arts' staff of eight in-game ad sellers is expecting to generate $7 million of in-game advertising revenue this year, a 60% increase from 2003, helped by a recent five-game deal with P&G. There was so much demand for placement in its "Need for Speed Underground 2" car-racing game, due out in November, that Electronic Arts had advertisers bid against each other. The game maker took offers from two telecom companies, three consumer-products companies and three restaurant chains, before picking one from each industry.
Rival publisher Activision Inc. is trying to compete by imitating the way TV sells ads. Activision recently teamed up with Nielsen Entertainment -- a unit of VNU NV that tracks entertainment data -- to build a system that will provide information about videogames akin to TV ratings.
The rise of videogame ads couldn't come at a worse time for traditional media businesses. The print ad market hasn't recovered from the recession and the TV industry is fighting to counter evidence that viewers are defecting to videogames. A controversial study published last year by Nielsen Media Research, VNU's TV-ratings unit, concluded that young men watched 7% less prime-time TV than a year earlier. A separate Nielsen Entertainment study found that 18-to-34-year-old male videogame players watch slightly less TV than those who don't play videogames.
"Males 18 to 35 are watching TV less and gaming more. That's just a fact," says Chrysler's Mr. Schlader.
TV executives have challenged the studies and note that TV still commands the lion's share of most Americans' entertainment time. Activision, one of the biggest game publishers, took in $1 million in ad-related revenue last year, less than some companies pay for a single TV spot. Some game makers also concede there are limits to the frequency and types of advertising players are willing to tolerate, especially when they're already paying as much as $50 for titles at retail.
"The idea people are going to take money they put into network TV and put it in videogames doesn't make sense," says Alan Wurtzel, head of research at General Electric Co.'s NBC. "Can they do the same kind of job a network TV commercial can do? I don't see it." He says the controversial Nielsen data stemmed from a change in Nielsen's methodology, not actual TV viewership.
Americans on average spent 64 hours playing videogames in 2002, almost double five years earlier, according to the latest data from Veronis Suhler Stevenson, a media investment bank. That's more than the time spent watching DVDs and VHS tapes. Today, 42 million U.S. households own a videogame console, according to research firm DFC Intelligence in San Diego, and Sony says about 60% of owners of PlayStation 2 consoles in the U.S. are 18 years old or older. Women are increasingly playing games, too.
The simplest ads in games are billboards, such as those for Cadbury Schweppes PLC's 7-Up that appear alongside a snowboarding trail in Electronic Arts's popular "SSX 3" game. Other methods require game players to engage with the products, something not possible on a TV spot. To get ahead in "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow," published by Ubisoft Entertainment, players have to use versions of cellphones made by Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB. In one case, they need an image captured by the company's T637 camera phone to help identify a terrorist opponent.
Other companies have embraced a strategy known as adver-gaming, commissioning PC and online games that center around their brands. The companies give away the games on CD-ROMs or over the Web. Some consumers who ignore TV commercials, it turns out, will eagerly play with a commercial dressed up as a game.
Chrysler Group didn't immediately take to the idea. In 2001, Jeff Bell, vice president of the division's Chrysler and Jeep brands, realized he was spending an increasing amount of time playing videogames with his three sons. Mr. Bell commissioned a research report on the topic, but his fixation baffled other Chrysler executives.
During a marketing meeting in September 2001, one executive said, "this is great, but I don't get how it sells cars," recalls Chad Stoller, director of communications solutions at Omnicom Group Inc.'s Arnell Group, an ad agency that worked with Chrysler on the project. Responded Mr. Bell: "Prove to me how advertising sells cars."
In late 2001, as Chrysler executives discussed promotion for the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon, they decided to take a gamble. The company expected to sell just 8,000 and didn't have the budget for a traditional TV or print campaign. Instead, they commissioned a low-cost videogame. In the game, which was distributed free, players drive a normal Jeep and then get upgraded to the Rubicon before tackling another track. To highlight the Rubicon's better performance, the auto maker painstakingly replicated the vehicle's axle ratios and horsepower torque.
Chrysler Group unveiled the game at a black-tie party at the Chicago Auto Show in January 2002. The division quickly discovered that about 500 of the first 1,500 people who purchased the Rubicon had piloted a virtual Jeep prior to walking into the dealership. "We said 'Wow!' " recounts Chrysler Group's Mr. Schlader. "The experience was powerful." In general, Chrysler says it can't tell if consumers who played its games were already planning to buy one of its vehicles, but says it's persuaded that the games helped sales.
The auto maker commissioned more adver-games, which usually cost less than $250,000, at least half that of a pricey TV ad. In the past three years, Chrysler has produced 23 such adver-games and pays Yahoo Inc. to promote and host the current ones. One game, called "Get Up and Go," was a simple online personality test that matched users with a specific Chrysler model. Nearly 50,000 people requested more information from Chrysler after playing, and the company figures it sold 120 vehicles as a result. Chrysler's games on Yahoo's site have attracted 2.8 billion visits total in the past 13 months.
Chrysler Group says it has doubled its videogame-related spending in each of the past three years and plans to increase it next year by an as-yet undecided amount. Executives say they expect this spending to suck up a greater percentage of their marketing budget at the expense of TV (they won't be more specific about how their budget, estimated at $1.6 billion in 2003, is spent). Videogame advertising "is completely integrated" into the company's ad strategy, says Julie Roehm, director of marketing communications for Chrysler Group.
广告没新意？试试电子游戏
当戴姆勒克莱斯勒(DaimlerChrysler AG)旗下的Jeep子公司去年促销一款造型颇为粗犷的Wrangler汽车时，它制作了一款电子游戏，在游戏中玩家驾驶一辆Wrangler Rubicon爬坡过河。这个名为“Jeep 4x4: Trail Of Life”的游戏制作成本相对并不高，该公司把它放在网络上，免费供网民下载。
在此后的6个月中，有250,000名消费者下载了这一游戏，并把他们的姓名和邮件地址提供给Jeep公司，其中有接近40%的人说，他们考虑购买一辆Jeep汽车。
Jeep说，它以29,000美元的价格向玩过这个游戏的消费者出售了数百辆限定版汽车。克莱斯勒负责交互营销和游戏的高级专员乔?施莱德(Joel Schlader)说，电子游戏和广告一样有效，“真让人难以置信。”
多年来，电子游戏将一些看电视或阅读杂志的消费者吸引到它的阵营中来。现在，它们开始觊觎美国一部分最令人垂涎的广告业务，这是新媒体和新技术对传统的广告业发起的一次攻击。
列维公司(Levi Strauss & Co.)和宝洁公司(Procter & Gamble Co.，又名:宝硷公司)已经向电子艺界(Electronic Arts Inc.)支付款项，它们将出现该电子游戏公司的新游戏“Nascar 2005: Chase for the Cup”当中，这款游戏将为制作方带来超过100万美元的广告收入。成功的游戏玩家将得以驾驶一辆车身贴著Levi Strauss Signature标识的汽车，在以列维冠名的赛道上驰骋。在汽车修理站，长相酷似宝洁Mr. Clean的维修人员负责更换汽车轮胎。
Ubisoft Entertainment出品的游戏“细胞分裂：明日潘多拉”(Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow)的玩家在游戏进行中必须使用一款索尼爱立信(Sony Ericsson)的手机闯关。
美国陆军每年花费数百万美元制作电子游戏，其中包括名为“美国陆军“的电子游戏，这款游戏可以在网上免费下载，也可以从征兵人员手中获得一张游戏光盘。玩家在执行模拟任务之前需在一个虚拟的新兵训练营里受训，那里有一位声音响亮的训练教官。这个游戏的项目总监、陆军上校凯瑟?沃德斯基(Casey Wardynski)说，“我们希望孩子们在这个游戏上花费些时间。“美国陆军委托进行的调查发现，年轻人对这款游戏多有所耳闻，但对美国陆军其它的一些沟通举措则知之甚少。
电子游戏的广告在整个广告市场中仍然微不足道，游戏制作商在很长的一段时间内仍远远不是大型出版商和电视网络的对手。此外，游戏制作商担心，不能无限制的在游戏中加入广告，否则容易激怒玩家。
但是大型广告客户这种思维的转变令游戏行业受益匪浅。目前许多公司的广告预算仍然非常吃紧，这些公司比以往更愿意尝试用新方式打动消费者，而不仅仅是在杂志上做一个呆板的广告页面，或一个30秒钟的电视广告。
克莱斯勒高层人士表示，他们的在电子游戏上的营销举措是以削减在传统媒体上的营销费用为代价的。宝洁Mr.Clean的品牌经理鲍伯?吉尔布莱斯(Bob Gilbreath)说，对传统广告是否有效的怀疑促使他将阵地转移到电子游戏上。福特汽车公司的(Ford Motor Co.)旗下沃尔沃(Volvo)的电子商务经理菲尔?波纳特(Phil Bienert)说，对于沃尔沃而言，广告抵达年轻而富余的游戏受众是关键。与此相对比，他说，“如果看一下电视收视率你会说，'哎呀，这是我最佳的花钱去处吗？'“
沃尔沃对于其S40车型在微软公司(Microsoft Corp.)制作的游戏 “越野挑战赛2”(RalliSport Challenge 2)中的亮相甚为得意，以致于将该游戏中的视频镜头做成了一个电视广告。这家汽车制造商还付费开发一个可使用操纵杆的游戏。广告客户过去在电脑游戏中做广告，但是很少将触角伸展到操纵杆游戏领域，索尼公司(Sony Corp.)的PlayStation 2是操纵杆游戏的代表。这些游戏通常有更多的制作预算。
游戏玩家对于广告客户具有特别的吸引力，因为与电视相比，他们在游戏上与产品广告的接触时间要更长也更为密集。一些深受欢迎的冒险游戏全部过关需要大约40个小时的时间。由于广告与游戏结合为一体，所以用户不能通过使用数字视频录影机避开这些广告，或者看到广告时溜到洗手间。
为了刺激消费者的兴趣，麦迪逊大道(Madison Avenue)设立了专门的电子游戏区域。Publicis Groupe SA的Starcom去年成为第一个成立电子游戏部门的大型广告公司，该部门帮助客户在电子游戏中做广告。WPP Group的Young & Rubicam最近也宣布了类似的计划。
数年前，游戏制作商必须付费才能在游戏中使用消费者品牌，或者免费为商家做广告。现在，游戏制作商开始收取费用，它们的业务看上去越来越像平面出版业务，也开始依赖广告和产品销售获得收入。
电子艺界的8名游戏广告销售人员预计今年将创造700万美元的游戏广告收入，较2003年增长60%，这一增长主要得益于最近与宝洁达成的在5个游戏中做广告的协议。广告商对其将于11月份推出的赛车游戏“地下狂飙2“(Need for Speed Underground 2)反应最为热烈，以致于电子艺界采取了让广告商竞标的办法。这家游戏制作商接到了两家电信公司、三家消费用品公司和三家餐饮连锁店的竞标，它将在每个行业选择一家公司。
竞争对手Activision Inc.通过效仿电视台销售广告的方式与之展开竞争。Activision最近与Nielsen Entertainment－－追踪娱乐数据的VNU NV的子公司－－联手建立一个系统，提供与电视收视率类似的电子游戏信息。
电子游戏广告受到青睐正值传统媒体业务陷入低谷之际。平面广告市场还没有从最近的低迷中缓过劲来，电视行业竭力争夺流向电子游戏的观众。去年VNU的收视率调查子公司Nielsen Media Research一项颇富争议的调查发现，与1年前相比，年轻人观看黄金电视节目的时间减少了7%。Nielsen Entertainment进行的另外一项调查发现，18至34岁的玩电子游戏的男性看电视的时间少于那些不玩游戏的人。
克莱斯勒的施莱德说，“18至35岁的男性看电视时间较少，玩游戏的时间较多。这是一个事实。“
电视公司管理人士对上述研究表示质疑，他们指出，电视仍然是大多数美国人的主要娱乐活动。美国最大游戏发行商之一的Activision去年共取得100万美元的广告相关收入，这一数字比一些公司仅仅为一档电视支付的价格还要低。一些游戏制作商也承认，游戏玩家对广告出现的频率和类型有一定忍耐限度，特别是他们可能最高支付了50美元购买这款游戏。
通用电气(General Electric Co.)旗下的美国全国广播公司(NBC)的研究主管艾伦?沃特兹尔(Alan Wurtzel)说，“那种认为人们将把投在电视网中的钱拿出来投到电子游戏里面的想法是没有依据的。它们能够起到电视网广告所起到的作用吗？我不那么认为。“他说Nielsen具有争议的数字是源自Nielsen统计方法的改变，而不是真实的电视观众状况。
根据媒体投资银行Veronis Suhler Stevenson的最新数据，美国人2002年用于玩电子游戏的时间为平均64小时，几乎是5年前的两倍，这一时间比美国人花在观看DVD和VHS录像带上的时间还要多。据圣地牙哥研究机构DFC Intelligence称，今天，有4,200万户美国家庭拥有一个电子游戏操纵杆，索尼表示美国PlayStation 2操纵杆大约60%的拥有者年龄在18岁以上。而玩游戏的女性也越来越多。
游戏中最简单的广告就是广告牌，比如在电子艺界颇受欢迎的“SSX 3”游戏中，吉百利食品有限公司(Cadbury Schweppes PLC)的七喜(7-Up)广告牌出现在一条滑雪道旁。其他一些广告方法则要求游戏玩家使用产品，这在电视节目中是不可能实现的。在“细胞分裂：明日潘多拉”中，玩家必须使用索尼爱立信的各种手机过关。在其中一个情形中，他们必须借助索尼爱立信T637拍照手机拍摄的照片辨认一个恐怖分子对手。
其他公司采取了一种所谓的广告游戏的策略，他们通过电脑游戏和网上游戏推销自己的品牌。这些公司通过光盘或网络派发游戏。一些对电视广告不感冒的消费者非常中意这种改装成游戏的广告。
克莱斯勒一开始并没有很快接受这种做法。2001年，负责克莱斯勒和Jeep品牌的副总裁杰夫?贝尔(Jeff Bell)认识到他正将越来越多的时间花在与三个儿子玩电子游戏上面。贝尔就这个议题撰写了一份研究报告，但他对电子游戏如此关注令其他管理人士感到迷惑不解。
Omnicom Group Inc.旗下Arnell Group的沟通方案总监泰德?施德勒(Chad Stoller)回忆到，在2001年9月份的一次营销会议上，一位高层管理人士说道，“这是个绝佳的想法，但是我不知道它怎么帮助销售。“Arnell Group是克莱斯勒在这一项目上的广告代理。贝尔回应到：“请向我证明广告如何销售汽车。”
在2001年年末，当克莱斯勒管理人士讨论对Jeep Wrangler Rubicon的促销方案时，他们决定一搏。该公司预计销售8,000辆车，并且当时没有在传统的电视或平面媒体做广告的预算。他们制作了一个低成本的电子游戏。在这个免费发放的游戏中，玩家先驾驶一辆普通的Jeep，然后在驶入另外一条跑道时升级为Rubicon。为了推介Rubicon的优越性能，这家汽车制造商花费了大量精力复制了该车的车轴比例和马力扭矩。
克莱斯勒在2002年1月的芝加哥车展的一个晚礼服派对上推出了这款游戏。该公司迅即发现在前1,500名购车的人中有大约500人在走进专营店前曾经驾驶过虚拟Jeep。克莱斯勒的施莱德描述道，“我们当时的反应是'哇！'，这个游戏很有效。”总体上，克莱斯勒称它并不能确定玩游戏的消费者是否早已决定买一辆克莱斯勒的车，但是表示相信该游戏帮助推动了销售。
该汽车制造商制作了更多广告游戏，每个游戏的成本通常不高于250,000美元，是一则昂贵电视广告的至少一半。在过去3年，克莱斯勒制作了23款这样的游戏，并付费让雅虎(Yahoo Inc.)推销并托管这些游戏。一个名为“Get Up and Go”的游戏是一个很简单的网上个性测试游戏，帮助消费者选定一款适合自己的克莱斯勒车型。有将近50,000人在玩过这个游戏后要求克莱斯勒提供更多信息，公司因此售出了120辆车。克莱斯勒在雅虎网站上的游戏在过去13个月吸引了28亿次的访问量。
克莱斯勒说，它在过去三年里每年都将电子游戏相关的支出增加一倍，并计划明年进一步增加投入，但具体金额未定。该公司管理人士称，他们预计在电子游戏上的投入将占用更多用于电视的营销预算（他们不愿提供预算的详细数字，其2003年的预算约为16亿美元）。克莱斯勒负责营销沟通的总监朱丽叶?罗汉姆(Julie Roehm)说，电子游戏广告完全被纳入在该公司的广告战略之中。
