What is an advergame?
I have a great job - but I also have an extremely frustrating job at times. The frustration comes from being the guy who has to explain to the public what advergaming (which is not technically a word, I grant you) is.
Last night, a group of about 30 of us went out to a comedy club near our office. When the emcee, whose job it was to heckle the crowd asked if anyone was celebrating anything, someone from our group announced that we were there as a work outing. Needless to say, the comedian asked what we did, so that he could properly make fun of us. Liane, the owner of the voice that greets you on the phone when you call us, said “We make advergames!”
Crickets.
Granted, I don’t expect stand up comedians (or even mimes) to have an in-depth understanding of what advergaming is, but when I’m talking to people about getting Mike or Brady, who are among the leading experts on advergaming on the planet, to speak on a panel about advergaming, I sort of expect the person I’m talking to to at least have some sort of a clue.
In the past, I have been told by many conference coordinators what advergaming is, and save the odd person who got it, most have been dead wrong. Today, however, I was informed of something that I had no idea of. Apparently, according to this guy, advergaming isn’t advergaming unless there are ads within the game. So, if you take Tetris, and slap a logo in the background, that’s advergaming, but if you create a game around an entire brand, that, according to this guy, is not advergaming.
Sadly, this is a popular misconception.
Advergaming isn’t new, but the prevalence of it is definitely a phenomenon of the past year or two. As a result, there are a lot of people talking and writing about it without really understanding what it is they’re talking about. I hear in-game advertising referred to as advergaming on a regular basis - the two are definitely related, but there is an important distinction that must be made.
Advergames are not simply games with logos slapped on them. There are some who try to pass these kinds of games off as advergames, but it misses one essential point: in advergaming the game is more than a delivery mechanism for passive advertising - the game itself must deliver a brand experience.
This is not to take away from in-game advertising - it can definitely be effective. However, one cannot call Halo 2 an advergame simply because it has unrelated advertising within the world. Much like product placement doesn’t make a movie a commercial, ads within games do not an advergame make.
As we’re further inundated with a million-channel universe, where everything is on-demand and consumers can block out any unwanted noise with the help of electronic gatekeepers, we as advertisers are going to have to start using these gatekeepers to empower our message. How do we do that? By creating entertaining, engaging content that delivers our message. As we move to an on-demand world, marketers will have to start creating demand for their ads, or they will be instantly tuned out.
The marketing world is changing, and it’s important that we all understand the tools that we now have to work with. In-game advertising is one, but advergaming is quite another. If we keep it straight, the conversation about the future will make a whole lot more sense to everyone.
This entry was posted on Friday, September 1st, 2006 at 10:57 am and is filed under Advergames. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
September 2nd
2006 at 6:40 pm
Great blog about advergaming. I agree whole heartedly.
September 11th
2006 at 12:53 pm
good
http://www.f8f8.com
September 19th
2006 at 4:41 pm
[...] There’s a great article by Ryan Anderson at the Fuel Games Blog that defines an advergame. I posted it here for future reference. Below is an excerpt from it. Advergames are not simply games with logos slapped on them. There are some who try to pass these kinds of games off as advergames, but it misses one essential point: in advergaming the game is more than a delivery mechanism for passive advertising - the game itself must deliver a brand experience. [...]
October 12th
2006 at 5:01 pm
Personally, when I think of advergaming, I recall that warm fuzzy connection between the He-man cartoon and He-man toys that I experienced as a child. The show experience was relived through the toys. Is this somewhat how advergaming functions?
October 13th
2006 at 10:08 am
Shows like GI Joe and He Man were the height of branded entertainment in the 80s. Advergaming falls under the umbrella of branded entertainment - so in this case, you bought the toys because of your positive experience with the show. It wasn’t a game, but it made that connection between the two things and drove your desire to buy. It wasn’t until I was in university writing an essay on marketing to children in a communications class that I actually realized that the He-Man show I watched as a kid was a blatant ad for the toys.
October 16th
2006 at 11:45 am
I can’t rightly recall when I realized that the cartoons were blatant ads. I believe it was sometime in my teenage years when I was still forming my opinions about advertising and marketing as a whole. Thank you for responding to my comment so quickly. I’ve enjoyed playing the games your company has produced and look forward to seeing more.
June 5th
2007 at 8:33 am
I don’t think advergaming is a difficult concept to grasp. But then I play computer games and I like to think I’m reasonably intellilgent and in tune with branding and advertising. Maybe that combination makes it easier to connect the dots?