NONE: Re: ONLINE-ADS>> What's wrong with compute games?
Re: ONLINE-ADS>> What's wrong with compute games?
Mark J. Welch (markwelch_at_ca-probate.com)
Wed, 25 Feb 1998 09:17:02 -0800
At 05:15 PM 2/25/98 +1100, James Halprin wrote: * * *
>My particular interest in Web Advertising relates to the use of advertising
>within computer games which I believe is for the most part, the richest and
>most untapped media of all. * * * A person gets
>heavily involved for extended periods of uninterrupted time while playing a
>computer game - that sounds like a great advertising opportunity to me!
Presumably, branding might succeed by creating a mental association
between the brand and an intense pleasurable activity.
While I agree that there is some opportunity for "branding" benefits
from advertising within games, I wonder whether advertising during
game play has the same benefits as advertising on an informational
web site. I could never really explain why I believe this, but James
has given me a clue, when he mentioned that a game player is
"heavily involved for extended periods of uninterrupted time while
playing a computer game."
I would suggest that when someone is "heavily involved for extended
periods of uninterrupted time," advertising exposure is quite likely
to provide benefits only at a nearly-subliminal level, if at all. When
James mentioned "heavily involved for extended periods of
uninterrupted time," I thought of sex and basketball, and
I cannot imagine anyone buying advertising targetting the
PARTICIPANTS during those activities. ("New advertising
opportunity: ads on motel headboards" . . . "Your logo on
every California fitness club basketball backboard, $500
per week.")
Note that this is a separate and distinct difference from the more
obvious issue of "propensity to click." We all know that people are
unlikely to "click away" during game play, or during a web-site-
submission sequence, but I think it is a separate issue that
someone who is "heavily involved" in an intense, stimulating
experience will be unlikely to pay much attention to anything
that is not an integral part of that experience.
Another issue is retention: during these "heavily involved"
activities, our minds generally are rapidly processing
immense amounts of information, which I suspect is usually
flushed from short-term memory after the activity is complete.
I'd hate to discover that someone developed an intense
stimulus reaction to my brand, but that reaction was flushed
and forgotten before they had any opportunity to act on it.
I would certainly like to see some studies done on this, since
my own conclusions are little more than guesses.
Mark J. Welch
<markwelch_at_ca-probate.com>
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