As in-game advertising grows, the types of ads that run in and around games is growing too, with banners and billboards being replaced by dynamic placements that include video ads. Video ads can run as pre-rolls or post-rolls and can be incorporated into the game action, providing a new experience for advertisers. We discussed the rise of in-game video advertising with Jonathan Epstein, president and CEO of Double Fusion, an in-game advertising network and tech provider that is at the forefront of efforts to incorporate video ads into casual and other game formats.
iSPOT: In-game advertising has ranged from product placement to banners to outdoor style billboards, audio clips and skins. What kind of formats have been most successful?
Epstein: I think we are in the state of continuing to evolve our product mix as an industry. In the in-game world when you look at dynamic advertising as opposed to fixed product placements, the majority of space that was run was billboards and signage of various sorts inside of the game, which could be posters hanging from buildings or signs or taxi tops with a little bit of video and 3D. Double Fusion prides ourself on having advanced ad formats and the market now is getting familiar with those formats and asking to move beyond just using signage in games. So we’re seeing increased use of video inside the game, not just around the game and we’re seeing a lot of 3D placements where brands are placing their products across a network of multiple games to be interacted with. Ads are starting to go interactive, in the game as opposed to around the game. Users can touch a sign or point to a sign and it launches a trailer and provides an interactive function, which provides a deeper level of user engagement.
iSPOT: In that situation, the video plays within the context of the game itself?
Epstein: Yes, there are three ways of doing that. One is to stream video within the game. There are some challenges associated with it due to performance and use of bandwidth and we’re very careful about not wanting to interrupt any game play. There are two other ways to do it. One is to download the video player. When game companies want to put video in their game, you can download the file and invoke the player that’s in the game to play that file so it works with games that already have video in them. Double Fusion is able to take Flash video, download it and redisplay it in the game frame by frame with sound sequence. Video games are a series of frames and each frame is rendered by the computer with unique graphic formats. So there are three ways to play video ads in-game: streaming, playing through the existing player or using Flash and recomposing the video inside the game with synchronized sound.
iSPOT: There are so many different kinds of games, from first person shooter games to sports games, racing, action and casual. What kinds are most amenable to playing video ads?
Epstein: A game company usually plays an ad when the user is waiting for the game experience. That’s the paradigm for casual games. But there’s the issue of context, making sure the ad is appropriate to the audience. Inside of 3D games, there’s a couple of factors that should be addressed before a video ad is inserted. Does it look real in the world? Sports games have a Jumbotron that displays ads, that’s a good thing. Cities that are set in real world or slightly futuristic settings are appropriate places for video ads. The other consideration is, is this a place a user stops? If you’re racing around a track, you probably shouldn’t put a video ad there because no one’s going to see it. If you’re under a lot of live fire, we can sell a video ad but the user’s focus is on avoiding the bullets. So you have to determine the context and user path through the game.
iSPOT: Are in-game video ads sold on a CPM basis?
Epstein: Fixed product placements can be sold on a unit basis, but they’re fixed, every player sees them. In terms of dynamic advertising, it’s a CPM business. The standard unit is a :15 or a :30. We see a lot more :15s.
iSPOT: Who are some of the major in-game video advertisers, what product types?
Epstein: There are a lot of automotive advertisers, entertainment companies for movies and TV and we do a fair amount with athletic apparel and shoes. Those are the leading categories in the field, but everyone’s interested in employing it if it’s part of their overall marketing campaign.
iSPOT: There are a lot of major players in the in-game video advertising market. Real Networks is a casual game publisher that is using Eyeblaster style video ads. EyeWonder makes video ads available to game publishers. Microsoft recently acquired Massive, an in-game ad network. Can you comment on all the activity in the space?
Epstein: When you look at the downloadable casual games market, the audience is consolidated into portals. Some have their own sales forces and some work with networks like Double Fusion. We provide the ability to more easily put videos into games without requiring game code. If the question is how to get in front of the video game audience for the games that run on consoles as opposed to casual games, then you go to a smaller group of players that includes ourselves, Massive and IGA. You don’t need technology to do a pre-roll or post-roll ad, you can do it in web fashion and then launch the game. It’s the more advanced stuff inside a game that requires tech that most of them don’t have. There’s a lot of heat around the games market so a lot of companies are trying to position themselves.
iSPOT: What’s the best reason for advertisers to use video ads within a game?
Epstein: There’s really tight targeting of audience based on game type. The downloadable casual market is heavily female 35-54. The video gaming market is males 13-34. It depends what kind of game. One, it is very targeted. Another is level of engagement and intensity as an experience that doesn’t exist on the web. The web is an information environment, not an entertainment environment. Games are an incredibly lean forward experience and studies have shown the intensity and connection are a strong match for advertisers. It’s about the immersive ad experience and the high degree of targeting. And thirdly, in-game video ads provide the ability to associate with specific high value content. Certain games are very popular and advertisers like to be associated with them just like TV shows.
iSPOT: What can we look for in in-game video advertising this year?
Epstein: We’re committed to offering an immersive ad experience across a wide array of games and online entertainment. You’ll see us working video into casual games, console games and virtual worlds. We continue to advance our work in new formats, which is the thing that allows us to link ads together and provide additional interactivity in games.
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