Viral Ad Network

Following on from part 1, in which we looked at online video as a medium, this post concentrates on online games. Games are an attractive medium as there’s a large and dedicated free game audience online. It’s a common misconception that the audience mostly consists of teenage boys – instead, it’s a mixed demographic (with a large proportion of adult females). To help you decide whether or not an online game would be suitable for your strategy, here’s some pros and cons:

Pros:

- They’re very engaging. If the game is really playable, it locks the user in. With your branding integrated into the gameplay, you won’t find a more receptive audience.

- There’s a dedicated audience (of online game players). If your campaign is suitable, you can target niche groups easily.

- There’s (slightly) less game material when compared to video, so it should be easier to cut through the noise. According to Dan Efergen of Aardman Digital, the first 48 hours are crucial. Push the game as hard as you can in this time.

Cons:

- It’s expensive. Developing a (good) game takes time, skill, and of course, money. You can’t rush the process if you want it to succeed (unless you’re very lucky).

- It’s less portable. Games aren’t quite as easy to embed when compared to video, and therefore aren’t as easy to share.

- It’s more difficult to buy plays for. If you need a “boost”, it’s more difficult to get people to play your game when compared to buying views for a video.

- Die hard flash gamers are cynical of branded content. It certainly helps to have these guys on side to share your game within their community, which leads to sharing outside too.

We’ll be posting some game case studies in the near future. In the meantime, if you’d like to know more about seeding your online game, please get in touch.

Tags: Advertising, Flash games, Online games, viral

This entry was posted on Friday, January 28th, 2011 at 3:05 pm and is filed under Advertisers. 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.