Advergame – Marketing in video games
In case you’ve been living under a rock, technology has advanced and the veil separating the real world from the world of video games has been fading.
Although this can be a calamity for the minds of our society, it is also a fantastic opportunity for marketers. How?
By introducing a brand to a hobby that occupies so much time in the lives of a large part of the world’s population.
Attention! Advergaming is not the same thing as putting a banner in the stands of FIFA 22 or a poster in GTA5 online.
The intention is that players focus on the brand, not that the brand stays in the background, like an invisible marketing piece. Thus, an advergame is a game specifically designed around a product or service.
Some (great) advergame examples
Advergame is not a new phenomenon.
This type of advertising has enormous power. Without being intrusive, it puts the brand in front of the consumer-player without the consumer feeling persecuted by the advertising.
Thus, it reconciles brand awareness, as well as exposure and the likelihood of going viral.
See some examples of success!
Volkswagen Polowers
With an aim to create conversation about the Volkswagen Polo, Volkswagen Spain and advertising agency DDB created an online game called Polowers integrated into Twitter.
The results speak for themselves, it was a real success.
Doritos VR Battle
There is more and more talk about virtual reality, a futuristic way to play. Through the use of purpose-built glasses, the immersive experience that is a video game is taken to the next level.
Aware of this potentiality, the snack food company created a game called Doritos VR Battle and invited famous influencers to try it out. They made a movie about the experience which, because of its success, resulted in an open-day for fans.
Burger King Team
If the other two cases didn’t sound convincing enough to make you bet on advergame, the example of the burger king will.
It’s the perfect junction of resources and creativity.
In 2019, the fast-food chain sponsored the English team Stevenage. Considering that it was in the fourth division, it seemed like a rather obtuse idea.
However, the team was going to appear in the 2020 edition of the famous soccer game FIFA. The strategy? To display the Burger King logo on the equipment.
The investment needed to support this team was relatively low when compared to the millions spent sponsoring big teams such as Real Madrid or Paris Saint-Germain.
A challenge called #TheStevenageChallenge was created, whose goal was to encourage people to choose the Stevanage team and share the goals on social media.
The results? For Burger King, notoriety and conversation on social media, as well as a significant widening of their legion of fans. For the team? The most equipment sold in their history.
This is how great marketing is done: creating win-win situations with the least possible waste of resources.
The countless advantages of playing with your brand
- Large audience, extensive segmentation options
Gamers are not only teenagers, it is estimated that there are more than 2.5 billion people around the world. In addition, there is a growing interest in streaming video games. So even those who don’t like to play games can enjoy the mesmerizing effect of this hobby.
- It is customizable
Whether building from scratch or adapting an existing format, a brand can choose the unique way it wants to incorporate itself into an advergame.
- Extremely viral
Games are addictive and, more importantly, highly shareable. From Facebook games to online games, the likelihood that players will want to talk about the game is huge, especially if it has a competitive component (a little tip, for free).
- Easily measurable
It’s relatively easy to track interactions within a game, such as how long they’ve played, how many times they log in, and how much they share the game.
Measuring these actions lets you know the overall performance of your game and the interaction with it.
Traditional communication is saturated, we need to invest in new channels to attract new customers. But, even more importantly, we need to cement the relationship we have with existing customers.
In a fresh, light and captivating way, the advergame achieves all these goals. An irreverent solution in this new marketing 4.0 era.
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