Dear Marketers: Start Playing (In) Games.

Saturday morning I had a very interesting discussion on the future of gaming, which got me thinking about where that business is headed and how marketers will be able to “play” (in a manner of speaking).

The POV I was presented with was, there will be no more consoles developed by Sony, Xbox or Nintendo — moving forward, everything is going to be focused on the cloud and/or integrated into other devices.  Vizio recently announced a partnership with OnLive to integrate cloud-based gaming systems into its TVs and Blu-Ray players in much the same way we see Pandora and NetFlix integrated. Vizio is also integrating into mobile handsets over the next couple of years, driven most recently by competitors like the Playstation phone (called Xperia).  As this strategy becomes more and more commonplace, it also opens up opportunities for marketers to get into the world of gaming more quickly and easily than they have in the past.

One of the biggest obstacles for getting brands into gaming was lead time, because many brands actually wanted to be integrated into the game play — and titles were built, pressed and shipped for use on consoles far in advance of any potential campaign flight; ads were permanent placements with high price tags. In the last 10 years, console manufacturers has developed and broadened the reach of their online extensions and integrations for games.  

In that same time we’ve witnessed the advent of gaming networks and new ways for marketers to integrate into a title in an existing ad unit that may appear a little more intrusive, but are effective nonetheless.  As these systems shift more towards a cloud-based serving model, amazing opportunities open up for marketers to integrate more fully.  Marketers can begin offering expansion packs, additional levels and un-lockable areas of existing games even after they’re already in the marketplace.

So it seems the gaming arena of gaming is ripe for new opportunities in the field of marketing — and as the gaming audience itself has expanded to the mainstream, I feel a strong one-two punch!  For proof of this concept, just look at what brands are doing on social gaming as a toe-in-the-water test of things to come.

But will these gaming innovations translate to increased attention from marketers?  Gaming is still a sensitive word in the eyes of many marketers.  The old-school ones hear “gaming” and there’s a lot of baggage that comes along with it.  The newer school have less baggage, but there’s still a couple of “carry-ons” to worry about.  Gaming needs to have some proponents in the Fortune 500 brand marketplace who are willing to talk about their efforts and their successes in order to overcome that stigma. 

I know gaming can be effective, having used it in the past, but I don’t talk about it very much (except for this article) because clients aren’t into it.  As a person who has spent 17 years in the agency world, I can tell you that far too many agency people won’t bring up gaming because it’s too Sisyphian to sell through.  Agency people are stretched pretty thin, and some ideas, like gaming, take too much of their infrequently available time to get approved!

So even though the marketplace and the technology appear ready, there are still a couple of challenges facing the integration of gaming as a marketing vehicle with reach and consistency.  In my eyes, the key players in that space need to combine forces and start investing in research to prove the efficacy of the platforms, and then take this information public.  Consider it an XMOS Study for gaming.  If that happens, then I see nowhere to go but up for in-game marketing!

By Cory Treffiletti
Cory is president and managing partner for Catalyst SF.
Courtesy of MediaPost