Study: In-Game Integration Reaps Consumer Recall

Video games are quickly becoming the most effective medium for reaching consumers via product integration—especially the evasive young male demo—according to a new study from Nielsen Entertainment, to be released this week.The study, which was funded by Santa Monica-based game-maker Activision, found that product integration in video games may have the best results in terms of consumer recall, awareness and "calls to action," such as purchasing or recommending the product.Gaming undoubtedly is a hot-button issue for advertisers and agencies right now because of its appeal to young males, who are proving more difficult to reach through traditional media like TV. And while most current video game ad commitments are for product integration, according to ad executives, in the past year, companies such as Massive Inc. have developed computer servers to place live short-form spots in online games. According to Michael Dowling, general manager, Nielsen Interactive Entertainment, who oversaw the study, the research found that games have different levels of integration. There's a "brand presence" type of integration that includes billboards, sponsorship tags and the like. Other products are more fully integrated into games and require the gamer to interact with the product, such as driving a specific make of vehicle throughout the game. Dowling said the study found that brand integration is as effective in generating awareness, recall and positive brand impressions as typical product placements in other media, such as TV or the Internet. But with the more pervasive "Level A" integration in video games, "the results are far better" for brand recall and perception than other integration and other media, he said.The video-game business itself is huge, and consumers spend more money on games and the equipment to play them than they do on going to the movies. A recent Mediaedge:cia study reports that 150 million people in the U.S., or 63 percent of the population, play video games. But game advertising is still a very small business that will total just $185 million in 2005, according to the Yankee Group; however, estimates have that number reaching $1 billion by 2009. By comparison, total U.S. measured media spending for 2004 was $116 billion, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus, while the total for the first nine months of 2005 was about $90 billion. However, the fact that Activision paid for the research raised a red flag for some ad agency executives regarding the study's results. They said the game maker and Nielsen left themselves open to questions about how valid the results are, since the sponsor of the research has a vested interest in the findings. "It's always better to have a trusted third party leading that kind of study," said Cory Treffiletti, svp, engagement architect, Aegis Group's Carat Fusion.Curt Hecht, evp, chief digital officer, GM Planworks, agreed. The research itself may be "perfectly viable," he said, "but how neutral is it when you got a game maker basically assigning the research itself?" Robin Kaminsky, head of global brand management for Activision, responded that that is why the company hired Nielsen instead of doing the research in-house. "There's nothing I'd like more than to have an outside source do that on their own," she said. The main reason for conducting the study is not to sell tons of advertising in games, she said. "First, we want to make sure that games are not hurt by it." And the research, she said, indicates that for the most part, gamers don't view advertising negatively. For example, one test group in the study played Electronic Arts' "Need For Speed Underground 2," which featured a Cingular phone service integration. In a follow-up survey, 95 percent of players said they had a neutral or positive image of Cingular after playing the game.Still, said Kaminsky, video game advertising "will always be a secondary source of revenue for us." Games and sponsors in the study included Activision's "Tony Hawk's Underground 2" (Jeep) and "MTX Mototrax" (Butterfinger); Electronic Arts' "Need for Speed Underground 2" (Cingular) and 2K Games' "NHL 2K6" (Air Canada).Based on research that Carat Fusion has done in-house, Treffiletti said the Nielsen findings made sense. "It's an extremely uncluttered environment right now, so whatever is in there tends to stand out," he said. "It's also a more heavily engaged audience than we've seen in any other medium."Planworks has also done extensive research on gamers for General Motors, whose Pontiac brand is a sponsor of a college football video game from Electronic Arts. "We're not at the point of saying that one medium is better than another," said Hecht. "It's more about how they complement each other. If somebody is passionate about college football, how are we going to immerse ourselves in it with them? And the answer is a cross-media approach."What remains to be seen, however, is whether video-game product integration can drive sales like TV. Agency executives say that no video-game product integration has yet moved product off the shelf or out of the lot the way that, for example, GM was able to do with the integration of its Pontiac Solstice brand on NBC's The Apprentice earlier this year. For gaming, the key is getting connected to the Internet, and most game and console makers are developing systems to do that. "Once you're able to drive them to the Web, it allows that type of response to be more of a reality," said Hecht. "We see that in the future." But the bigger question may be: How scalable is in-game product integration? "There are only so many big-ticket game titles out there," said Hecht, "so the question becomes, 'How many marketers can actually fit into it and still make it compelling?'"

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Study: In-Game Integration Reaps Consumer Recall

Steve Mcclellan

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