Broadening the Horizons of Online Gaming

In today’s media environment, online gaming is fast becoming a fundamental part of a brand’s communication strategy. By offering advertisers a wider range of innovative opportunities to engage with consumers, the appeal of online games has increased dramatically over the last few years. Recent research by the Casual Games Association, suggests the industry is growing 20% year on year.

This month, RealGames unveils a portfolio of dynamic new Special Products, broadening our casual gaming offering to provide an extended platform for brands to engage with consumers via an immersive and integrated gaming experience. By enhancing awareness through significantly increasing consumer interaction, as well as traffic to a brand’s website, this new flexible and cost effective offering can deliver maximum ROI for a campaign.

The Special Products offering utilises both CPC and CPM advertising models, depending on the campaign objective, and comprises four package options: Option 1 and 2 consist of two different levels of Game Page Takeovers, the Sponsored Game and In-Game Advertising.

Option 1

Game Page Takeover offers two dedicated spots on Zylom’s homepage both linking to a full game page within our website. This game page, which comprises a hot spots homepage and information on products, leads directly to the brand’s own landing page. As a result, this increases traffic to their website and creates an immersive playing experience within the brand’s environment.

Option 2

Game Page Takeover is similar to Option 1, however provides a gaming experience via the game page in a Zylom pop-up. This option showcases information about products, with a hotspots homepage and dedicated landing page complete with customer branding - all contained within the Zylom environment.

Option 3

Sponsored Game comprises a single game featuring ads from one advertiser. This option provides information about products, combining brand positioning with creating a positive playing experience via a selection of top five most popular games in the Zylom environment (see below).

Option 4

In-Game Advertising provides the ultimate in brand engagement, through in-depth sponsorship of one targeted game to enhance the overall gaming experience (see below). The brand, product or service is effectively integrated into an existing Zylom game, with the possibility of either using games inside or outside the Zylom environment. Each game can be branded with products and logos to create a fully immersive experience for the consumer and will significantly increase brand awareness.

Top Five Games (as reported by RealGames in April 09)

• Mystery P.I. - The New York Fortune Deluxe
• Pharaoh's Secret Deluxe
• Zuma Deluxe
• Mystery P.I. - The Lottery Ticket Deluxe
• Bejeweled 2 Deluxe

In addition, it could be argued that online gaming has become progressively more effective than even perhaps traditional mediums such as TV/Radio/Outdoor, since it guarantees such a high level of consumer interaction.

Amanda Andrews, Media Editor of the Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph comments: "As advertisers seek more targeted and global ad solutions, computer games provide an opportunity that has not been exploited nearly enough."

Furthermore, with this potential in mind, it is predicted that online gaming will grow to more than 20% of the whole gaming industry by 2013, up from 10% in 2008. So it seems the industry is certainly set to monopolise the media landscape by not only providing, but also guaranteeing far stronger consumer engagement as well as accountability - which is paramount in today’s fragmented media world.