• Adweek, Thursday, March 26, 2009 11:45 AM

A new study from NeoEdge finds that ads on casual gaming sites lift brand awareness. According to the results, ads NeoEdge ran for Zappos resulted in 56% of users having a favorable impression of the brand while having a three to five times increase in awareness for Zappos new offerings in men's clothing.

"There is a receptiveness to these type of ads because (consumers are) getting to play the game for free," said Peter Manickas, director of research at Frank Magid Associates, which conducted the study for NeoEdge. "It really improved people's impressions."

The NeoEdge study collected 2,000 responses from participants who were shown 1 million ad impressions. Nearly three quarters of the respondents were women, which is typical of the casual gaming audience. Through the study, NeoEdge claims that casual gaming ads are more effective than TV. When Zappos showed video spots before, during, and after game play, the ads generated a 500 percent lift in unaided brand awareness, higher than results seen in TV ad effectiveness studies. "Most of us in the marketing world realize the last category that has yet to move in full force to the Web is brand advertising," said Ty Levine, vp of marketing for NeoEdge, adding that he hopes that casual games would help change that.

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