• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, April 24, 2006

18 to 34 Year Old Males Seen As The Target Audience for In-game Advertising  

Paul Loughrey, writing for GamesIndustry.biz, reports on a new survey, conducted by Nielson Interactive and Double Fusion, which says that in-game advertising yields significant results in product awareness and purchasing decisions, showing that in-game advertising generates a 60 percent improvement in new product awareness, and that 3D advertising creates nearly twice that of static 2D billboard advertising.

It should be noted however, says the writer, that the study was designed to validate the different formats available through Double Fusion's own in-game advertising technology.

Last year's E3 conference program featured an in-game advertising workshop, in which key industry figures suggested a massive revenue boost over the coming years. Michael Goodman from The Yankee Group forecast a leap in spending from USD 35 million in 2004 to approximately USD 875 million by 2009.

AdWeek, reporting on the recent Advertising in Games conference, says that during the keynote address in New York, Mitch Davis, CEO Massive Inc., predicted that in-game ad spending would be somewhere between $1.6 billion and $1.8 billion in the U.S. by 2010, or roughly 3 percent of total media spending.

Discussing the latest survey results, Nielsen Interactive Entertainment's managing director for Europe, Henry Piney, said: "The study provides continued evidence that in-game advertising is a medium which brand managers across categories should be exploring, particularly if they want to reach the highly valuable 18-34 year old male audience."

Read the complete article here.