The future of casual gaming should absolutely belong to Internet advertising, if a recent report from RealNetworks is to be believed. An astonishing 90 percent of gamers surveyed said they would
watch ads, both before and during play, if it means they can play casual games for free. Even more important was the revelation that 34 percent reported clicking through or taking some kind of other
action regarding the advertiser's product.
"One in three is a shockingly impressive click-through rate," says GigaOm's Wagner James Au. However, Real's press release didn't state the
methodology or its accuracy rate, "Still," Au says, "even half that number would be big news." The results come from a survey of 1,500 RealGames players, 81 percent female and 65 percent between the
ages of 35 and 64.
Au also points out that most in-game advertising studies focus on metrics like brand awareness and recall, but if click-throughs really are this high, one wonders why CTRs aren't used more regularly.