• by March 16, 2001

Here's a new term for your spellchecker to tackle - "advergaming."

A company called kpe, which works with media and entertainment companies, has published an 8-page report titled "Can Advergaming be the Future of Interactive Advertising?" - an in-depth analysis of this curiously named emerging trend.

Through its work in the interactive sector, kpe has found that gaming is a new and extraordinarily powerful vehicle for delivering branding and advertising messages, with strong advantages over traditional methods such as banner ads.

Of course, it should come as no surprise that kpe also specializes in interactive game development, but I won't dismiss them right off the bat. These guys have coined an intriguing term and do have a logical concept behind it.

According to the report, by leveraging online gaming's popularity and site stickiness, Advergaming can provide a brand marketing solution that meets and even exceeds traditional expectations for advertising.

At its most effective, kpe says, Advergaming combines a compelling brand message with extensive capture of consumer demographic and preference data. Some companies have even successfully integrated market research opportunities into game play.

The costs of developing an Advergame may exceed that of a rich-media banner ad, but potential increases in impressions, brand recognition and value-added consumer data can far offset the larger investment, the report says.

Last week, we all heard that inventing new sizes for Internet ads isn't half as important as inventing new WAYS of advertising on the web. Could this be one of those way or is it just more of the same old bogus self-serving research?