• by Shankar Gupta , April 11, 2005

In a nod to the popularity of video games, Massive Incorporated, a video game advertising network, today will announce the signing of 12 new advertisers, including Paramount Pictures, which will promote the movies "The Longest Yard," "Aeon Flux," and "The War of the Worlds." Other advertisers include Coca-Cola, Intel Corp, Universal Pictures, Comcast G4, Nestle, Honda, T-Mobile, UPN, New Line Cinema, Verizon DSL, and Dunkin' Donuts.

"Blue chip large advertisers are investing media dollars behind this medium. I think we're at a point where it seems that the medium has been legitimized," said Nicholas Longano, Massive's chief marketing officer. Massive currently has exclusive, long-term deals with 12 publishers, and is slated to place ads in 40 titles.

Amy Powell, Paramount's vice president for interactive marketing, said video games present a new opportunity to reach consumers. "In order to reach that elusive audience that's slowly but surely migrating away from television and other media, we think it's a smart way to find them," said Powell.

Another appeal of video games is that players are completely immersed in the game, giving advertisers an audience engaged with the medium--and presumably, with the ads. "There are no distractions--when you're playing your video game, no one bothers you," said Longano, a gamer himself.

Massive inserts the ads in games in places where the characters would naturally expect to see them--on billboards, for instance, or posters, scattered throughout the game world. For example, in "Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory," Massive currently is serving ads for an upcoming Paramount Picture, "The Longest Yard," which will be released on May 27. Posters for the movie are hung on walls throughout the simulated streets of the game's world. Ironically, however, the game is set in the year 2008, making the ads 3 years too late.

Massive's network officially launched on March 28 with the release of "Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory," the third installment in Ubisoft's popular espionage series, and the addition of ads to the futuristic online multiplayer role-playing game, "Anarchy Online."

Ubisoft also has accepted product placement deals from several companies, including men's cosmetics maker Axe. Those placements, however, are hard-coded into the game, and static--every time a player plays through a level, the same product placements will appear in the same place.

In contrast, Massive's ads are dynamically updated through the Internet connection of a PC or console system, which allows advertisers to target certain geographical areas, or to change their ads over time. This ability means that players won't necessarily see the same ads each time they play the game.

Massive allows each game's developers to select the ads that will appear in their games. "Each ad that's served into that title contextually fits the game. It makes sense to the gamer, and the gamer has a better appreciation for it," said Longano. "You've got a gamer that is completely engaged in that video game environment, because that product adds realism. You're not going to see any of this advertising running in a medieval game."