• by Sheree R. Curry , November 29, 2005

Men and video games seem to be an easy sell. A new Eyeblaster study reveals that 90 percent of - to 34-year-old males agreed to watch a video ad in exchange for free game plays, while only 75 percent of females in the same age range would do so.

If the majority of gamers are willing to view ads, marketers may have a captive audience that will respond favorably, says Gal Trifon, president/CEO of Eyeblaster, a provider of rich media ad technology. The study was conducted on gamers with WildTangent, an online gaming publisher based in Redmond, Wash.

Eyeblaster's technology allows advertisers to run ads within gaming content or around the game, while also running the same video ad on any Web site.

"Advertisers are walking a fine line with in-game advertising, especially [with] ads in games that consumers have shelled out $50 to play," says Bill Clifford, general manager, advertising platforms at WildTangent. The key is "delivering relevancy and value to gamers." The study drew on the responses of 1,000-plus gamers over a three-month period, in which ads were delivered 125,000 times, Clifford says.