• by Shankar Gupta , August 16, 2006

Ad holding company WPP Group has invested $3 million in ad-supported video game network WildTangent, the companies said Tuesday.

Prior to the investment, WildTangent had run a host of campaigns for WPP Group clients, including Sony Electronics, Novartis, Ford and Unilever. Dave Madden, executive vice president for WildTangent, said the company probably would now do more work for WPP clients. "The benefit to us is it gives us greater access to their roster and their agencies," he said. "We expect, as part of the relationship, we'll accelerate our business there."

One of WildTangent's upcoming initiatives involves all-day brand-sponsored game sessions. The new offering allows advertisers to sponsor every player's gaming for an entire day, with branding throughout the network. By contrast, most of WildTangent's game offerings for marketers involve just a pre-game video spot.

WildTangent's network was the second-fastest-gaining property from June to July of this year--outpaced only by YouTube.com, according to comScore Media Metrix. WildTangent grew to 6.2 million unique users in July from 1.5 million in June, marking an increase of 296 percent.

WildTangent's game network includes over 250 titles, and their downloadable game platform comes preinstalled on all new Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Toshiba PCs in North America.