• by Ross Fadner , May 4, 2004

Video game content sites represent some of the Web's hottest real estate. Web sites like CNET Networks' GameSpot, IGN/GameSpy, and GameFAQs draw large numbers of early adopters and loyal gamers who happen to fill the gap left in Nielsen Media's male 18-34 TV ratings void. Increasingly, gaming content and information sites are grabbing the attention of advertisers who have been frustrated with past attempts to penetrate the closed-door world of video games.

On Tuesday, IGN/GameSpy expanded its online ad format and sales offerings for advertisers in response to increased demand for its inventory.

IGN/GameSpy became the first Web publisher to incorporate the Interactive Advertising Bureau's new half-page ad standard on a home page. The company is selling a combined half-page and leaderboard package in 24-hour increments (one 48-hour buy for the weekend) on both the IGN and GameSpy home pages. The new package completely dominates the screen when users log on to either site.

"No one has put so much advertising on the front page," says Jonathan Epstein, executive vice president, general manager, media division, IGN/GameSpy. Epstein says the result is a 98 percent larger presence than before for home page advertisers, and at 24-hour increments, advertisers receive roughly 33 million impressions per day. "It gives advertisers a big canvas to fill," Epstein says. Weather.com and other publishers also sell premium areas of their properties in 24-hour increments.

On Tuesday, visitors to GameSpy.com were greeted with a huge, combined leaderboard/half-page ad for Square-Enix's multi-player online role-playing game Final Fantasy XI. Likewise, on IGN.com's home page, Logitech displayed a massive image spanning both the leaderboard and half-page displays of its new wireless game controller. In both instances, the ads appear as prominently, if not more prominently, than the content on the page.

IGN/Gamespy's Epstein notes that the decision to sell the half- page/leaderboard combination came in response to advertisers placing "huge emphasis on getting high traffic pages," including the Web site's home page, and category pages like the PlayStation 2 or PC Games home pages. Premium positions such as these are sold in 24-hour to 3-day increments, while other inventory is sold on a cost per thousand basis--"however you want to buy or target," Epstein says.

Targeting is also readily available to advertisers because IGN/GameSpy collects information about its user-base through a number of subscription packages, which include premium content, video clips, magazine subscriptions, and free software. Subscription packages range in price from $5 per month or $25 per year to $10 per month or $80 per year.

According to comScore Networks' MediaMetrix, IGN/GameSpy reaches more than 19.4 million unique users per month. Epstein says IGN/GameSpy generates roughly 1 billion impressions per month. IGN.com represents the most concentrated audience of 18- to-34-year-old males of any Internet site (69.4 percent), according to audience measurement firm @plan.

In conjunction with the new package offering for advertisers, IGN/GameSpy also unveiled a new Web design, upgrading to a 1024 x 768 resolution. Epstein says the upgrade was possible because the overwhelming majority--86 percent--of IGN/GameSpy users have high-speed online access.

Epstein notes that the site plans to hold an "upfront" next year spurred by advertiser complaints that IGN/GameSpy inventory for the fourth quarter--the most popular time of year for the video game segment--is often sold out by the middle of March.