More On In-Game Placement: Four Major Brands’ Plans

Last week, I talked about the increasing popularity and effectiveness of in-game product placement. In the latest news, four big brands have initiated a 3-month in-game advertising trial. These four global brands are Ford, Nike, Unilever’s Sure for Men, and Samsung. The ad spending for these brands will be committed to game placements compatible with the Nintendo Wii, Sony Playstation, Microsoft Xbox Live, and PC. Expenditures are also limited to advertising in the UK.



While Nike, Samsung and Unilever are aiming their trial placements in shooting games, Ford has different plans. In support of its new Fiesta ST model, Ford bought ad space in various racing games including “Need for Speed Carbon” and “Trackmedia Sunrise.” In such games, players can race around in a Ford Fiesta ST as well as view ads and signage for the brand throughout the game. Other promotional activities for the Fiesta ST include campaign sites on MSN and ads on Windows Messenger live as a result of a deal with Microsoft. Microsoft can also be credited for supporting the in-game initiative with its reported research findings that the in-game ad market was worth $56 million in 2005 and is estimated to reach $1.8 billion by 2010. Such figures have helped to encourage many brands to enter the gaming world as a profitable source for marketing. More about this newly announced in-game initiative is discussed by New Media Age in its article, “Ford and Nike join in the biggest trial yet of in-game advertising.”