Google introduces AdSense for video games

Google announced to “soon” introduce an advertising system for video games, reports Seattle PI. A logical step, we think at 77, as the in-game and around-game advertising market is growing fast. Even though the video game advertising is somewhat of a niche market, it seems able to reach a specific demographic. Targeting is easier than normal since the video game market is already rather defined. When console games go online more, this could become a small but valuable market for advertisers.

At the Casual Connect conference Google executives told a gathering of video game publishers and developers that Google is taking their AdSense system to the video game platform. It will allow publishers of video games to monetize the popularity of their games more by putting advertisements in them.

The video game advertising market is growing rapidly: according to Seattle PI, the Yankee Group concluded that in-game advertising alone will grow to almost $1 billion by 2011, from $78 million last year. The big video game platforms are rising to the occasion, as Xbox maker Microsoft recently bought in-game advertising company Massive Inc. and Google has already been talking with PlayStation makers Sony.

The real value of this market will surface when all the video games will be played online. When all Xbox, PlayStation and Wii users will opt in to play their games online, target marketing will be much easier for advertisers, as both their online behaviour and their in-game behaviour can be monitored. Also, advertising will then be dynamic instead of static, like the Google AdWords system. When you market a product that targets tech-savvy young adults or kids, and you can produce advertising that is not too intrusive, keep an eye on this medium.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 23rd, 2007 at 6:55 pm and is filed under Other Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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