Real Gamers In EA Sports Ads Set Up For Teasing

Now that EA Sports has begun running ads featuring real gamers promoting the titles, investment blog The Motley Fool has decided to have a little bit of fun at their expense. "Nerdy smackdowns have been bringing the funny since Napoleon Dynamite became a big-screen hit," says the site. Shudder.

Anyway, The Motley Fool came up with a tongue-in-cheek list of five ways to tell if you're EA Sports ad material:

Think you're ready to be "in the game," as EA says? Here are five signs you'll be the firm's next sports star. Drumroll, please:

Bully Ads Are A-OK With ASA

31 complaints against a TV ad for Take-Two's Bully: Scholarship Edition were dismissed by the Advertising Standards Authority. The complainants said that the ads "glorified and trivialized" bullying, but the ASA found that the ads themselves were not in violation of any standards.

According to GamesIndustry, the ASA did find the game distasteful, but was not glorifying violence because of its "comic and exaggerated" nature:

"Although many might find the name and content of the game to be in poor taste, the content of the ad was unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence," it said.

ASA dismisses Bully advertising complaints [GamesIndustry.biz]

Halo-Inspired Anti-Smoking Ad

Video Game Florida Anti-Tobacco Ad [YouTube via GamePolitics]

IGA Study Finds People Don't Mind In-Game Ads

A landmark study conducted by Nielsen BASES and Nielsen Games on behalf of in-game advertising giant IGA Worldwide has found that not only is in-game advertising super-effective, most people don't seem to mind it. The study, titled Consumers’ Experience with In-Game Content & Brand Impact of In-Game Advertising Study, found that 82% of consumers exposed to in-game ads felt that the games were just as enjoyable with ads as they were without.

“The growth of in-game advertising, both current and projected, makes it an attractive medium for brands looking to reach hard-to-reach consumers,” said Elizabeth Harz, EA’s Senior Vice President of Global Media Sales. “This study solidifies what many in the industry have known for a long time: in-game ads are effective and well-received by the gaming community.”

Hooray! We're only alienating 18% of the gaming public! Hit the jump for the rest of the numbers, most of which seem to be aimed more at attracting advertisers rather than assuaging consumer concerns.

Massive: In-Game Ads Successful, And Gamers Love 'Em!

Gamers have a "consistently positive" opinion of in-game advertising? That's what ad agency Massive, which is owned by Microsoft, found in a survey whose results it announced this morning.

Media research firm Interpret looked into four of Massive's advertisers: an unnamed fast-food restaurant, candy company and entertainment studio, plus Adidas footwear and apparel, and found the ads are having an effect, showing significant percentage increases in brand recognition when compared to those who didn't see the in-game ads.

With the Adidas promotion, for example, gamers who saw the ads in 2K Sports' Major League Baseball 2K7 said things like "Adidas is the only brand for me" and "Adidas is an inspirational brand" 70 percent more often than those not exposed to the ads.

And Massive's study seems to show gamers don't mind being influenced: 70 percent of gamers said the ads enhanced realism, fit the games they appeared in (universally sports games, except for the ads in Rainbow Six: Vegas) and that the ads "looked cool."

PlayStation 3 Ads, Where's Waldo?

Damn you, clever advertisers! Normally I'm immune to the charms of viral marketing. But give me a dramatic, nonsensical image and throw some things to find in it and...growing...weak...must...waste...time...

These pictures by ad firm BBDO Chile surfaced on Ruliweb and feature hidden PlayStation images if you look closely enough. And to further the mind fuck, at least one of these two pictures (the other after the jump) has multiples of at least some of the PlayStation's trademark triangle, square, circle, X shapes. Sony, why do you do these things to our attention span? It's a Friday for heaven's sake!

In-Game Ads Predicted to Reach $650 Mil By 2012

According to the latest report by analyst group eMarketer, the in-game ad industry will grow to $650 million by 2012, more than doubling 2007's $295 million. eMarketer attributes the growth to the overall growth of the video game industry, with game launches overshadowing other big media events. Most recently, Halo 3 generated more in first day sales than the opening weekend of Spiderman 3 (the biggest opening weekend in history) and the first-day sales of Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows (the final installment in the series).

But this shouldn't come as any surprise. In fact, this estimate is more conservative than in the past. Join me on a trip down memory lane for just a moment, back to the wonderful world of July 2007. Back then, the Yankee Group said that by 2011, in-game ad revenue could reach $971 million. So while in-game ads are on the rise, they may not be growing as quickly as originally thought!

eMarketer: U.S. In-Game Ads Market to More than Double to $650M by 2012 [GameDaily]

Sony Allowing Competition For PS3 In-Game Ads

Sony has announced that managing the PlayStation 3's dynamic in-game ads will be a farmed out proposition. Instead of controlling the ads/market by forcing publishers to buy through them (as Microsoft does with the 360 through their company Massive), Sony will be opening their platform to all three big competitors in the market: Fusion, IGA and AdScape. While this news won't matter much for us as gamers, it's great news for publishers who can only benefit from advertisers fighting over a piece of their pie in the $400 million in-game advertising market.

Game-Ad Boom Looms as Sony Opens Up PS3 [Adage via GamesIndustry]

Howard Stringer Not Sold On In-Game Ads

For the five of you that haven't purchased Halo 3 yet (if you like that sort of thing that is) be sure to check out this week's Best Buy circular. From today until February 3 they are offering the hugely popular FPS for $37.99 which is a $22 savings off of the regular listed price of $59.99.

Circuit City's weekly ad offers a $10 gift card with a pre-order of Devil May Cry 4 for either the Xbox 360 version or the PS3 version. A $10 gift card is also available for pre-orders of the 360 and PS3 versions of Turok. For a full rundown of all the weekly ad deals, check out CheapAssGamer.com.

Scottish Government Fighting Drunk Driving With Xbox 360

The Scottish Government is worried about youth adult drunk driving. During their most recent drunk driving initiative, police caught 150 people under the age of 25 (granted, there are roughly 5 million people in Scotland, but the BBC feels the stat is important, so we're letting you know). Now Scotland is putting £10,000, or almost $20,000, behind in-game sober driving ads. They'll be popping up within online-enabled games Need for Speed: Carbon, Project Gotham Racing 4 and Pro Evolution Soccer 2008. Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson had this to say about this new campaign:

It is innovative, it is new, and it is far removed from the more traditional methods we have been using. I believe that is what we need if we are to reverse the number of Scots families suffering the tragedy of a loved one being lost.

Xbox games tackle drink driving [bbc]

Nintendo Trading Wii Ads for DS

In case you missed it, people want the Wii, there are shortages, Santa is dead and the world may end. So according to Marketing Week, Nintendo has decided to pull their UK Wii commercials in exchange for the promotion of another hot (but at least in stock) commodity, the DS. For as much as we may speculate that Nintendo must feel like they run the place by now, their marketing dollars speak differently. Because at some point Nintendo thought that they'd at some level need a holiday Wii campaign, and it's only now that they're seeing reason...or holding research proving soccer mom heartbreak can cause lasting, measurable side effects.

Nintendo pulls Wii ads due to demand [via cvg]

Xbox 360 Getting Video Ads?

Last Friday, Microsoft released a the comprehensive listing of changes in the newest Xbox 360 update (hit the link below for all of the technical dorkdom you can stand). Gaygamer skimmed the massive list and noticed something peculiar:

Added support for Audio Mute/Unmute for video ads.

London, 2038. According to to legend...

In the next five years, we're all going to have to deal with this. In China, they're giving games away for free...People who benefit from the current model will need to embrace a new revenue model, or wait for others to disrupt.

NBC Universal Creeps Into In-Game Advertising Space

NCSoft Signs In-Game Advertising

NCSoft has just signed a deal with in-game advertising firm Double Fusion regarding its free games Exteel and Dungeon Runners. So, yes, ads are coming. While my heart realizes that in-game ads are the devil, my head knows that companies might as well be paying to accurately depict a virtual Times Square or baseball stadium. But in a fantasy MMO like Dungeon Runners—mind you I've never played it and avoid all MMOs like a fat guy in a sleeveless tee on a mid summer day—Pepsi billboards won't assimilate quite so cleanly. Since some of the advertising is said to be "around game," hopefully players won't need to battle hordes of goblins hopped up on Vault and Pixie Stix.

NCsoft Vouches for In-Game Ads [Next Gen]

British Spies, Found in Videogames

British intelligence agencies—specifically the Government Communications Headquarters—will start recruiting Xbox 360 and PC players of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent through virtual billboards. So what is this organization exactly in charge of? Spy stuff. Cool stuff. Surveillance stuff. According to an agency rep, they are looking for recruits who are:

computer-savvy, technologically able, quick thinking...We find increasingly we have to use less conventional means of attracting people . . . to go beyond glossy brochures and milk-round stalls.

Why video gamers make the best spies [timesonline] Thanks Ad!