3 Rules of Advertising in Video Games

Following the demise of the cruise ship, the buffet, and our collective social lives, COVID-19 forced consumers indoors and online. Data usage increased 47% as schools turned remote and workers were furloughed. The world may return to a near-normal but some habits consumers are building now might remain the same. That’s why companies should adjust to changing consumer behaviors and target their marketing accordingly.

Currently, “digital advertising” is discussed most often in terms of social media or web ads and while those avenues are expected to grow, far less is discussed in terms of video game advertisements. Since the COVID pandemic, 82% of global consumers watch and play video game content and video games, unlike website advertising, aren’t affected by ad-blockers. In addition, video game advertising offers new opportunities for creative engagement and viral content.

But video game advertising comes with a unique host of challenges. Automatically, some marketers might assume that in-game advertising is out of their company’s price range. Static in-game advertising (ads programmed directly into games during game development) can cost over $50,000 and building a stand-alone flash (online, no download) game could range from $15,000 upwards to over $100,000. Obviously, this is out of many medium-sized companies’ price range.

For smaller to medium-sized companies, dynamic in-game advertising (can be paid per view) is often less than $10 per thousand impressions. Although Google Ads are still much cheaper (less than $3), dynamic in-game advertising can give a marketing campaign new reach and diversify exposure. Below are 3 ways that companies can ensure successful video game advertising supplemented with case-studies from some large, name-brand companies. Whether or not you have the same budget to throw around is irrelevant, what’s most important in these case studies is the strategic thinking behind each example.

Be Entertaining

In 2019, two very different companies launched stand-alone online games. KFC created an anime-themed dating sim appropriately called “I Love You, Colonel Sanders”. Essentially, the game’s plot surrounds a culinary student who falls for Colonel Sanders and tries to get him to fall in love. Although the introduction of a company mascot into a video game could be called “shameless advertising” the game itself is meant almost entirely to entertain.

In the same year, Estee Lauder created the ANRcade, an online website with traditional arcade-style games, like Space Invaders, but with real Estee Lauder products at the center. The gameplay is unoriginal and the website is full of tedious information about Estee Lauder lotions and other products. As opposed to the KFC game, the ANRcade is more concerned with educating consumers on their products than to entertain.

The difference between the attention these two games received are huge: the phrase “I Love You, Colonel Sanders!” has 5,550,000 Google Search results and the phrase “ANRcade” has 81,400 results.

Estee Lauder and KFC have very different marketing strategies- which is a good thing- but when it comes to making a video game, Estee Lauder took the ANRcade too seriously. There are hundreds of different versions of Space Invaders and Pac-Man available online for free, and so Estee Lauder’s game hardly drew attention. The ANRcade didn’t offer anything new to the gamer except for product information that was likely just as easily accessed on the main brand website.

In contrast, KFC took a risk and offered something that had never been made before. I Love You, Colonel Sanders was the type of self-deprecating humor and bizarre commercialism designed to go viral. A stand-alone video game should entertain, first and foremost, and if anything, focus more on branding than real-life products. Gaming is a form of escapism and successful game marketing will put the entertainment of the gamer first. This also applies to gaming advertisements that aren’t stand-alone games. All gaming ads should be light and not heavy on information that has to be remembered or contemplated.

Don’t interrupt the game

Rather than creating a stand-alone game, a marketing agency can work with an existing game developer to create banner and product placement advertisements. This is a generally cheaper route that lets the advertisement have easy access to players on an already established game.

While marketers aren’t always in control of where the ad is placed, they should make sure that the advertisements they are paying for won’t disrupt or hinder gameplay. An in-game advertisement that negatively distracts or even pauses the game can make the player more frustrated with the advertised company than willing to buy.

For example, UFC 4 implemented full screen, TV-style ads for the Amazon TV show, The Boys during fight replay cutscenes. Many players were upset that they’d paid $60 for a game that came with such intrusive advertisements and began to complain and petition on Reddit. The backlash was so large that EA, the game developer, had to remove the ads and apologized.

Either “The Boys” marketing team hadn’t realized exactly where their ads would be placed or hadn’t considered how it might have affected players. Whatever the case, it’s best to avoid being involved in an advertising mistake and instead request details on how in-game ads would affect gameplay- especially if your product is the only one being advertised in the game.

In the case of these UFC 4 ads, players likely felt taken advantage of but in general, advertising can have a positive impact on the gaming community. For example, the addition of sponsorships and advertising by major companies has helped to elevate esports teams and tournaments.

Create a measurable impact

Although every marketer wants their ads to be noticed, within video games, it’s crucial that advertisements don’t interrupt gameplay. Perhaps the easiest way to do this is through product placement. Product placement within games often allows players to interact with the marketed product in the context of the game and this blend of fantasy and reality often has a huge impact on consumers’ product perceptions. For example, it’s common for racing games to include real car brands and models to their games.

This provides a sense of added realism to the game and it allows players to build perceptions around those brands. They might be more inclined to engage with social media content from a brand they encountered in the game or even to purchase the car. On a large scale, this can create buzz around a newly released car model and increase sales.

The best examples of product placement don’t feel like messy additions because they make a valuable contribution to the game and change customer perceptions- making both the product and the game iconic. An amazing and recent example of this was when Burger King chose to sponsor the Stevenage Football Club earlier this year. The small, relatively unknown football club plays in the Fourth Division Football League in England.

Burger King knew that the Stevenage club and their jerseys would appear in the FIFA 20 video game alongside more famous teams like Manchester United but would be far cheaper to sponsor than some of the top-performing teams. With the sponsorship, Burger King logos were printed on the real team's jerseys and on the Stevenage merchandise, then those jerseys were displayed in the game.

Then, Burger King used their social media following to draw attention to Stevenage and their in-game “Burger King” themed jerseys. As a result, Stevenage is the most used FIFA 20 team in career mode and the team's real-life jerseys have sold out. In this case, this sponsorship benefited every stakeholder: Burger King, FIFA20, and Stevenage FC by creating viral excitement.

The goal of product placement should be more than subliminal advertising, it should be to create an iconic cultural moment that players consciously want to be a part of. The key to this strategy- even outside of video game advertising- is to center marketing campaigns around shareability. Viewers and players ideally should enjoy an advertisement but also want to share the ad with friends. In the previous case, Burger King has made efforts to encourage players who use the Stevenage team to stream and share their FIFA 20 game highlights. This expands the campaigns reach beyond those that play the game into those who might encounter clips on social media.