Life is too short for boring ads. The challenge to grab users attention is higher than ever. 

"Advertise" + "Game" = Advergame

One exciting way of a brand interacting with a target audience is through games - developed specifically to promote brands, products, or services - and is an ingenious method for minimizing ad fatigue.

Advergames are not a new marketing method: It has been around since the 1980s, but its use has increased in recent years with the video game industry's growth. 

While conventional advertising, like TV advertising, is invasive and arises from an interruption of the entertainment, the Advergame is immersive and transforms itself into entertainment. 

Advergames are an excellent marketing technique to increase brand awareness and make users talk about the game and, consequently, the products advertised.

When to use advergames

• Brand awareness: Uses play games in their free time, and a player's levels of attention are high when they are playing a video game. A Brand of a Product can control that power with suggestive placements. A custom advergame can tell a story about a brand unobtrusively and engagingly.
   
• Positive brand interaction: Advergaming exposes the brand to the player to create a positive experience - in a way that is neither aggressive nor invasive. 
   
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Followers: Advergames can help build true fans who are potential leads and can convert to loyal customers. The marketing feels less intrusive because it is up to the players to choose when they play and interact with the brand.
   
• Promotional opportunities: There are subtle ways to add just the right level of promotions and rewards (like discounts or coupons) into games.
   
• Data and research: Games are an alternate reality and offer nearly ideal circumstances to test drive new products and ideas. Marketing strategies that wouldn't work offline can work well in advergames. A brand can use things like sign-ups, sharing and polls to collect valuable data from players.
   
• Good games go viral: Advergames can make players spread the word on the game (and the brand) on social media. Games often have shortcuts to share scoreboards, show off achievements and compete with friends online. 
   
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Great reach through games: Today, the average gamer's age is 30, and 45% are female. The gaming industry is raking in over $100 billion per year, and roughly 20% of the market share falls to mobile and social games. The wide-reaching marketplace offers excellent potential to reach the target audience.

TARGET CONSUMER COMMUNICATION

Today's (digital) communication strategies target specific consumers segments based on their needs, personal tastes and preferences. How to reach consumer segments efficiently and successfully is the big challenge. That is why Technology and Gaming concepts, in other words, Advergaming, are an exciting solution to engage with audiences and stand out from the crowd.

There are several types and subtypes of games available on the market: action, adventure, shooter, simulation, strategy, puzzle, etc. 
The offer is so large that there are games types suitable for all types of consumer segments.

The key: know your Target audience as best as you can, to better choose the correct advergame experience.

There are several memorable advergames. One of my favourites is the Doritos VR Battle (2016).

As VR becomes more popular and accessible, more companies are starting to engage with this new technology. In this Advergame, the challenge is to battle through a highly geometrical universe, fighting demon-like monsters and collect Doritos all along the way.

The game is to play in teams of Two. The player with the highest score wins. The game requires focus, agility, and a lot of room to walk around. And while it's not overly complicated, Doritos VR is aesthetically pleasing and very exciting.

This game is fantastic, but it comes with high implementation costs.

WHAT IS ALTA STRATEGY TO LOWER THE INVESTMENT AND DEMOCRATIZE THIS MARKETING SOLUTION?

ALTA is involved in several advergaming projects together with Nectar Interactive. Our experience has driven us to present a fully customizable framework to the market that can be applied to any business and budget.

Endless Runner for Galp

This endless runner advergame is a great brand activation example developed for Galp.

The game was a Super Mario inspired challenge. The best score participants could win fabulous prizes on each day of the Rock in Rio Concert (3 days activation): double trips to Rio and tickets to Rock in Rio Brazil.

The goal was to engage the audience with Galp's energy universe.

ALTA strategy simplifies and optimizes User Experience during the game, democratizing and making this brand activation tools more accessible.

Let's create new advergames together
Shall we talk?