In-game advertising

At the airport the other week I picked up the magazine Gate, and I read a very interesting article about in-game advertising (IGA). It's quite amazing all the stuff I find interesting in airport magazines...

Anyway, the article discusses IGA as the new (and possibly only) way to reach the target group of men, 18-34 years old. They play computer games more than they watch TV, and apparently the target group find that IGA make the games more realistic. According to the article, one of the more famous usages of IGA was the start-up of Barack Obama's presidential campaign, where his picture and the slogan "Vote for change" was seen on billboards in 18 different computer games. This was the first time IGA was used in a presidential campaign, and apparently it was quite successful, right?! ;)

Ed Bartlett from the company IGA Worldwide thinks that IGA is very successful due to two different aspects: 1) when you play a game, it is multi-tasking-secure. You must be 100 % focused on the game and focus on what's going on on the screen. 2) IGA Worldwide has a way of measuring the size and screen time for each advertiser, and so the client is only invoiced for actual exposure. These two aspects combined with the high concentration of wealthy 18-34 year olds and the strong growth within gaming segment gives a very potent mix in advertising. But Ed might be a bit biased ;)

Even so, it might be that IGA is something we will see more of in the future, or what do YOU think?