Online casual gaming sites are increasingly getting into the ad game. Not to be confused with the high intensity, multi-player, "kill ‘em all" action games, casual games attract a "diverse group of Web users who like to solve puzzles, play word games and decipher mind benders online."
While
traditional action games still draw more men than women, casual games
are more popular with women and offer the kind of friendly online
experience that ad executives say companies want to be associated with.
According to DFC Intelligence, a game industry research firm in San
Diego, last year alone, advertisers spent about $150 million on casual gaming sites, which is over twice as much spent in 2002.
“The gamer is actually a much more of a mainstream consumer than you
may think,” said Shar VanBoskirk, a senior analyst with Forrester
Research. “Consumers are really filtering out advertiser messages, and
games are one way that they’re actually still engaged.”
Apperantly, one of the appealing aspects of marketing to casual gamers is the friendly diolgues players have with each other – giving brands the opportunity to imbed themselves within a particular community.
“If you look at the communication on a board of pool in Yahoo Games, it’s, ‘Oh, where’s your family from?’ ” Mr. Radia said. “Go to XBox Live, and it’s, ‘I’m going to crush you.’ ”
New York Times: More Marketers are Grabbing the Attention of Players During Online Games
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