Gaming

Today's serious gamers now possess a broad range of interests and purchase behaviors, ranging from social activities to fitness, movies, electronics and apparel, according to the study.

Recent analysis of Dynamic Logic's MarketNorm database revealed that, compared with younger women, women aged 45 and over were more likely to respond to consumer product ads featured on gaming sites. According to Millward Brown, over eight million women aged 45 and over access the Internet to play online games.

Nickelodeon has just released three new casual games for cell phones. Online, it continues to roll out easy branded games. Nickelodeon claims an industry leading 25 million unique visitors each month to its gaming sites, and it's planning to roll out as many as 600 new games. And why not? With the government keeping an eagle eye on all TV advertising targeted toward kids, games (for now) allow a little more freedom. And fun.

When 90 percent of consumers agree on anything, it probably merits reporting. In this case, it's casual gamers telling Real Networks last month that they'd be glad to watch videos ads -- both before the games and during breaks -- if that's what allows them to play the games free. Copywriters know that "free" is the most powerful word in advertising. Apparently it's just as effective for getting people to watch ads in the first place.

Research company Interpret has released some pretty impressive numbers regarding casual gaming. Some 145 million people in the U.S. played casual games over the last year. That's 48 percent of the country's population. A very big audience that accounts for the in-game ad influx.

The U.S. in-game advertising spending will increase from $295 million in 2007 to $650 million in 2012 according to projections from eMarketer. Video game software and hardware sales will increase to $21 billion in 2012, up from $15.8 billion in 2007.

Interactive advertising in the U.S. will grow from $22.5 billion in revenues in 2007 to $62.4 billion by 2012, according to "The Kelsey Group's Annual Forecast (2007-2012): Outlook for Directional and Interactive Advertising," released this week.

innerActive Smart Media, a global provider of innovative, ad-funded entertainment channels, believes that its successful UK trial of a mobile in-game advertising service with digital entertainment partner Jamster, establishes a new benchmark for the ad-funded mobile entertainment industry. Data from the six-week trial -- which exposed UK mobile users to contextual, dynamically embedded advertising and promotions from brands such as Adidas, Domino's Pizza and Calvin Klein in exchange for free games -- produced a very high click-through rate of 39 percent.

PQ Media has released a report on branded entertainment, and to the surprise of no one who's been paying attention, it's booming. Spending on product placement, advergaming and webisodes all shot up more than 33 percent this past year, as more and more advertisers realize that advertising should be compelling content in its own right. That's certainly true for product placement. If you put your products in the drama, there's a lot less drama as to whether your viewers are paying attention.

Real Networks has surveyed 1500 of its casual gamers and confirmed that the ad-supported game model is probably here to stay. 90 percent will watch video ads play before their games start and during natural breaks in the game play -- such as before starting a new level. Better still, 34 percent claim to click on the in-game ads to learn more about the advertised products. That's online games for you -- once you start clicking, you simply can't stop.