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Opinion

Advertising gets social

The social gaming scene is moving fast. On Spil’s social-gaming platforms alone, users are spending more than 12 billion minutes per month playing games. Some of the industry’s most popular titles reach an engagement level comparable with TV’s top-rated shows.

Advertisers are already using a multitude of formats in the online gaming environment to engage consumers with their brands—from incentive ads, to branded virtual goods and in-game functionalities. The goal for advertisers is to find a relevant, natural fit for their message within a game to maximize consumer engagement and connection with their brands. Offer limited engagement and the brands will disappear. Pepper games with obtrusive adverts and the players will.

We’ve thought long and hard about ways in which we can offer advertisers a fully integrated opportunity to engage and connect with audiences in a fun, targeted, and interactive atmosphere on our social-gaming platforms. And, we’ve just unveiled three new advertising formats that do just this.

The first is what we’re calling Engagement Ads. Engagement ads are consumer-initiated brand experiences that allow advertisers to offer consumers something they value. In a social game, a consumer can earn virtual currency in exchange for interacting with an advertisement. This allows players to connect with and share a brand’s message within their gaming environment, where they are already the most engaged.

Next is Avatar Sponsorship. These are branded images that players can use for their profile picture, and are a fun, high visibility option for advertisers to capitalize on the viral aspect of the social gaming experience. These branded images not only appear on a user’s profile, but also on high score lists and other players’ news feeds, encouraging maximum engagement with the brand in an interactive way.

Finally, there are complete Game Sponsorships. These are Spil’s most popular games, enhanced with the advertiser’s assets and product placement. The game looks like it is especially created for and by the advertiser, since the brand messaging and other creative elements are completely aligned with the theme and environment of the game. Benefits include increased brand awareness and focused, high-quality interaction time with the target audience.

We are offering advertisers a deeper sense of integration into the social layer of our platforms, so that their brand messaging is incorporated into the gaming experience from the very earliest stages of development. In this way, we can strategically pick the perfect moments to engage the right users with targeted brand messaging that enriches and enhances their online experience.

The social gaming scene is moving at quite a pace. But at Spil we’re doing our best to keep pace.

We serve over 800 million pre-roll video advertisements and 4 billion advertising impressions per month—and these three new formats offer additional ways in which to engage with our players.

James Males, managing director, Spil Games