Big Kid Gaming

A while back I was the marketing manager for a 400 person sports bar/nightclub and there was a continuous challenge to keep the place busy during off-hours. For example, outside of football season and before baseball season there were a lot of weekend days that there were no events to drive traffic in to our business.

That's when I found that video games could not only attract an adult crowd but bring in big profits as well. It started off like most promotional ideas sitting around the bar talking to customers (this should never be overlooked since they are the one's who ultimately decide on whether or not your promotions will be successful.)

We started with a group of guys who were excited to get out and golf but the weather wasn't cooperating so we decided to do a Tournament-style Tiger Woods tournament. The first weekend we had about 10 people sign up. We started getting phone calls for it and soon started getting requests for Madden Football tournaments. About two months in, suddenly we had about 25 people every Sunday coming in for a Tiger Woods golf tournament. We also had a Madden tournament every Tuesday night (another slow night) and had about 40-50 players showing up. Not bad when you consider two beverages and an appetizer equal about $15 dollars. Right there we just added $600-750 a night on a Tuesday.

Eventually, we started doing a Halo tournament on Saturday mornings and had filled some of our vacant revenue slots with a good, steady and loyal, crowd following.

Now, as I watch Sony open up their in-game advertising platform, I can see that they have been foaming at the mouth because of the increasing popularity of online gaming.

What does this mean? Now Sony's Playstation3 system will allow outside companies to sell ads in to the PS3 games that people are playing online.

This isn't exactly new. Many games sell sponsorships, especially sporting games (For example, Madden 2007 has their "Snickers" player of the game.) But, with the video-game industry now worth about $400 million dollars annually now and a growth rate of 23%, it seems the stakes are getting a little higher (according to a recent article in Advertising Age - "Game-Ad Boom Looms as Sony Opens Up PS3 by Abbey Klaasen.)

It seems a far cry from our sports bar and nightclub promotions pulling in crowds and this is, by far, much more appealing on a larger scale.

The major difference is the two types of advertising that can be done now on the PS3. There are dynamic in-game ads and ads that are a permanent marker of the game (Snickers "player of the game.") The dynamics of the dynamic in-game ads are that marketers can purchase buys for multiple games and not have to make the final decision while the game is in production. Companies can sit back and wait to see how the consumer feels about the new games and then run the numbers to find how many are playing it and who the buyers of the games are (most likely the impressive 18-34 adult male that makes over $40,000 annually).

Seems like the Internet and gaming industry are about to get in to a very competitive advertising dual. The good news right now is that there is no lock on any one company owning this advertising channel as of yet with PS3.

So, next time you're playing some guy in a match game of Tiger Woods 2008, make sure you have your player equipped with the Nike hat and shoes, the Slazenger three iron, and the Ray-Ban sunglasses but then sit back and wait as you turn on the back nine for a little word from your "other" sponsors.