Live Xbox & PC Game Ads
The Boston Globe is reporting that deals have just been signed that will make the billboards that racers go cruising by in Need for Speed Carbon dynamic and thus “live.”
When these games are played online with the Xbox or PC the ads will be updated with new movie posters, products and other items in real time.
This is a no brainer and a step in the right direction. It fits into the game. It’s not like when in the middle of a first person shooter a blatent ad is slapped up on a wall. Billboards and posters are part of this game. They are there already with static ads. Do gamers notice them? That I don’t know.
But, I would bet that if I were playing and suddenly saw an ad for a new movie it might catch my attention.
The problem? It’s a racing game. If I noticed an ad as I’m cruising along what do I do? Stop in the middle of the race and drive back to check it out? I doubt it. Hopefully my brain would process it fast enough to remember what it was or that I’d see it again the next time I played.
The idea is a great one. Ads should be dynamic and not static anymore whenever we are talking about new media and online. I’m just not sure they are going to get any form of measurable results.
Man, when I was playing (and berating and hurling obscenities at) Need For Speed: Underground, I barely saw the oncoming traffic, let alone billboards.
In one of the Quake III Arena mods called “Urban Terror”, though, they had billboards up for fake Schwazenegger movies. I imagine in a game like that this kind of marketing could be perfect, especially if it’s funny enough to make you pause and get fragged.
Pax,
Matthew