In game advertising beispiele

Thanks to the booming gaming industry, in-game advertising is changing how brands connect with their audience.

In 2016, Starbucks perfectly leveraged it to its advantage by teaming up with Niantic, the developer of the game, to launch a large-scale in-game advertising campaign.

As part of the partnership, Starbucks locations across the US were designated as “PokéStops” and “Gyms” within the game, where players could gather supplies or battle other players.

Moreover, the campaign also included various in-game advertising elements featuring Starbucks branding and products, like the special in-game item “Starbucks-themed Pokémon Go Frappuccinos." These were made available to everyone who visited participating Starbucks locations, and players who made purchases at Starbucks could also earn bonus rewards within the game.

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Hot Wheels

Hot Wheels has launched a blended in-game campaign with Eskimi and Anzu, placing product banners in relevant mobile games to expand the brand's audience and reach its intended audience. They created a 5-week-long event with weekly prizes, known as the Rockstar Energy Drink Race Challenge.

It offers tools for targeting, campaign creation, media allocation, and success measurement in a user-friendly interface.

In this article, we'll analyse real-life examples to reveal the secrets of successful in-game campaigns and their significant impact on brand outcomes.

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What is In-Game Advertising?

In-game advertising blends creativity with technology to offer brands a lively space to engage gamers.

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For instance, the most active group among the mobile-only players are Millenials (23-36-year-olds), same applies to casual video gamers. Dieses beinhaltet nicht nur zum Modelabel passende Kleidung, sondern auch eine Karriere als freiberufliche*r Modefotograf*in. The player’s task was to play the role of Delaney, who slipped and fell just before the summit.

Ads in Games vs. Players could drive an Aston Martin Vanquish with Rockstar livery and win gift cards, headsets, bags, t-shirts etc. With in-game advertising, they managed to keep the platform free to use and drive additional profit.

More Engaged Players

Rockstar Energy Drink partnered with Codemasters Racing on the game Dirt 2.

Dank individualisierter Blöcke tauchte zwar auch hier das Logo von Fisherman’s Friend auf, die Marke war aber insgesamt deutlich präsenter, als sie es etwa mit animierten Bannern gewesen wäre. They created the character Smooth Jarvis, the brand’s representative.

Video banners in games often mimic real-life ads that are placed on buildings, roadside billboards, and similar locations and can be seen in the background of the main action.

RapidFire utilized dynamic in-game ads and geo targeting to promote the movie to Portuguese users in the lead up to the film’s release.

Fortnite and Jordan

On December 1, 2021, Fortnite announced the continuation of its cooperation with the Jordan brand.

Surprisingly (or not?), the second biggest mobile-only gamers’ group is Gen X (37-55-year-olds), while video games are played equally often by Gen Z (16-22-year-olds) and Gen X.

So it’s evident that some common misconceptions regarding the demographics of video games still exist. The company creates educational games for school-aged children, with their priority being to maintain safe content.

Solo Q attracted over 40,000 competitors.

Precise Targeting

Wiz Khalifa, an American rapper, promoted his 2050 Tour via dynamic ads in several game titles across Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles. That’s not entirely true.

Although gaming personas overall are still largely male-dominated, mobile-only gamers actually have a higher ratio of females to males (55% to 45%, respectively), according to GWI.

Another fact is that games, especially mobile games, are played by people of all ages and from different contexts, and this audience is growing rapidly.

Die Masterstudentin hat immer Lust, sich neuen Themenbereichen zu widmen - ob New Work, KI oder Nerdkultur. Man kann Fotos von Sims in bestimmten Posen machen, sie zur Abnahme an den Verlag schicken und auf Simstagram posten.

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6. To further incentivize engagement with the Mastercard brand, the campaign also offered exclusive in-game rewards for League of Legends (players who used Mastercard as their payment method for purchases).

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Er war damals nur etwa zwei Wochen lang erhältlich. Their diverse in-game ads across different titles boosted the brand’s awareness and achieved an above-industry-benchmark viewability rate of 93.8%.

Uber's Hyperlocalized Approach

Uber partnered with iion to run a hyperlocalised in-game advertising campaign.

Mastercard

Mastercard, in partnership with Riot Games, the publisher of League of Legends, leveraged the popularity and engagement of e-sports to reach new audiences and increase brand awareness.

Mastercard’s visuals were seamlessly integrated into the game environment, appearing on various in-game assets like banners and signs around the virtual arena.

Many people playing games play them with sound, and audio ads can be a great way to take advantage of that without impacting user experience.

Rewarded ads

Rewarded video ads, as the name suggests, reward players in exchange for watching the ad. This reach is coupled with effective metrics, allowing for real-time tracking and optimisation of ad strategies.

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Spotlight on Success: In-Game Advertising Examples

How Brands Are Winning in the Game Advertising World

Spotify's  Extensive Reach

Spotify’s campaign leveraged iion’s immersiion platform to connect with gamers ages 7 to 70.

This is especially true as more brands realise the importance of visibility in the increasingly competitive digital advertising landscape.

Here's what makes in-game advertising such a powerful marketing medium:

Immersive Experiences Through Direct Engagement: In-game ads weave brands into the gameplay, creating an authentic connection that resonates with players more deeply than traditional advertising, fostering memorable brand experiences.

Marketing Outcomes: In-game advertising offers tailored campaigns and precise targeting, maximising the impact and efficiency of ad spend.

Greenpeace mit eigener GTA-Version

Ganz anders hat es Greenpeace 2022 gemacht.

The campaign was customised to fit its audience's geographic and native language in ad placements.

This campaign effectively engaged a young, tech-savvy demographic, aligning seamlessly with Uber's target market, achieving a high view rate of  98.21%.

LEGO's Dual Audience Engagement

Working with iion, LEGO used in-game banner ads to connect with its two target audiences: children and adult collectors.

Over 200 recordings of the games took part in the competition.

Tony Hawk: Ride and Stride

In 2009, Tony Hawk: Ride was released for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii. The game, which was supposed to be a breakthrough, turned out to be a flop. It means that blended in-game ads, also known as intrinsic in-game ads, appear in the game environment but don’t interrupt the process (sometimes even enhance the experience), making it a non-intrusive way to reach a target audience.

Around-the-game. Around-the-game ads allow advertisers to promote their products/services during the gaming experience but not the gameplay itself.

Dynamic in-game ads, static ads, and gamevertising are the three types of IGA advertisers can utilize to display their products inside popular video games.

Successful advertising campaigns can increase an advertiser’s revenue, encourage players to interact with their brand, and reach the audiences that will positively respond to the promotions.

If you’re interested in exploring in-game advertising further or want to see how a custom platform could work for you, feel free to get in touch.