Nielsen: In-game Advertising Persuades Gamers

Massive Inc, the same Microsoft advertising subsidiary now in charge of delivering ads to EA Sports titles, yesterday released the results of a Nielsen Company study that shows 64% of gamers are susceptible to in-game advertising. The study claims that players of EA Black Box's Need for Speed: Carbon showed an increase in their purchase consideration of products advertised via in-game billboards by 41 percent over an ad-less control group. Brand familiarity rose 64% in the group of ad-viewers, while the average ad rating--described as those players who liked the advertisement--increased by 69%. As in-game advertising ramps up, Nielsen has been rapidly following suit with its involvement in the gaming industry. It most recently formed an alliance with Sony in an effort to create a measurement system for advertisements delivered to Sony PlayStation 3 software. Nielsen partered with Massive in 2004 to provide third party accounting of advertising units. Massive was then purchased by Microsoft in 2006. "The results of this research prove what weÂ’ve seen in more limited studies over the past three years," said Massive CEO Cory Van Arsdale. "As marketers struggle to stand out in cluttered media forms, the Massive network provides both a deeply engaged audience and sophisticated capabilities for creative execution and delivery, resulting in memorable, positive impressions among highly desirable demographics."