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Political Advertising – It’s in the Game

November 04, 2008

Posted by: Mike Della Porta in Non-Traditional

In yet another sign that videogames have gone main stream in the U.S., political ads have found their way into popular sports and racing titles. 

Presidential candidate Barack Obama paid approximately $45,000 to have ads appear on virtual billboards and other signage featured in Xbox games such as Madden NFL 09, Burnout Paradise (racing), and other sports titles.  Obama was the first presidential candidate to incorporate in-game advertising as part of a political campaign. 

The ads were targeted to males 18-34, but as discussed in Videogames Score Mass Appeal, it’s likely that the ad impressions reached a wider demographic.

In the past, marketers had to plan well in advance for ads to appear in videogames.  Creative had to be submitted during the game’s development cycle.  It was typical for the title’s actual retail release date to follow 18 months later and that the ads would exist as static placements. 

Everything is changing now that millions of console gamers are connected online.  Many credit Microsoft’s popular Xbox Live service as a driving force behind the evolution of this form of advertising.  Xbox Live enables game publishers and advertisers to serve in-game ads dynamically via internet connection, effectively reducing lead times to days or weeks rather than months or years.  An advertiser can now wait until a game is released, judge the popularity, quality and sales of the title and make a more informed decision on the size of the audience they are reaching.

As an example, the Obama campaign served ads in Burnout Paradise, a game that was released in January 2008.  The ads were uploaded and served to gamers connected to Xbox Live in October.  By the time you read this article, the Obama ads will be removed and replaced by another advertiser.  This kind of implementation was impossible a few years ago.  Ad impressions can now also be geo-targeted to a degree, another flexibility afforded by broadband connection.  Gamers in some states saw the Obama ads over a longer period of time and/or more frequently than others depending on the campaign strategy.