The most popular branded gaming site is
Candystand, an offshoot of Nabisco's Web site. Candystand offers more than 30 video games highlighting various brands of LifeSavers candy.
A child who enters the site can play a game corresponding to their favorite kind of candy, such as "LifeSavers Kickerz Rock and Skate" or "Creme Savers Pinball." The site also offers sweepstakes and prizes. During June alone, more than 800,000 people visited Candystand at least once, according to data from Internet researcher Jupiter Media Metrix.
Traffic builders?
Details of Honda's game are still under wraps, but the company has said it features four cars in an urban environment, with a mountain backdrop. It will also allow for multiple players and includes a chat feature so that opponents can taunt one another while playing.
But Honda's game--being developed by
YaYa, a Los Angeles software company dedicated to making branded games--may not have the same kind of popularity enjoyed by Candystand.
"Most gaming sites created by branded marketers are not statistically significant in terms of traffic," said Marissa Gluck, senior analyst with Jupiter Media Metrix. "It's not clear that adding games to sites is going to increase traffic."
But the phenomenon is gaining ground, and with good reason, when one considers how marketers value the ability to hold a Web surfer even for just a few minutes. "If a game means someone will spend three or four minutes at your brand's site, that amount of attention is pure gold," said Jim Nail, senior analyst for online advertising and marketing at Forrester Research.
At
Big Kids, which is part of Burger King's corporate site, the average person spends more time playing games than any of its other activities, such as sending an e-postcard or watching a movie clip.
"One of our objectives is to provide an entertaining experience--something you can't do in 30 seconds on television," said Cindy Syracuse, director of interactive and national advertising for Burger King. YaYa, which creates online interactive games for clients such as Ford, Nike and Paramount, has seen its business grow, despite the downturn among dot-coms.
Growth in advergames
YaYa began selling its gaming products, called "advergames," at the beginning of 2001 and became profitable after only four months despite the downturn in online advertising, Chief Executive Keith Ferrazzi said.
"I keep meeting with people who say that life must be terrible for us," Ferrazzi said. "But we've had fantastic reception." YaYa uses both Web sites and e-mail to distribute its advergames, enabling some of its campaigns to reach up to 5 million people.
One of YaYa's most popular campaigns was a game to promote Ford of Canada's new sports utility vehicle, the Ford Escape. The "Escape Moon Rally" features Ford Escape vehicles racing on the moon. Players who finished the game were automatically entered to win prizes, including the vehicle itself. More than half of the people who played the game forwarded it to a friend via e-mail, according to YaYa.
But did people who played the Ford Escape game then rush out to take a look at one of the company's new SUVs? Because a consumer plays a game associated with a particular brand does not necessarily mean that he or she will be more apt to buy that brand, experts said. "From a branding perspective I've seen no research about how it makes people feel about the brand," Nail said.
Marketers said there is indeed little they can do to measure the effect games have on consumers. "I have not found a satisfactory way to measure it," Syracuse said. "But if people like our promotions, they are more likely to go to our Web site. So I see a direct correlation between the Internet and what is going on in our restaurants."
SOURCE: Reuters.
