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We
are pleased to present the following
excerpt from the book
Watch This,
Listen Up, Click Here: Inside the 300
Billion Dollar Business Behind the Media
You Constantly Consume
by David Verklin and Bernice
Kanner
Wiley - April
2007
The
Advergames Boom
Why
a Killer Video Game Is the U.S. Army's
Best Recruitment
Tool
Since the last draftee reported for
duty in December 1972, Uncle Sam has had
to hustle to staff an all-volunteer armed
force. In the case of the U.S. Army, that
meant recruiting 80,000 new soldiers every
year -- essentially replacing more than
the entire workforce of BellSouth every 12
months.
Advertising did the trick initially.
After "Today's Army Wants to Join You"
fizzled, in January 1981, "Be All You Can
Be" became the battle cry. For two
decades, wrapped around ads that made this
branch look as adventurous as an Outward
Bound course, it resonated with
17-to-24-year-olds (of whom the Army is
the nation's largest employer). Then, in
2001, that was scuttled for an "Army of
One." ("Even though there are 1,045,690
soldiers just like me, I am my own force .
. .") Critics scoffed that the new tin
slogan was misguided (isn't conformity
more valued than individuality in the
barracks?); the Army countered that it was
effective.
Then Iraq exploded.
Despite adding thousands of additional
recruiters, upping the enlistment bonus
and funding for college, fattening the ad
budget, and ratcheting up the patriotic
appeal, the Army could not fill its
boots.
So the Army added more marketing
weaponry. It hosted town hall meetings
where civilians could meet soldiers and
hear about their accomplishments. It tried
product placement: Army mechanics on the
Discovery Channel's Monster Garage
tricked out a Jeep. And it launched a
thoroughly engaging computer video game
that quickly became a gold standard of
"advergames" for its effectiveness and
realism. Gamers take such real military
roles as Intelligence (18F), Engineer
(18C), Communications (18E), and Combat
Medic (18D), and fire the same weapons the
Army has. And when they fire on the run,
their aim is less accurate.
Before it was released on July 4, 2002,
many expected the $7.3 million game would
join the ranks of the $436 hammer and $640
toilet seat as a study of excess. Few
predicted "America's Army" would become
the artillery's most effective marketing
tool, conveying the authentic military
experience in a voice that prospective
recruits want to hear.
More than seven million users have
registered (anonymously so as to squelch
any fear of recruiter harangues) with
10,000 to 50,000 new ones downloading the
shoot-em-up daily. In a dozen running and
gunning missions, players advance through
the stages of soldierhood -- drilling in
basic training, target practicing with an
M-16, learning about basic emergency
medicine, and, finally, diving into
combat. The game has been downloaded more
than 16 million times, 20 percent of
entering cadets at West Point have played
it, and between 20 and 40 percent of new
Army recruits have played it as well.
"They seek it out rather than the other
way around," noted Chris Chambers, deputy
director of the Army Game Project within
the Army's Office of Economic and Manpower
Analysis. At an average cost of 10 cents
per hour versus $5 to $10 per hour for a
TV commercial, it delivers immersion
rather than mere impression.
"America's Army" has proven to be such
powerful weaponry that an official game
store does brisk business selling
collectible action figures, clothes,
coffee mugs, and other doodads emblazoned
with the logo. The Army builds parties and
tournaments across the country around it.
A wireless version and sequels including
"America's Army: Special Forces," where
players try to earn a Green Beret by
completing Special Forces missions, have
been released. Apple created a knockoff:
Boot Camp. And the Army now even uses it
extensively in training.
Uncle Sam Wants You . . . to play . . .
and he's not the only one. Everyone
is getting in on the virtual action. Some,
like the Army, create a whole game that
functions as a sales brochure. Just as the
Army promoted its pro-military message
through gameplay, the United Nations World
Food Program aims to educate about its
mission to combat hunger worldwide. In
"Food Force," players steer a helicopter
over the war-torn island of Sheylan, (a
fictional cross between Sri Lanka and
Somalia) and drop relief supplies to a
population with little shelter and less
food. Or they create food rations,
schedule shipments, or take a supply truck
through hostile terrain.
In the racing game, "Volvo Drive for
Life" (playable on Microsoft's Xbox),
players are rewarded not for finishing
first, but for avoiding accidents. Wander
in for a test drive at a Volvo dealer and
you can try it in the showroom. Dealers
can bestow game cartridges on select
prospects and customers. After its royal
mascot tromped through "Fight Night Round
3" (on Xbox 360), Burger King created
action games around its bizarre king and
made them available for just $3.99 to
customers who bought a value meal. (Most
games sell for at least 12 times that).
Nike went beyond athletes wearing its
shoes in the video game NBA 2K6:
Tournament players are given different
pairs of virtual footwear and choose which
to put on from their Nike shoe locker
depending on the task. They can also
personalize the shoes with the same
customization feature that's on Nike's iD
web site.
In other advergames, marketers hitch a
ride. In "CSI: 3 Dimensions of Murder,"
Visa's fraud-monitoring capabilities shine
when a suspicious charge on a victim's
credit card triggers investigation by a
forensic-sciences team. In Tom Clancy's
"Splinter Cell Chaos Theory," the
protagonist, secret agent Sam Fisher,
scales a bright neon sign for Axe
deodorant and quietly enters a lunchroom
inhabited by a Diet Sprite Zero vending
machine. (Axe also created Mojo Master, an
online game about picking up women.) In
"Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow," Fisher
retrieves a message from a Sony Ericsson
smart phone to learn who the villain is.
In "Burnout Revenge," players drive and
crash a Carl's Jr. delivery-truck. And
players in Activision's 'True Crime"
titles take a break from fighting gangs to
recover stolen Puma sneakers.
Some marketers install games on
corporate web sites or designated URLs,
like "Life Saver Candy Stand," or
FiletoFish.com,
the web site where a division of
McDonald's posted "Shark Bait" (in English
and Spanish). Players must protect the
filet-of-fish sandwich from attacking
sharks. For Wachovia, Carat's Fusion
recreated the tricky 17th-hole par 3 at
the Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North
Carolina. Players evaluate distance and
wind conditions on this 217-yard hole to
pick a club: Crowd noise lets them know if
they've made a good virtual swing.
Wachovia has sponsored the annual PGA
championship since 2002: The game was
fashioned to promote that, sell tickets,
and create viral buzz. H&R Block's
"Deduct-A-Buck" game at the deductabuck.com
web site is tax-time seasonal. Players who
correctly answer questions about what they
can legally write off in this
Seventies-TV-quiz-show-style game win
prizes.
Hollywood and Nashville hardly launch a
movie or song anymore without serving up a
side of game. And despite hefty royalty
rates for movie titles, an action hit will
almost certainly be reincarnated on a
console. Turner's "Witchblade" promoted
the TV series, and games built around
Men in Black II, Spider-Man, and
Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course
were meant to promote the new releases.
Along with ads for Sprite, the sci-fi game
"Planetside" featured ads for the movie
Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, and
in the free version of "Anarchy Online" a
15-second trailer for V For
Vendetta played in a continual loop.
Ads for Batman Begins in "Splinter
Cell" were timed to its release in local
markets.
The Da Vinci Code got its own
PS2 game. Paramount Pictures crafted a
Mission: Impossible III game for
cell phones while Miami Vice had an
accompanying game to play on Sony's
handheld PSP.
This is about more than fun and games.
Yankee Group estimates that by 2007 a
serious gamer will lurk in every fourth
home in America. Nielsen says three out of
four residences with guys under age 34
have a game system. More people slay orcs
in the medieval-style quest for virtual
gold and power, "World of Warcraft," than
live in Denmark. In 2006, gamers across
the globe owned more than 100 million
PlayStation2s and 40 million Xboxes. In
the United States, video games already
raked in more money than the movie box
offices, and Yankee Group says the
industry will top $8.3 billion by 2008.
PricewaterhouseCoopers says globally it
will reach $55 billion by 2009. That
explains why a cottage industry in Los
Angeles builds game consoles into the
backs of Lincoln Navigators.
Collectively, interactive ads embedded
in quizzes and games made up more than $1
billion of the $12.5 billion in online ad
revenue in 2005, according to the
Interactive Advertising Bureau. Nielsen
(which now measures the industry) expects
advertising spending within games will
jump from $75 million in 2006 to $1 billon
by 2010. Mitch Davis, CEO of Massive,
thinks it could be almost twice that --
and account for about 3 percent of all
media spending, just shy of what
advertisers spend on the Internet.
Copyright
© 2007 Carat North America, Inc..
Published with permission.
David
Verklin is CEO, Carat Americas, and
Chairman, Carat Asia-Pacific. Carat is the
world's largest independent media buying
operation. He frequently speaks to
executives in marketing, media, and
management. He appears as a media analyst
on CNBC, ESPN, and MSNBC and is regularly
quoted in the New York Times, the
Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and
the Washington Post. Bernice Kanner
was a marketing expert and the author for
thirteen years of New York
magazine's "On Madison Avenue" column. Her
books include The 100 Best TV
Commercials: . . . and Why They Worked
and The Super Bowl of Advertising: How
the Commercials Won the Game. Visit
www.watchlistenclick.com
for more information.
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