Advergaming

Adverwhat? Yes, advergaming. Games sponsored by corporations.

It started long ago with some floppy-disk based games (?), and it came a long way from there.  

Advergaming can happen in a variety of ways. You can find billboards on a race track of your favorite racing game; sponsored drink machines in simulation games; brand experiences like "driving an Audi" in Grand Turismo games or impersonating Noid (80's Domino's Pizza mascot) in an adventure game.

At first one could think games target a very limited audience - mostly geeky teenagers maybe.  But the truth is that there are lots of other geeks gamers out there in other age groups. More than 30% of the online gaming audience is between 35 and 49 years old.

Although studies prove that the games audience to be more mature than you would think, Volvo has pushed it perhaps a little too far. They've launched an advergame for their new TRUCK line. You can actually drive around on their new "FH16" truck. How effective do you think the campaign is? Do you think they are actually reaching their target customers? I'm not so sure but at least it's a fun little game. :)

As I know we all have plenty of free time on our hands, you can find a list of advergames to explore here:

http://www.adverblog.com/archives/cat_advergames.htm