Today Massive released a study revealing that in-game advertising is surprisingly effective. It was conducted by Nielsen Entertainment and examined various ad campaigns that ran in games that use Massive. The study found:

• Average brand familiarity increased 64%
• Average brand rating increased 37%
• Average purchase consideration raised 41%
• Average ad recall increased 41%
• Average ad rating increased 69%

Before digging in further, here’s how the study was conducted. Over 600 North American gamers were recruited and divided into two groups - a control group and a test group. They both played the same game (Need for Speed, Carbon). The control group played the game but was NOT shown ads. The test group played the game (on Xbox 360 or PC) and was shown ads. Then the same questions were given to both groups. The questions asked gamers about the ads and brands included in the study. The difference between the two groups is what we considered “lift”. So when we say “brand familiarity increased x%” we mean that users in the test group were x% more familiar with the brand than users in the control group.

With that out of the way, here’s what some of our different types of advertisers saw:

• Automotive advertisers achieved a 69% increase in purchase consideration among likely car buyers.
• A consumer packaged goods (CPG) client saw a 71% increase among gamers who considered their snack food a “cool brand”. Among males 18-24 brand familiarity rose 63%.
• A fast-food restaurant ad saw its rating (those who liked it a lot vs. liked it a little) rise 39%.
• A technology tools client saw a 70% increase in brand rating.

I’m really glad our company is sharing data like this with the public and I’m glad the research was done by Nielsen - they’re getting increasingly involved with this market (see my recent post on their GamePlay metrics) and have a lot of experience conducting studies like this. While I would have liked to see the study conducted across more games, I’m impressed that there were so many participants - over 600 in total and over 300 in each group. This is a VERY large sample set for a study of this nature. I’m also excited that the study was conducted across both Xbox 360 and PC gamers.

Related: Massive In-Game Ad Effectiveness Study (Aug-8)

Console Usage Report Trend - June 2007

Console Usage Report Trend - May 2007

At first, these numbers were really surprising to me. I didn’t expect to see PS2 and Xbox so far ahead of the 360. But a quick check of console sales records at VG Chartz shows this is probably to be expected. PS2 has such a mammoth install base, that it’s only natural for that platform to have so many minutes.

But, let’s look at the other consoles as well. The most recent data on VG Chartz is from March, so it’s not ideal to compare the two, but it’s the best we can do for now. Here’s the American sales data from March next to the Nielsen data from May:

LTD percentages are calculated against only the five consoles listed.

The Xbox 360 and GameCube differences are interesting. Why is the comparatively small install base of Xbox 360 responsible for twice as many gaming minutes? Does Nielsen monitor too few GameCube households? Was there a surge of 360 sales in April/May? Are Xbox 360 games more engaging? Did GameCube owners transition to the Wii during April/May? These and other explanations are plausible… It’s impossible to know exactly why this is.

What I’d like to see are console #’s in the Nielsen report. This would help us understand if oddities like this are a result of a skewed console distribution.

Sources:

• “Nielsen GamePlay Metrics Launched by Nielsen…” - news release from Nielsen (Jul 26 2007).
• Worldwide Hardware Shipments as of Mar-2007 from VG Chartz.

• The console household universe has grown 18.5% since fourth quarter 2004, compared to a 1.6% growth in the total universe of television households.
• Two-thirds of all Men aged 18-34 have access to a video game console in their home.
• The universe of connected console households (households subscribing to a service to connect their console to the internet) has grown to more then 4.4 million households, even before the
  newest Playstation 3 and Wii consoles are considered.
• In the NTI (Nielsen Television Index) fourth quarter of 2006 (9/18/06-12/31/06), 93.8 million US Persons aged two and older used a video game console for at least one minute.
• In any given minute, approximately 1.6 million US Persons aged two and older are using a video game console.
• The heaviest console users accounted for 74.4% of all console usage and averaged 345 minutes (5 hours and 45 minutes) of usage per usage day during the fourth quarter of 2006.

These are certainly important findings, but what do they mean for in-game advertisers? Well, let’s look a bit deeper. On the demographic side, console gaming is a very powerful way to reach the elusive young male demographic. 66% of all Men 18-34 have access a console. 80% of all Men and Women 12-17 have access to a console. This bolsters earlier estimates of similarly high penetration levels.

But what about connected units? - Being online is a key requirement for many in-game advertisers… Well, this is growing as well. In Q4 2003, there were 2.5 million households subscribed to a service to connect their consoles to the internet (10.6% of those who owned a connectable system). Today 4.4 million households are connected (16% of those who own a connectable system). The important factoid here is that an increasing percentage of connectable systems are actually connecting. This is good news, users are seeing the benefits of connecting their consoles and as a result are expanding the reach of in-game ads.

Other interesting observations:

• When comparing when gamers play against when people watch TV, we find that TV watching tends to take place earlier in the evening. TV watching peaks around 9 PM, gaming peaks around 10 PM.
• TV watchers tune in en-masse during primetime hours (notice the pronounced spike in TV watchers on page 6 of the report). By contrast, gamers spread out their gaming, slowly ramping up over the afternoon. I can only presume that as the gaming experience improves, these users will not bother to switch over to TV as primetime hits.
• So who plays games? The same people that watch Nicktoons, Adult Swim, Toon Disney, Cartoon Network, Noggin, Nickelodeon, etc… Some surprising results: G4 trails VH1 Classic and Spike trails the Animal channel… Who would have thunk it?

Nielsen says this is the first paper in a series on the video game industry. I can’t wait to see what’s next.

Reading:

• The State of the Console [pdf]