Chrysler's 'Race the Pros': Games Can Sell Cars

Electronic Gaming Business,  August 11, 2004  

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Gaming took center stage at Jupiter Media's Advertising Forum in New York City in early August as Chrysler VP of Marketing Jeff Bell crowed about the power of advergaming in his keynote address. "The future is such that all marketing will be interactive," Bell told the audience of both online and offline marketers. Chrysler is using a variety of custom branded games involving their products to lift its brand recognition and purchase intent among consumers. A "Chrysler Golf" title signed up 124,732 players and resulted in a 33% lift in purchase intent, while a "Jeep 4x4 Trail of Life" game got 383,403 users, and Bell said that more than 1,000 Jeeps had been sold to players of the game in the last 18 months.

Bell boasted of impressive success with a recent "Race the Pros" game that was promoted on MSN and FoxSports online and some Fox Sports TV programming. The game was designed by WildTangent and was especially appealing to NASCAR fans.

The branding effectiveness of the Dodge RTP game was measured in a controlled test of visitors to FoxSports, where users could download and play the game. Research firm AdFactor compared a group of those who played the game with a control group of visitors in the same profile who had not. It represents one of the most comprehensive studies of the effectiveness of games as marketing vehicles.

In the car selling game, most buyers quickly narrow their scope to four or five brands or models for consideration, so the battle among car makers is to get their cars into that "consideration set" as early as possible in the consumers buying cycle. Thus, "top of mind" brand awareness is an important metric for this industry and among those who played the RTP title, that unaided awareness of Dodge and other Daimler Chrysler brands went up 27.6% and 24.7%, respectively. Even better, the "purchase consideration" metric for Dodge went up 19.6%, which means that the game specifically helped put the clients' cars into the consideration set.

Bell argues that marketing efforts like gaming help get his brands into the pop culture ethos and let the consumer experience the brand, and these qualities have become key. Interactive media like games also get the client thousands of sales leads.

That level of interactivity and lead generation available to custom game titles is one of the things missing from in-game product placement plans, argues Dave Madden, EVP of marketing, Wild Tangent. He is seeing much more money and attention going into custom games from clients like Chrysler and Nike. "In order for brands to move people along from awareness to actually purchasing and recommending their products they have to build deep dialogue which allows for persistent relationships and feedback from consumers."

Bell agrees that in-game placements are not ready for major investment by advertisers like himself. "We're not that interested," he said at the Jupiter conference. "We did it with Tony Hawk, but it's got to be measurable and it's got to stimulate more interest."

Play Once and Forget?

The metrics on the game itself are among the most interesting, however, because they tell us a good deal about how even the best advergames are used. AdFactor found that 75.4% of RTP players only played the game once.

Madden says that the AdFactor survey was taken during the narrow March to May period, so many players may not have had the chance to return to play again. As well, some features like tournament play did not become fully functional until mid-May. "Since we now have detailed play tracking for March through July, what I can tell you is that the 'Race the Pros' users have played the game for an average of 4.5 times per person, and for an average of 35 minutes per person," says Madden. Having a competitive component, the ability to race against real-world qualifying times, and prizing are critical to getting repeat play, he says.

Players had a good overall impression of 'Race the Pros', with 53.7% having a "very" or "somewhat" positive opinion, 40.5% "neutral" and very few negatives. In fact, even though Fox ended its season of NASCAR coverage, the game continues to be available at the FoxSports site, and Madden says that game play is still increasing. By appealing to the user's competitiveness, a custom game seems able to pull some customers back to a brand.

The Detroit News reports that Chrysler is so enamored with the marketing power of games that it is considering putting video game kiosks in car dealerships, something the Japanese are already doing.

Contact: Dave Madden, dave.madden@wildtangent.com

Lift in Key Brand Metrics
Lift in Brand Metrics             Control  Exposed  Lift %
Unaided "Top of Mind"
Awareness of Dodge                45.90%   58.50%   27.60%
Unaided "Top of Mind" Awareness
of Daimler-Chrysler Brands        54.20%   67.60%   24.70%
Aided Awareness of Dodge          98.10%   98.90%   0.80%
Overall Opinion of Dodge          58.20%   70.00%   20.30%
Consideration of Dodge
for Next Purchase                 52.50%   62.80%   19.60%
Awareness of Dodge
NASCAR Participation              87.10%   97.20%   11.50%
Awareness of Dodge "Hemi Power"   86.50%   93.10%   7.60%
Source: AdFactor

How Often Do You Play "Race the Pros?"
Less than Once a Week  9.60%
Once a Week            5.90%
Several Times a Week   10.10%
Only Played Once       75.40%
Source: AdFactor