Advertisers Got Game? SMGPlay's Tim Harris on Playing with the Big Ad Boys

Electronic Gaming Business, Feb 11, 2004

Back in June 2003, when major media buying agency Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) formed a unit dedicated to crafting ad and promotional partnerships with video game publishers, it was taken as a milestone in the short history of gaming's evolution as an ad medium. SMG is one of the world's largest media buyers, and it has the ears of some of the biggest brand accounts anywhere. When SMG says gaming now matters, fast food restaurants, soap makers and apparel manufacturers listen.

SMGPlay ( http://www.smvgroup.com/play/index.htm ) has 10 dedicated staff in Chicago and Los Angeles, and it has already deployed several client campaigns in and around game titles. SMGPlay is led by longtime gamers and marketing veterans Tim Harris and P.J. MacGregor, co-directors. At SMGPlay's inception, Harris said "We plan to innovate and advocate the effectiveness of the videogame industry as a viable, measurable communications medium." The idea of a media group like SMGPlay is to help clients unfamiliar with the gaming world and its marketing opportunities navigate the various points of entry for their brand promotion.

More than six months since the formation of his group, EGB asked Tim Harris to reflect on the state of gaming as an ad medium.

EGB: Which publishers seem to be the most sophisticated in realizing and positioning gaming as an ad medium?

Harris: Certainly Electronic Arts and Activision, with dedicated staff who have solid experience in doing in-game integrations.

EGB: In-game placement is a very hot topic right now, but what are the pros and cons of this type of promotion from an advertiser's point of view? How is it done well and not so well?

Harris: Marketing partnerships with gaming companies should be customized to offer a credible and authentic game inclusion by a brand marketer like a packaged good or quick-service restaurant. Product placement is done well when it adds realism or immersiveness to a game. A soft-drink company, for example, can put its products into games, but if those products have no bearing on the gameplay, don't move it forward in some way, or offer some value to the player, it will be rejected or ignored altogether.

EGB: What are some of the ways you are exploring for going beyond the billboard, of integrating brands in games more effectively than slapping logos onto walls?

Harris: SMGPlay is focused not just on product placement, but on marketer-proprietary features within games, sponsorship of key game elements, organization of multi-play through virtual events and tournaments, and enhancement of the music experience within games. In addition, we are looking to partner for out-of-game elements, as well. Co-promotion, trading of advertising assets, licensing of game characters and elements, and retail-based programs are all ways to associate a marketer with games and specific intellectual property as well as drive sales.

EGB: Do you think that publishers over or undervalue their audience and effectiveness when pitching to advertisers?

Harris: It's difficult to determine the answer to this when there is an absence of solid research indicating the level of impact such inclusions make. There is no question that a gaming audience is among the most -- if not the most-- intensely focused media consumer that exists. Play believes that a creative execution that takes into account both the brand messaging of the marketer as well as what makes the game design so compelling will ultimately determine whether marketers participate in the gaming space in a way that moves the needle on brand perceptions, purchase intent, and sales.

EGB: Are there untapped advertiser segments and industries that don't yet realize how well games can serve their promotional needs?

Harris: Absolutely. Since the inception of SMG Play, we have been talking to categories from packaged goods to clothing to even insurance. The great news for everyone involved in pursuing these types of partnerships is that every time we talk to a company that makes sense, there are nodding heads in the room. Most marketers know they need to pay attention to this space-- they just need to figure out how.

EGB: What do game companies need to do better to become a genuine ad medium?

Harris: Game companies will need to develop a way to provide advertisers with a data story -- for effectiveness, a pricing story -- to merit parts of the ad budget, and, most importantly, a creative story. The creative story comes when game companies develop ways to give marketers access to their development talent in a way that doesn't throw off their timelines. On the flip side, marketers and their agencies need to develop the expertise to be able to communicate with gaming talent so that brand messaging is translated into a gaming environment in a way that works.

Contact: Tim Harris, tim.harris@smgplay.com and P.J. MacGregor, pj@smgplay.com

[Copyright 2004 PBI Media, LLC. All rights reserved.]