WildTangent Offers Free Games through Online Advertising
Placing advertisements within video games is nothing new, but the online game developer, WildTangent is allowing its users to play their Internet games for free through a new advertising system. This new system, tagged WildCoins, is an online token system that allows the users to play the WildTangent games for extended periods of time, while the game dynamically serves paid advertisements. To purchase and play a game developed by WildTangent, the user typically has to pay $19.95 for that right. This new token system allows people to try out a game for free and if they choose to do so, they can purchase a full version of the game without the advertisements.
Coke is offering the tokens as prizes through its MyCoke Rewards website. This website allows users to enter in codes that are marked on Coke bottle caps, and with a number of codes entered, you can claim prizes. WildTangent offers 250 games that appeal to a wide range of demographic groups, including children, mothers, and of course young men. This is a huge market, and the online gaming industry is expected to become a $2.1 billion phenomenon by 2008.
The WildCoins tokens will also be offered at wildtangent.com for $5 to $20 per month for a numbered pack. The tokens can be used in future months to come and they can be used on any of the 250 games that they offer. WildTangent is also offering a share of the revenue generated by the token system to their game developers.
I think that this form of advertising system is a very innovative idea. This offers advertisers a great way to place simple banner-based ads in a system that is sure to get consumers to see them. The member gamers will love the idea of being able to play the games for free and for as long as they want. A simple ad will not disrupt gameplay, but is certain to make a lasting impression on the potential consumer. Of course this type of system cannot offer contextual based advertisements because the number of games offered is limited. The program will rotate through a number of ads, based on the amount of time a member plays a certain game. This form of advertising is certain to reach a huge number of consumers since video games are now popular among many age groups. I think this advertising system will do very well in the future, and I am certain that we will see more advertisements placed within video games in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment