Advergaming: The Future of High Performance Advertising? - Tire Review Magazine

Advergaming: The Future of High Performance Advertising?

High performance tire and wheel companies certainly know a thing or two about how to reach consumers. Specialty enthusiast magazines are stuffed with ads from these companies, and most have highly interactive Web sites – all designed to reach that red-hot 18-25-year-old market.

But a new and highly popular form of brand and product promotion has emerged – in-game advertising or advergaming. Advergaming has added a new level of realism and excitement to driving games, while delivering demonstrable brand building advantages to performance companies.

What exactly is in-game advertising? Well, it is a strategy being used by consumer product companies – including tire manufacturers – to advertise their products to a younger crowd. For teenagers to those in their early 20s, video gaming is a major hobby, and with their higher level of disposable income, these players are desired targets for video-game advertising.

So, how does it work? Like product placements in movies or TV shows, advergaming involves placing brand names in the games, adding to the competitiveness and realism of the games. Popular driving and action game titles feature performance brands on billboards, racetrack walls, on vehicles and on the tires and wheels themselves.

Reaching Out
But how are tire companies using this new promotional idea to their advantage?

Toyo has been among the loudest with in-game advertising. “The main goal with video-game licensing was to produce brand recognition to a new audience,” according to Dana Zamalloa, marketing communications manager for Toyo Tire USA Corp. “Video games are an excellent way to reach the younger generation (8-18 years old) and Generation X and Y consumers. Generation X was the first of the avid gamers, and this generation still plays video games today.”

Toyo, which was featured on the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VII driven by actor Paul Walker in 2 Fast/2 Furious, has seen increased brand awareness just from some well placed in-game ads. Toyo came into the in-game advertising scene with games like Midnight Club Racing and Rally Sport Challenge in 2000. Its name also graced the billboards in Gran Turismo games. It wasn’t much, with a few very plainly visible Toyo Tire signs, but the subtlety helped the tiremaker get its foot in the door.

Need for Speed Underground players saw Toyo much more vividly, as the brand became one of three tire choices for game players. “Video games will keep getting more and more advanced, and the market will keep growing and growing,” says Zamalloa. “Cross marketing has been very beneficial for Toyo, and we will keep seeking new and exciting opportunities to build the Toyo name.”

Falken Tire Corp., though not as active as some other companies, has also reaped benefits from advergaming. “We have enjoyed tremendous success through participation in video games,” says Richard Smallwood, vice president of sales and marketing for Falken. “Conversely, the video games have also received tremendous benefit out of the use of our brands due to the credibility we lend the games.”

Smallwood said the actual advergaming deals were made with Falken’s parent company. “Originally, all discussions began in Japan between our parent company and the Japanese companies producing video games,” he says. “Those same conversations have largely shifted to the U.S. between Falken and the game companies. The first game that we became involved with was Gran Turismo.”

Like many tire companies, Falken is looking for increased brand awareness from its advergaming experience, and it wants to extend past the racing games that tire companies usually pursue. “Driving games are obviously the games we would most likely be involved with, but adventure or lifestyle games would also be another avenue that would fit well with our marketing philosophy,” Smallwood states.

Avoiding Controversy
Falken, as with the other tire companies we spoke with, is cautious about where it lends its name. “We are very selective in the games we will participate in,” says Smallwood. “For instance, we avoid any games with explicit sexual content, violence or anti-social behavior. We only want to participate in games that are positive for the whole family.”

Besides staying out of controversial games, tire companies also don’t want to get stuck in a game no one wants to play. “We need to understand the target market and know if a particular game will be accepted or rejected by the demographic,” Zamalloa says. “Also, we look at the company producing the game and how it plans to market the game.”

Bridgestone/Firestone also has used video games as one of its advertising venues. “We have been involved in several games; our first experience was in conjunction with Microsoft in the late 1990s,” says Phil Pacsi, executive director of consumer tire brand marketing for Bridgestone/Firestone North American Tire (BFNAT).

BFNAT has been trying to do what all companies try to do with advertising – reach a new and vast audience. “Our goals are very simple: brand exposure and brand awareness,” says Pacsi. The tiremaker is also making it’s own gaming experiences. “We currently utilize games in two formats: racing simulator games, customized with Bridgestone and Firestone graphics, that we have on our display trailers, and an interactive game on our www.fuzionzone.com Web site to promote our Fuzion brand of UHP tires,” Pasci says.

To ensure that its products are accurately portrayed in the games, BFNAT tries to recreate street and track performance. “We try to make sure performance is real life,” he says.

Yokohama, which has been very active in pursuing various youth-oriented opportunities, is also advergaming. The tire brand has made appearances in three newer racing games, including Gran Turismo 3, in which it promotes its Advan wheel brand and also shows up all over the race tracks with its familiar Yokohama logo. “If a tire image is used, we have say on the vehicle placement and application,” explains Kim Hernandez, marketing communications manager, about the depiction of Yokohama in games. “If it is an brand logo, we have say on where it is used in a game.”

Street Racing Syndicate features Yokohama, but as a tire option players can choose. Need for Speed Underground also highlights Yokohama as a tire option. When Need For Speed Underground hit the shelves before the holiday season last year, experts felt it was going to be a big hit. It was bigger than they even imaged, and advergaming partners enjoyed the benefits of that success. Yokohama will continue to work with game developers “if their requests meet our needs and requirements,” Hernandez says.

As with other tiremakers, Yokohama’s advergaming efforts aren’t solely aimed at young consumers. “We don’t promote the games. We leave that to the game company. But we do send out updates to our sales force so they can make our dealers aware of our involvement,” Hernandez explains.

Goodyear has also been in the in-game advertising game, but to a lesser extent than others. The tiremaker doesn’t actively pursue advergaming as a promotional strategy, but its Goodyear and Dunlop brands and the well-known Goodyear blimp have graced a few popular driving games.

Building Momentum
All of the companies interviewed for this story say tire dealer – and consumer – reaction to their advergaming efforts has been quite positive. Some tire companies heavily promote their game participation to dealers and even send copies of the games to them.

Customer reaction, though, sometimes goes above and beyond. “We just received a call the other day from a tuner shop,” Zamalloa relates, “and the owner wanted a copy of an image of a vehicle that was in a video game. The shop owner wanted his vehicle set up exactly like the one in the game.”

The goal of any of these efforts is name recognition – building familiarity with the next generation of tire and wheel consumers. As gaming has gone more mainstream, it has become an ideal medium for a company to promote its products and name.

As the next batch of hot games hits the shelves this holiday season, be sure to keep your eyes open. You never know what brand you’ll see next.

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