Advertising in and around videogames is expected to grow exponentially over the next five years, becoming a $2 billion market by 2012, according to a new report released by digital market research specialist Parks Associates.
The report, Electronic Gaming in the Digital Home: Game Advertising, encompasses several forms of videogame related advertising, including product placement in games, banners in online games, dynamically inserted ads in console and PC games and even ads placed within mobile games. Overall, Parks Associates is bullish on the burgeoning ad medium, predicting that spending will climb from an estimated $370 million last year to more than $2 billion in 2012. Over that period of time, game advertising should achieve a compound annual growth rate of 33 percent, says the report - which should largely outpace the growth expected in other media, including the Internet.
Those estimates corroborates some of the more optimistic forecasts delivered in recent years by the industry's biggest proponents, such as leading in-game ad firm Massive Inc., which is owned by Microsoft. And they're based on the general notion that videogames are currently underutilized by marketers. "Advertisers are not using the gaming medium to its full potential," said Yuanzhe Cai, director of broadband and gaming, Parks Associates. "If executed correctly, game advertising can provide a win-win solution for advertisers, developers and publishers, console manufacturers, game portals, and gamers."
Read full story...
More...