Digital marketing Buzz: Advergaming

Advergaming is the practice of using games to advertise a product, organization or viewpoint.Its the latest technique in digital advertising space which is gaining traction in India with the rise of game websites like Zapak and contests2win. Zapak found that in-game advertising and advergaming contributed to 25-30 per cent of the company’s revenues, Zapak expected this to grow to reach 50 per cent of the total revenues by this year end and also claims to have more than 100 brands on board most of whom are first time online advertisers. Advergaming is not only limited to the web or to brands it is also happening on the mobile handsets and games are being developed around movies.
So what exactly is advergaming?
Advergames are games are designed around the attributes of brands. Consumers can ‘virtually’ touch, feel or experience the brand. Usually they are created in such a way that consumers wont be able to complete it on the first attempt. On the second, they just about succeed and on the third, they definitely crack it.Wiki goes on to segregate advergaming into 3 elements

ATL (Above the Line) Advergaming
At first a company provides interactive games on its website in the hope that potential customers will be drawn to the game and spend more time on the website, or simply become more product aware. The games themselves usually feature the company's products prominently.example
BTL (Below the Line) Advergaming
In the second form, games are published in the usual way and cause players to investigate further. The subjects may be commercial, political or educational. Examples of this form of game include recruitment tools like America's Army, intended to boost recruitment for the United States Army.
TTL (Through the Line) Advergaming
TTL advergames involve the use of URL hyperlinks within the game designed to induce the player to visit a webpage which then contains BTL advertisements.

Benefits of Advergaming
Rather than being exposed to a 30-second ad, your attention is captured in a much more significant manner for several minutes and potentially hours. It helps in boosting Brand Awareness and can also be used in creating viral marketing effect and last but not the least it can be a great tool for market research Car companies, for example, sometimes have virtual representations of car prototypes that players can interact with in the game and then elaborate on what they like and don’t like.
Its BTL advergaming which involves in-game advertising which is actually generating a lot of interest in India and has helped generate a totally new business model for gaming portals in India. Most widely used example of advergaming is Second life which is used by multitude of brands seeking attention as well as lot of B2B marketeers also. In India it reportedly costs 3-5 lakhs to create an advergame and there are even greater opportunities within mobile advergaming for which a good read would be Gaurav's post.