Brand integration in video game entertainment is an exciting, innovative and efficient way for marketers to reach the youth market using a completely engrossing, interactive medium that provides repeated brand delivery with zero clutter, zero distractions and higher recall.

The current media situation has made it extremely difficult for companies to reach consumers, especially the youth market (Gen Y & Gen X). An endless array of media channels, fragmentation, consumer skepticism and technology innovations (PVRs) have all caused a precipitous decline in the effectiveness of traditional media (TV, print, radio) and forced marketers to search for fresh new ways to capture the imagination and commitment of their core consumers. Video game entertainment can help marketers break through this clutter!

Video Game Entertainment

The video game industry is a pervasive entertainment medium poised for enormous growth!

• It is a $29 billion industry with analysts projecting 24% growth through 2003.

• 34% of U.S. households have a video game console -- a number expected to expand rapidly in the next few years with the proliferation of the Xbox, PlayStation2 and GameCube consoles.

• 54% of US households have at least one PC.

• The core gamer demographic is A13-34 with a median age of 28, a median household income of $60,000 and an aggregate purchasing power of over $200 billion dollars. This youth market constitutes 75% of all video game players.

Video Game Entertainment- Advantages

The interactive, addictive nature of video game entertainment media offers unique advantages over other traditional forms of media (e.g. TV, print, radio) that improves upon a marketer's ability to break through the advertising clutter and deliver the brand message.

• Unlike TV and radio, players are immersed in the gameplay and repeatedly interact with the brand, instead of just passively seeing it --it becomes part of their entertainment experience rather than an interruption of it.

• Brand impressions are repetitive and organically integrated into the game which increases recall levels.

• Channel surfing to avoid advertisements is not possible. As a result, delivery of a marketer's brand impression is guaranteed, as opposed to traditional broadcast media where there is no certainty that a commercial has been seen or heard.

• Media clutter is eliminated.

• Category exclusivity can be guaranteed.

Since so many video games recreate real world environments as part of the gaming experience, the brand placement opportunities for marketers are potentially endless!