kia-microsoft-advertising

Over 200 advertiser and agency folks joined the Massive team and our game publisher partners last Thursday night at the Allen Room, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, for the second annual Microsoft Advertising Gaming Upfront event, showcasing content available for brands in the latest video game titles on the Massive network.

The theme of this year's event was "Where Performance Plays" and the announcement we made earlier in the day is a big step for in-game ad performance.

Thursday morning, Massive announced a collaboration with comScore on breakthrough research methodology - AdEffx Action Lift For Gaming - that allows advertisers to see the direct impact in-game ads have on driving gamers to visit Web sites, conducting brand-related searches, and engaging in other online activities.

Media planners in the audience applauded this development as it answers their call for ad effectiveness measurements that digitally track actual consumer action after interacting with dynamic in-game advertising, and enables them to now make apples to apples comparisons between in-game ads and other forms of digital media.

Kicking off the night, Robin Domeniconi, VP-US sales, marketing and publishing, Microsoft Advertising, called Microsoft's video game advertising offering "the crown jewel in our multi-screen strategy". The worldwide gaming audience across the Xbox LIVE and Massive network is now 50 million strong, doubling in size over the last 15 months. Robin demonstrated the power of Microsoft's platform audience by sharing a recent three-screen campaign for the broadcast premiere of ABC's FlashForward which encompassed elements of online, mobile and video game advertising.

Massive national sales director, Ian Ali, then took the stage to discuss how Microsoft is working hard to make it easy for brands to tap into games advertising, using campaigns conducted by Twix, Sprint, Final Destination 4 and KFC as examples of brands that have recently gotten into the game.

Our hard to reach, deeply engaged audience is highly valuable to brands and over 90 custom research studies prove that game advertising is extremely effective in delivering brand engagement measures.

Not only do gamers have a 62 percent ad recall, but there are incremental lifts across all brand metrics.

Ian shared a case study from a campaign promoting the Kia Soul. The Kia campaign demonstrates the power brands can unlock by combining our gaming offerings across the Massive and Xbox LIVE platforms. In addition to spending, on average, 50 minutes in the game, gamers spend nine minutes in the Xbox LIVE dashboard. Not only do advertisers extend their reach to a larger audience by combining elements from both gaming platforms, but they also ensure greater results.

The campaign engagement and interaction was truly impressive, registering an impressive 3.98% click-through rate and over 8,500 hours of ad viewing. While advertising on either platform shows positive results, the true performance of this campaign can be seen in the metric lift scores for gamers exposed to Kia Soul ads both in-game AND on the Xbox LIVE dashboard, including:

· 163% lift in brand rating

· 96% more likely to consider purchasing a car

· 42% more likely to click on Xbox LIVE ads

· Twice as likely to visit a Kia dealership

· Users spent an average of 300 seconds interacting with the brand - that's 10X more time than a standard non-interactive 30-second TV commercial!

Our publisher partners then took center stage to demonstrate some of the ad content in current hits and forthcoming game titles. Activision showed the unique advertising components in its titles, including the newly released DJ Hero and the integration of T-Mobile's Sidekick as the communication device in the forthcoming Tony Hawk Ride.

Ubisoft gave the audience an exclusive preview of the highly anticipated Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction, which will support video ad units.

THQ showed off the advertising content available in hit franchises UFC Undisputed and WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2010, before sharing a sample of the high impact units that will be available in the upcoming MX vs. ATV Reflex.

2KSports presented their 2010 lineup, which features geo-targeting capabilities for brands looking to run regional campaigns in leading titles including NBA2K10, NHL2K10, MLB2K10 and The BIGS 2.

Disney Interactive Studios showcased the fixed product placement and episode sponsorship opportunities available in racing title Split/Second, expected to hit shelves in early 2010.

PC game developer Blizzard Entertainment closed the publisher presentations by discussing the around game advertising possibilities in the World of Warcraft franchises as well as the upcoming launch of StarCraft II and new Battle.net.

To summarize the key takeaways from the event:

· Microsoft's combined gaming network across Xbox Live and Massive reaches 50 million gamers worldwide

· We offer brands the coolest, most engaging content on the planet across a blockbuster lineup of titles from the top game publishers

· There are now metrics available that prove the effectiveness of in-game advertising and give apples to apples comparisons to other forms of digital media

· Research proves that running campaigns on the combined Xbox Live and Massive assets presents even greater lift across all brand metrics than one platform alone

· Only Microsoft Advertising offers access to this unparalleled gaming network and the ability to run a multi-screen campaign across the web, mobile, TV, and games.

The Upfront was a rousing success and the terrific attendance by leading brands, agencies and publishers validates the maturation of the game advertising industry. We'd like to thank our game publisher partners for their participation and continued innovation in the space, as well as the attendees who hopefully learned more about the medium and the opportunities to promote their brands.

I'm sure there will be more exciting advances to come in 2010 as the industry continues to evolve.

We'll see you next year..

Thanks

JJ