Games gold
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UQ Business School Honours graduate Lars-Peter Schneider and Professor Bettina Cornwell have found that marketers are following consumers as they migrate away from mainstream television.
Professor Cornwell, also from the UQ Business School, said the explosion in computer gaming had led marketers to experiment with brand placement as a way of reaching consumers.
“It’s a technique that has been widely used in movies such as Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report, which was subsidised with $25 million in deals with Nokia, The Gap, and Lexus,” Professor Cornwell said.
“With top quality games now costing as much as US$5 million to make, game producers are also interested in alternative funding sources.”
Mr Schneider and Professor Cornwell monitored 46 men playing a car-racing game.
“One of the most interesting findings was the potential of interactivity to influence memory,” she said. “In movies, being central to the plot is thought to be important – in video games, being central to the action is important.
“Many of the executional factors deemed important in successful product placement in movies – like showing the product in a positive light and for an extended period – are easy when designing and scripting a game.
“Building in an interactive experience with a product or brand is also easy in the digital game environment and makes computer games an appealing target for marketers.”
