Google Takes On Gaming

Goodness gracious. It seems like I can’t go one day without reading about a new Google merger. Their latest acquisition involves Adscape Media, a company responsible for creating in-game advertising.

For those of you who don’t spend your free time tinkering around the Internet for hours at a time, please allow me to enlighten you about “advergames”. Though advergaming on the Internet is a relatively new phenomenon, they have been around in some form or another for years. Let us take, for example, the back of a cereal box. The mazes and crossword puzzles on the back of a box of Trix are not created so kids can have a little fun at the breakfast table. Their goal is to create positive associations with the brand apart from the product itself. In essence, it is the simple concept of brand extension. When you factor in the vast capabilities of the Internet, you can see why Google was so keen on acquiring Adscape.

Companies as diverse as Dannon Yogurt, Axe Body Spray and Burger King have used advergaming and it seems like more is on the way. The Internet provides global access to almost any type of media and marketers are smart enough to understand that that means millions of dollars in revenue. It’s important that we, as students, are aware of the way new technology can shape the media landscape.

P.S. I thought I’d add my all-time favorite advergame. I can’t tell you how much time I spent trying to beat this thing. Curiously enough, it didn’t make me want to eat Dannon Frusion Smoothies.