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June-August 2009
Muscat-based Infocomm chief Karim Rahemtulla chats about advergaming. Karim Rahemtulla is the founder of iGroup Pte Ltd, Singapore, and MD of Infocomm Group LLC, Oman (www.i-grp.com), a mobile, wireless and digital media solutions and services provider partnered with the Zubair Corporation. 

Before this he was a member of XN Corporation's executive board as CEO, Asia, responsible for XN's global R&D strategy and Asia's marketing strategy. He is regarded as a leading commentator on mobile, wireless and interactive technologies, and a facilitator in the provision of innovative and leading edge marketing and advertising solutions for the knowledge economy. He holds a postgraduate degree in Computer Applications from the University of Westminster, UK.

What does the concept of advergaming mean to you?
Essentially advergaming is gaming with messages, brand messages. There are several different formats, providing a diverse set of tools for engaging consumers with the brand message. The most popular is custom advergames - games specifically designed around a product or service.

There is plot integration as well, which is quite similar to product placement in movies. You will also see pre-roll ads that are presented as the game loads, at a time when the player's attention to the screen and level of engagement are very high, and there's inter-level advertising, which appears during natural pauses in game play - both similar to the way ads are used on TV.

Of course, there are sponsorships where the brand is presented as a partner in the game experience - again as on TV. 

One of the exciting things about advergaming is that the average player interaction with a game is from 5-35 minutes and gamers often return to play more. 

Yes, but what for me is most interesting, though, is not so much that people are sitting at their PCs or game consoles and playing these games - engaging with brands in this way - but the fact that the interaction is happening more and more through people's mobile phones.

Whether it's a game they've downloaded to play on their phones or, increasingly, a game they've logged on to through the internet on their phone, this is the real arena for advergaming - especially in the Middle East.

The reason this is interesting is because, let's face it, internet penetration is not that deep in the region but mobile penetration is phenomenal.

According to an August 2008 study by Kuwait-based Inter-Arab Investment Guarantee Corporation (IAIGC), at the end of 2007 the UAE had the highest mobile phone penetration in the Arab world - it stood at an incredible 173 per cent. If you're struggling to understand that figure just think how many people you know with two phones. That's actually triple the world average.

Qatar and Bahrain come next with around 150 per cent, Saudi stands at 115 per cent and Kuwait and Oman are just edging over 97 per cent.

What makes this more significant is that the phone will soon become the primary vehicle for delivery of the internet and, believe me, that's when you'll see the real impact of advergaming.

This makes advergaming a very powerful medium for advertisers in the region. We take a lot more notice of what's on our phone than what's on our PC. We interact with it differently because it's a more personal device and it's with us 24/7. The possibilities for engaging your consumer are huge in this respect.

Something else that stands out is the role of viral marketing in advergaming - the way gamers pass on recommendations for games and challenge friends - effectively sharing your marketing message with friends. Research shows that over 90 per cent of challenges to play are accepted.

Who uses advergaming? Is anyone in the local market doing anything with it?
Absolutely. The local market has been into advergaming for a while - it's not solely the preserve of multinationals. We're talking local brands here. Clearly it's not mainstream yet although gaming itself is obviously big in the Middle East, and according to the PWC Global Entertainment and Media outlook 2008-2012, gaming here, as in Europe and Africa, is set to soar.

It's interesting to look at what's going on in advergaming in Oman.

In fact, Infocomm has been active in advergaming in the Sultanate since 2004, when we put together advergames for both Oman Mobile and the Ministry of Sports Affairs. And Knowledge Oasis Muscat's annual Serious Games Conference has been exploring advergaming for three years now. The interest is ongoing and we have several games in development for local companies in Oman - and I'm not just talking about multinationals with a local presence.

There's a full range of game types in development too - some of it is absolutely cutting edge - real showstopper stuff with 3D on Ubiq screens. 

An especially attractive feature of advergaming is that anyone can play - in the company sense, that is; it's not just for big companies.

It's possible to put together an advergame at a price that is within the means of most marketing budgets. The key to success is not necessarily the most elaborate game but to choose the games that engage your target market. For example, broadly speaking, men like competitive games whereas women tend to be more attracted to puzzles and problem solving.

This must be partly because of the youth population in the region. Are brands trying to capture the youth market?
Clearly the youth market in the Gulf is very important and that's initially why a lot of companies around the world got into advergaming - and it worked: it's a very effective way of reaching them. Research shows that 62 per cent of teens play computer games for at least one hour a week and 34 per cent play for over six hours a week.

On top of this a lot of parents encourage their children to play computer games because they see them as educational. Sure, the games advertise or have product placement, but people tend to react to it positively.

Nielsen Interactive Entertainment research shows that 70 per cent of players like in-game advertising, product placement in particular, saying they like the "real" aspect the ads or placement of the products lend to their games.

But children are not the only ones playing games; they're not the only ones that advergaming reaches.

No matter which research you look at, it all points in one direction: the average gamer is 30 years old and has been playing for around 12 years and is only marginally more likely to be male than female. Actually, gaming has built up an audience of women between the ages of 35 to 49 - another attractive demographic for advertisers.

Another surprising statistic comes from the Entertainment Software Association, the industry's trade group. It claims that 19 per cent of all computer and console gamers are 50 years-plus. I have seen other surveys that give this age group an even bigger share of the gaming market. There's no local research that I know of for this demographic, but, while we may not yet be up there for this figure, all I can say is, give it time.

Does it have anything else to offer?
Well, it's attractive at several levels. As well as engaging the consumer for extended periods in your brand, for the marketer an attractive feature of advergaming is that it is very measurable, and tracking tools can be used to see how many people visit the game and how long they stay, allowing you to fine-tune your game to make it more attractive to your players and perhaps increase traffic to your game.

So you're reaching a broad audience and the metrics are great, but what about TV and more traditional media?
Look, the simple fact is this: globally we are migrating from TV to computer and game consoles for entertainment. These days, according to Direct Marketing Services, 19 per cent of males play online games more than they watch TV and 50 per cent play online games more than they read books.

By 2002 the value of sales of game consoles in the US had already outstripped cinema box-office receipts. On top of that, gaming in the Middle East is growing at one of the fastest rates in the world.

It's not really a question of how advergaming has impacted. Rather, advergaming is a response to the move away from traditional forms of entertainment, and therefore means that marketers need to take a fresh look at how they're using their ad spend. Because the possibilities now for engaging with consumers, for increasing brand awareness are being redefined and traditional marketing strategies need to be re-examined.

© Gulf Marketing Review 2009