The terms for in game mobile advertising

by: Bena Roberts Monday, February 25th, 2008

What are the ad funded game formats?

During Mobile World Congress, I mentioned how GoMo News was one of the first advertisers for Unkasoft’s new mobile game. The in-game advertising looks great. Unkasoft are a small Spanish company that I really like who have a simple but effective mobile gaming and advertising solution.

But I had a couple of email comments about in-game advertising as to what is an interstitial and what is an wrapping.
So a brief explanation:

Ad Wrapping or Wrappers: This is a few seconds of advertising at the start or at the end of a mobile game.

In game advertising: this is when the game plays as usual but images or backgrounds within the game are used as advertising space.

Interstitials: Short video clips that are pushed in –between the game. But this can also be a banner or preview within the game as well. For example if the video moves to an in game screen shot of a rally race or something a video can be viewed whilst playing the game that is sponsored.

Have I missed any? Let me know.

6 Responses to “The terms for in game mobile advertising”

GameAds Said:

With around game advertising you have three different types of game advertising:

- Pre-game Ads: Ads shown before the game begins
- Inter-Level Ads - Ads shown between different levels in the game
- Post-game Ads: Ads shown after the game.

With in-game advertising you have three different types:

- Static in-game advertising: Static ads integrated in the game while developing.
- Dynamic in-game advertising: Dynamic ads in the game which are ajustable
- Product placement: Sponsored products in the game that interact with the character

Then you have advergaming:

- Advergames / branded games: Games made with the goal of promoting a product or service
- game skinning: Skinning an existing game to promote a product or service.
- Sponsorships: Games added to a product to help selling the product itself. (free game when you buy a pc etc.)

The terms Adwrapping or adwrappers are new to me.

These terms are mainly based on the IAB researches.

Kind regards,

Peter D. (Netherlands)

Comment made on February 25th, 2008 at 10:06 am

GameAds Said:

The game advertising types I mentioned before are not specific for mobile games. But I think they match a lot.

Comment made on February 25th, 2008 at 1:17 pm

Juan Antonio Muñoz Said:

Hi GameAds,
As you mention in your last comment, there is not standard for mobile in-game advertising yet. I know MMA is trying to define as IAB did for WEB in-game advertising.
I mean Bena is grouping, Pre-game Ads, Inter-Level Ads & Post-game Ads as ad wrapping. All of them are compatible and is possible to define a whole campaign with those three. What’s the name for this kind of campaign?

Also, Static & Dynamic definitions from IAB could be confused. I don’t know if you feel the same. For instance, I can define a Dynamic Product Placement ad, in which depending on the player you have different object to interact.

IMHO we have a lot of work in the mobile in-game advertising standards, and blogs like your are helping to explain this exciting idea.

Comment made on February 25th, 2008 at 4:19 pm

GameAds Said:

Hi Juan Antonio,

I would call the pre/inter and post game ads “Around-game advertising”. The name for a campaign with one of these elements should therefore be called an “around-game advertising campaign”.

I agree with you that some definitions are a bit confusing.

I think the terms for mobile game advertising should be the same as console, pc etc. Because the game stays the same, the platform only changes.

Another problem is making the definitions work for both game developers / publishers and advertisers.

I wrote a few weeks ago about Unkasoft, love the initiative!!

Kind regards,

Peter Davelaar

Comment made on February 26th, 2008 at 6:00 am

Juan Antonio Muñoz Said:

Hi,
I agree the terms for mobile game advertising should be the same for all the platforms. But I’m still concerned to define it well. One of our big problems is explain those terms to advertisers & marketing agencies. If you & me see those terms a bit confusing, imagine the advertisers.

Anyhow, we’re rowing in the same way. Let me share with you a doc I wrote last year…
http://www.unkasoft.com/sites/unkasoft.com/files/advergaming2.0en.pdf

Thanks for your comments are really welcome