THERE’S a story on The Australian’s website today that any newspaper sales executive should be aware of.
The Transport Accident Commission (TAC), which is the road safety body for the Australian state of Victoria, has signed a deal to spend $A100,000 on in-game advertising.
By Brett Taylor, editorial coordinator, PANPA
The TAC is trying to reach its target audience or males aged 18-30 with its anti-speeding campaigns. That audience is spending less time watching TV and more time in front of the X-Box or PS3 (I know I am).
At this year’s PANPA conference, our CEO Mark Hollands showed an IBM-sourced slide in his State of the Industry address that showed in-game advertising had a forecasted compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 19 percent for the period 2006-2010.
The TAC deal is a major real world example of this predicted trend.
(For the record, newspaper advertising had a forecast CAGR of 2 percent. Mark’s slides are available from Factiva’s PANPA conference page)
Some of the ads will appear on virtual billboards in the racing game Need for Speed, which features car chases through city streets.
It would be interesting to know whether ads in this location are likely to have a greater mental effect on young men than other channels, or whether the TAC just sees this as the most viable place to reach the right eyeballs – regardless of the context. What do you think? Leave us a comment below.
Tags: In-game Ads
