I think there are some deserved belated congratulations to President Barack Obama and commiserations to John McCain who was not elected to take over from George W. Bush in January. There were obviously many elements in the election of Obama, however his campaign completely outshone that of McCain. This was due to the amount of money Obama managed to raise from the public giving him a huge advertising budget which thus means more TV, magazine and internet time, space and impressions. He was able to spread his words of wisdom to the masses better than a candidate to advertise in video games. Obama adverts were placed Burnout Paradise as well as a number of others on the Xbox 360 localised in ten swing states (San Diego 6) .
In-Game advertising (IGA) is as the title suggest, advertising within video games. As an industry it is no longer in its infancy, however it is still a small force within advertising, always developing and growing. Kolodny (2006) cites PricewaterCoopers data that predicts the 2010 videogame market will be worth $6.5 Billion and this is a result of males turning to play video games more than the watching TV (Cuneo 2004).
There are 3 different ways that a brand can be immersed into a video game; Static in-game advertising (SIGA), Dynamic in-game advertising (DIGA) and product placement (IGA WW 2008)
SIGA is when the advert is encoded into the game and cannot change. For example Tournament sponsorship (online and offline), brand content (care, liveries, brand-themed levels etc.), In-pack and on-pack branding and sponsorship, re-branded content / Advergames (brand-specific / cut-down / rebranded games). These will be with the game from the day it’s bought to the day it is thrown away.
Product placement is similar to that as in Films however there is a difference “mainly because they are interactive and allow for sensory immersion“ (Vorderer 2000 cited in Nelson, Keum and Yaros 2004) are therefore more vivid, interactive, and adept at stimulating creativity and perception than films (Steuer 1992).
DIGA is like banner adverts in the way that they are managed. They are administered via the internet and are sold as impressions. The billboards in the game can change each time a player goes past it. Gamers can only see DIGA when connected to the internet on Xbox Live, PS3 and PC. They are monitored in a similar fashion as online banner ads, by impressions and can be used to target people geographically and demographically.
Barack Obama’s campaigners used DIGA to advertise to the 10 swing states prior to the election and this is why:
There are many advantages of these different types of advertising that Obama’s campaigning team would have seeked out and used to justify this move towards interactive media. The adverts within the games are received by the audience a lot better than traditional vehicles of advertising, such as TV and radio. This is because the ads are integrated within the game and are ‘less intrusive’ (Nielson Report 2008). The adverts are placed within the context of the game and thus don’t distract the gamer but still allows the gamer to see the ad and register it. They are seen as an advantage because they also help increase the realism of the game, overall giving the advertiser a little more credibility and have more positive view towards it. IGA is also used because target audiences are very easy to target and therefore it is a fantastic way to target the specific demographics. Although Popular perceptions of video-gamers are predominantly male teenagers obsessively playing alone (Poole 2001) the average age of a gamer is 33 years old (Entertainment Software Association), IGA can sieve through the gaming demographics to target specifically who they want to.
The time and size of the advert on screen can be measured in dynamic advertising so there is no wastage from the advertisers’ perspective and also because the ads are integrated into the game they cannot be skipped like in a magazine where the first few pages can be skipped to get straight to the content or on TV when you can make a cup of tea in the break (Bartlett 2007).
For these very reasons adds some reasons to why Obama would have certified advertising in video games. Even though most other medium are able to target geographically, Obama is also able to target the people he wants knowing it’s going to be hard for the audience to skip or avoid them. Also it means he is in the world of those who may not effectively be targetable elsewhere.
What does this mean for the way politics and political campaigning is now conducted? This follows the current trends seen in politics with the introduction of new technologies such as the Internet. This specific targeting of key groups, as seen in Obama’s campaign is called narrowcasting. Other forms of narrowcasting has been seen in the recent past with Tony Blair writing columns in The Sun and Valdimir Putin advertising in between soaps to reach the female vote (Lilleker 2006). IGA is a more sophisticated form of narrowcasting. This has been developed from constituency and state level of targeted communication. This seems to have been an inevitable move for Obama and future politicians. It is a natural for politics to levitate towards these new medium because living in a media-centred democracy as we do, it is important for politicians to be aware of media audiences and in the way the media operates in to reaching them.
Fig 1.2 This is an example of a DIGA for the Barack Obama Campaign (Source: Chris James, MASSIVE, 2008)
This could prove to be an important move in the way that political communication is conducted though. In Norris’ political dealignment theory the pre-modern era is when political communication is based on communicating on a level that is local such as public meetings, rather than the mass media. Post-dealignment era was when political messages were only sent to the masses with great use of TV and national press. This shift to narrowcasting techniques which also include direct mail, emailing, e-newsletter, SMS text messaging) in the current era is named by Norris as the post modern campaigning. These techniques have been used a lot within American politics, more so than in the UK has lead to new era narrowcasting as Americanisation. Americanisation of politics has lead to a more market oriented strategy for politicians and thus making the communications and marketing of politics more professional.
The professionalising of political communication means that there is a lot of importance on the media vehicle suggesting that the emphasis is on the style rather than the substance. This can be related to Obama’s move to Videogames by looking at the content of the adverts seen in the games that were advertised in. This is based on Marshall McLuhan’s (1964) the medium is the message theory suggesting that “For the ‘message’ of any medium or technology is the change of scale or pace or pattern that introduces into human affairs” (McLuhan 1971, p16). One can argue that the main reason for the use of IGA is that it is a new, exciting form of advertising and is used only to make Obama appear up to date and impressively modern (especially for a politician). This new form of advertising is high in credibility, especially for the users that will receive the message. This is the most important quality a political advertisement can have (Lilleker 2006).
Aside from the importance IGA has in being for the world of politics, more so is the impact of having politics in the realms of the video-gamer and Video-gaming. There are huge implications for the involvement of politics not just online but in video games, a source of active and engrossing entertainment. Putting the technological developments aside, I feel that it is this involvement of politics that bridges the real gap between the ‘real world’ and the virtual world. There are behavioural patterns that can be used to describe a bridge or ‘merger’ of worlds. One main example is the motivation to indulge in such worlds: escapism. Without going into too much detail, gamers escape from over-stress or boredom (Cooper cited in Evans 2001) and escapism is a good way to prevent a burn-out. It is an escape from work, family, and the daily grind of routine. Especially with videogames, these tools of escapism, videogames and virtual worlds are becoming a part of the routine that occupied the time of the gamer. The gamer may work in a bank, spend all of his time on the computer, maybe read a book or listen to his iPod whilst commuting to and from work. When he gets home he may watch some TV and play a videogame or two. These methods of escapism have become the routine that he tries to escape from (Pearlin 1959). Mix this with the new content that is politics and photo-like gaming, the two worlds that used to co-exist, synchronically, now seem to exist in a unified state. This, I felt has important implications for the future of the Virtual world, and for the potential involvement politics has in them. It validates the medium as a more valid vehicle to advertise within but also potentially creates a market place for discussion which in turn may be more welcoming to someone who may be traditionally non-political.
Is it important if Obama used IGA or is it just another location for political communication as John Corner (2003) argues? If this is the case I could have used this time writing this blog to do my dissertation. However I feel that there is some importance in this new development. It shows that politics is embracing new technologies which better help target specific demographics in different geographical using a more effective and relevant medium than currently being used. It certainly helped reinforce Obama’s cool, down to earth and ‘for the people’ persona, hence he is now President Elect. It may raise arguments for the quality of politics which was touched upon above with the slight discussion of Americanisation and the professionalization of political communications, however this is the future for politics and whether good or bad, it’s here. So now that someone has set the standard for a new medium to Narrowcast, I wonder if this vehicle for advertising will be used again in the future and if we can expect to see it in British politics? Will we see a Gaming Brown as well as a Web Cameron?
Personally I cannot see politicians actively going into games however, as I suggested before it is an important space to occupy as a topic. I can potentially see a political videogame which may or may not be serious.
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