"This is definitely important for the in-game ad industry," says Michael Cai, director of broadband and gaming at Dallas-based research firm Parks Associates. "At least the major guys are now paying attention and are taking some action instead of just going to conferences."

While only about $54 million was spent on ads (both static and dynamic) within PC, console, and mobile games in 2006, that will rise by 66% to $90 million this year and then to $150 million in 2008. Within five years, it is expected to top $804 million, according to Parks Associates data. ...

"One thing that's important to a lot of advertisers is for the agencies to create innovative packages that include not only traditional media, but also some of the emerging media," says Cai. "That's because the advertisers don't necessarily understand all of the emerging media and how they position on the ad spectrum. So they're looking for agencies and strong ad sales teams at companies like NBC for some of those recommendations."

Indeed, he adds, "the words coming out of NBC's mouth can sometimes be more powerful than from IGA's mouth." ... Cai believes that the hesitancy on the part of advertisers to spend their money on in-game ads will contain to fade.

"At the moment, it's still new and not totally proven yet," Cai explains, "even though the in-game ad solution providers have done some research to validate the media and to prove that gamers spend many, many hours on their favorite games. Still, the advertisers don't really know how to leverage the media yet. I think that when companies like NBC start telling them that in-game ads actually work, advertisers are going to feel a lot more comfortable spending their money."

From the article "NBC Uni's move into vid game ads augurs trend," by Paul Hyman.

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