Oh Advergames

Viral Chart recently came out with its top 10 viral games of 2006 for the U.K. They also came out with the best viral videos, but the games really caught my attention.

I have never considered myself one for games. I had a Nintendo Gameboy for about a year or so during my adolescence, and have had little interaction with any other video game formats. Assuming that I had a built-in immunity to the addictive nature of games, I decided to try out some of the "best games" to see what all the noise was about. I must say, I found myself drawn to play several rounds of mindless games without even knowing it. With ease, I pressed the "play again" button and gladly spent another few minutes being exposed to a brand name.

Wow. Advergames are far more advanced and purposeful than the simple "pop the pimple first" banner/click game. They are well designed, creative and the epitome of the latest buzz word in marketing communications, "engagement." Their interactivity sets them apart in a special way from video, the subject of my previous blog. Not only do they spread like wildfire, but they can offer a degree of teaching and a special form of recall.

Looking at the top ten U.K. viral advergames resulted in some interesting observations. First of all, three of the top ten games revolved around soccer, called "football" in Europe. These games were:Keep Them Uppy, Viva la Volley and Studs up Soccer. This is obviously a popular sport and appeals to people enough that they enjoy playing soccer-related games. Two of the games were Christmas themed, so perhaps the spreading of advergames is especially high during holiday periods, particularly now that people are already accustomed to interactive e-greetings. Elf Attack and Chimney Challenge were the Christmas oriented games that made it into the top ten. One of the most popular games was actually generated by Dodge, an American automotive brand which I did not expect to be especially attractive among the U.K. market.

Two of the top games were generated by nonprofit organizations and focused on using the games to change behaviors and inform. One of these games, How Does Your Garden Grow was primarily concerned about sharing the mission of its creator, Growing for Life, to connect plants with people. The game consisted of the gamer manipulating the celebrity-inspired gardener to water flowers; therefore, teaching people to take care of plants. The other nonprofit game, Snack Dash, is supported by the School Food Trust. In this game, a little character runs around the screen and can lose weight from eating good foods and then swell up to signify that he has gained weight when he bumps into a walking vending machine or other unhealthy choices. Snack Dash actually came in at #2 on the top ten game list, and How Does Your Garden Grow was only a couple of spots behind.

How Does Your Garden Grow was actually one of two games on the top ten created by Tamba. Tamba is a company that makes awardwinning advergames in the U.K. and spreads them around the world to various advergaming sites. They made Chimney Challenge as well. In my naivete, I did not think that there were companies completely devoted to advergame creation. With it becoming such an amazing method for customer-product interaction, it only makes sense that advergame demand would increase and justify specialists.

I am completely sold on this type of marketing; it is fun and provides a sort of free value to the consumer. Another neat aspect of advergaming is that it can be used to collect consumer data as well. At the beginning of many games I played this evening, I was prompted to put my gender and age.

On the other hand, there is such a thing as an impotent advergame. This blog entry on Water Cooler Games describes the innefective and pointless Monster.com game called Foot in The Door. Try it and you will see that the game does not add an amusing element to the phrase, "getting your foot into the door," but just bores instead.