Honda Motor Corp.’s campaign for its new CR-Z car features the hybrid vehicle in some colorful roadside billboards that can’t be seen from a freeway.
The ads are on display in Facebook Inc.’s virtual game “Car Town,” as Honda advertises on the site for the first time this week. The game, which allows users to collect and customize cars, has 3.1 million users.
Brands are turning to social networks to reach an audience with leisure time on its hands and the patience to sit through branded messages. Walt Disney Co., Electronic Arts Inc. and Google Inc. have all bought games makers in recent months to benefit from millions of users signing up to play.
“You can have 200,000 people drive past a billboard on an L.A. freeway every day, but you don’t have the same level of engagement as when people select ‘Car Town,’” Steve Center, Honda’s vice president for advertising, said.
Dove Soap and Breyers Ice Cream are running ads on “TikiFarm,” while Energizer batteries are promoted on “Family Feud.” Microsoft Corp., Cascadian Farm Organic and 7-Eleven have all marketed themselves on “Farmville,” a game with more than 62 million users that lets them try their hand at farming.
Global advertising in social games and applications will total $293 million next year, a 60 percent increase from 2009, according to researcher EMarketer Inc. in New York. By comparison, expenditure on television advertising was $166.9 billion in 2009, according to ZenithOptimedia Group Ltd., a London-based ad buyer owned by Publicis Groupe SA .
Internet ads are forecast to make up 17.1 percent of the ad market in 2012 from 12.7 percent in 2009, ZenithOptimedia said last month. Zynga Inc., the top maker of Facebook games whose titles include “Farmville,” “Texas HoldEm Poker” and “Mafia Wars Game,” said it was in talks with numerous brands about ads.
“We believe that advertising will play a larger role at Zynga by providing brands the reach of TV, the measurability of online and the most engaging ad integrations available,” said Manny Anekal, director of brand advertising at the company.
August 28, 2010
source: post-gazette.com
