The Internet is considered to be a good platform for customer engagement advertising campaigns because it enables advertisers to have direct contact with each individual customers, and thus easier to get their target customers actively involved. In online customer engagement campaigns, different kinds of games, as a tactic to attract Internet users' attention, are commonly found. In 2010, by September, 150 online display advertising campaigns that contain games are launched, involving 130 advertisers and a total ad spend of 15 million.
Chart 1: No. of Campaign and Ad Spend by Industry
As shown in our statistics, the peak season of these campaigns was from May to July. The top 3 industries by ad spend were Shopping/Retail, Food/Beverage and Computer/Electronic Products. On the other hand, in terms of number of campaigns, the top 3 industries were Health/Beauty, Entertainment and Shopping/Retail.
Chart 2: No. of Campaign and Ad Spend by Month
The top advertiser by number of campaigns was Hong Kong Jockey Club, which launched more than 10 online display advertising campaigns with games in the period. It was also one of the advertisers with the largest amount of ad spend, alongside Ricola, Kaspersky, Gatsby and Barclays Global Investors.
Chart 3: Top 10 Advertisers by Ad Spend
Although Facebook is currently one of the most popular online social media, surprisingly, only approximately 10% of these campaigns were on Facebook, either as an app or a fan page. The top industry by number of campaigns in this aspect was Shopping/Retail.
The vast majority of these online display advertising campaigns consists of mini games. The genre of these mini games varies, from football simulation to coloring, but mostly they were able to demonstrate the characteristics of the advertised product or service. Some campaigns adopted the form of a quiz, requiring the viewer to answer questions related to the subject. This form is frequently used, as campaigns with a quiz can be found throughout the year. It was also mainly employed by the Entertainment industry and the Account/Finance/Insurance industry.
Furthermore, almost all of these game-containing campaigns offered prizes. Customers could win a designated gift by participating in a game or answering questions in a short quiz. Very often winners could get the advertised product. Such a tact was efficient in attracting viewers' attention as well as promoting sales.
Advertising with games is a common practice among different industries and advertisers, especially in the Internet realm. Internet users prone to take part in these games for they can do so by a simple click, without consuming much of their time, which in turn allows advertisers to leave an impression on them easily. The large number of campaigns of this kind suggests that advertisers had recognized this advantage of online display advertising. Moreover, the boom of online social media, like Facebook, opens new possibilities for this sort of advertising. The emergence of these campaigns on Facebook in recent months indicates the development of this platform for customer engagement advertisement, and the number of campaigns is anticipated to rise in the future.
(Source from Admomo.com)
