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40-Hour Ads. "Prove to me how advertising sells cars," said Jeff Bell of Jeep to another Chrysler executive who questioned the effectiveness of videogames as a marketing medium. Jeff is probably still waiting for his answer, but, as reported by Kevin J. Delaney in The Wall Street Journal, he pretty much proved his side of the argument via a low-cost videogame promotion for the Jeep Rubicon. Jeff didn't have a heck of a lot to lose, because he had no budget for TV or print, and Chrysler expected to sell only 8,000 Jeep Rubicons. The game, called "Jeep 4x4: Trail of Life," was free, and it was designed to give users a sense of the difference between a Rubicon Jeep and a regular Jeep by replicating "the vehicle's axle ratios and horsepower torque."
Well, not long after the game was launched in early 2002, it was clear to Chrysler that it did indeed help sell cars. All told, some "250,000 consumers ... downloaded it and handed over their names and e-mail addresses." The carmaker estimates "that about 500 of the first 1,500 people who purchased the Jeep Rubicon had piloted a virtual Jeep prior to walking into the dealership." Now, they don't know for sure that the games directly triggered the sales, but it sure looked that way. "It's shocking," is the way Joel Schlader of Chrysler characterizes the effectiveness of videogames as advertising. But it's not really surprising if you think about it: "It takes about 40 hours of playing to complete some popular adventure games," and since "ads are built into the games, consumers can't dodge them." The games also have the ability to demonstrate the product.
A game involving Sony Ericsson, for example, not only requires players to use a one of its cellphones, but also to capture an image using its T637 camera phone. The Army, meanwhile is using a virtual boot camp to attract new recruits, and "Volvo was so taken with how its S40 model looked in a Microsoft videogame "that it turned video footage of the game into a TV commercial." Although videogames as media are no where near TV in terms of dollars spent, it evidently is edging its way toward the mainstream. According to Veronis Suhler Stevenson, "Americans on average spent 64 hours playing videogames in 2002, almost double five years earlier. Some "42 million U.S. households own a videogame console, according to DFC Intelligence. And, in perhaps the surest sign of advergaming's looming legitimacy, videogame publisher Activision, www.activision.com, is collaborating with Nielsen Entertainment "to build a system that will provide information about videogames akin to TV ratings."
Tim Manners, editor
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