In-game creative leap pays off for Canon

An imaginative in-game advertising campaign helped to deliver big shifts in perceptions for Canon as it looked to establish leadership in the camcorder market. Running across the Massive Network’s portfolio of urban games, the campaign delivered impressive recall rates and a big shift in perceptions of the brand as a ‘market leader’.

Campaign objectives:

• Use in-game advertising to raise awareness of Canon’s ‘Freefilming’ campaign message
• Increase brand affinity amongst tech-savvy opinion formers
• Boost perceptions of Canon as a camcorder ‘market leader’.

Creative solution:

Canon targeted tech-savvy males aged 16-39 through the Massive network’s portfolio of urban skating and street racing campaigns, including Skate, Tony Hawk American Wasteland and Need for Speed Pro Street. Tailored creative included taglines referencing skating and racing themes, establishing the brand a natural part of the in-game environment.

Results:

• The in-game advertising campaign generated prompted recall of 57 per cent
• Prompted awareness for Canon rose nine percentage points to 85 per cent
• Prompted awareness for the Freefilming message rose 16 percentage points to 38 per cent
• 66 per cent of gamers agreed that the ads “fitted in” and “made the game more realistic”
• Perceptions of Canon as a “market leader” rose 26 percentage points to 53 per cent.