Messenger Games advertising gives advertisers direct involvement in consumer dialogue through branded games that are played in Messenger conversation windows, and pre and post-roll
video ads that play while games are loading. Advertisers creating their own Messenger game can build a custom game from scratch or opt for a re-skin of an existing game experience.
With 92 million Messenger users in Europe1 alone, Messenger Games advertising is an ideal channel for extending TV campaigns to a mass-reach audience in lean-forward mode. Windows Live Messenger reaches 26% of the European online population2, engaging key social media influencers as they chat and share content.
Research3 among the Messenger gaming audience demonstrates high levels of engagement with the platform: one-third play once a day or more, and over 70 per cent would recommend Games on Messenger to a friend. Users are highly receptive to sponsored content and Messenger Games advertising, recognising this as a channel for providing new, free games. Video advertising on the channel benefits from high recall levels amongst a strongly engaged audience. Recall is 19% higher for online video ads than for the same ads running on TV4.
Key characteristics of the audience5:
- Mix of men and women with a slight female bias
- 78% under the age of 25
- One third playing once a day or more
- Engaging with brands for long periods through games
- Welcome in-game advertiser messages.
1 Source: comScore, October 2010
2 Source: comScore, October 2010
3 Source: MSN/MTV Circuits of Cool research amongst 12-24-year-olds
4 Source: NNR Research, July 2010, USA
5 Source: Internal survey of Messenger Gamers in UK, France, Netherlands
