The Barack Obama campaign ran ads for this year’s election in 18 online video games. The campaign used in-game advertising technology to run ads on units like Xbox 360. National Public Radio (NPR) stated that Barack Obama was the first presidential candidate to embed a political ad in a video game, with the ads aimed at targeting males between the ages of 18-34.1
A Dallas Morning News article reported the ads appeared in games on signs and billboards that targeted gamers in 10 battleground states. Dennis McCauley, editor and creator of GamePolitics.com, said “It’s a defining moment for not only the advertising in video games but the political connection with video games.” 2
One of the games, the Xbox 360 version of Burnout Paradise, features an open virtual landscape that players can navigate through in their virtual cars. It was here that gamers could catch a glimpse of an Obama billboard with directions to Obama’s early-voting campaign site, VoteforChange.com.
According to The Dallas Morning News, the ad buy came after Massive, a subsidiary of Microsoft that provides in-game advertising, approached both the Obama and McCain campaigns with proposals. Massive, in addition to enabling embedded branding placement in videos, provides robust targeting and measurement capabilities, complex creative executions, and real-time reporting.
To learn more about in-game advertising, how it provides high brand awareness, and how to get started, contact a sales representative today.
