Serious Games and Marketing

As part of a digital marketing class, I was tasked with delivering a report about a very interesting topic: Serious Games. For those who have never heard the term, serious games are games which serve a purpose other than pleasure and entertainment. In the context of digital media, serious games are software, often created to educate, inform, or marketing.

The first instance of such games came about in the 1980's when a game called The Oregon Trail was first released by the Minnesota Educational Computing Corporation. It simulated the the arduous journey of American Pioneers in the 1800's and was meant to educate elementary school aged social studies students. Below is a picture of one of the more famous "game over" screens from The Oregon Trail.

Dysentery is one of the many hazards to watch out for when playing The Oregon Trail

Since The Oregon Trail many other serious games have been produced for the purposes of education, especially for weapons and tactics training in the military. However, marketers quickly saw the potential in serious games as well. The earliest instance of these sorts of games came about in 1983 while the Atari 2600 was popular. These would come to be called "advergames". Here are some examples...

• Kool Aid Man: An Atari 2600 game by Mattel involving Kool Aid's Mascot, Kool Aid Man where players control Kool Aid Man to quench the thirst of creatures called "thirsties".
• Tooth Protectors: An Atari 2600 game commissioned by Johnson & Johnson, which had players protect a set of teeth by using Johnson & Johnson products like Floss and Tooth Brushes.

 

A screenshot from Kool Aid Man

 Since then other notable instances of Serious games in marketing include Candystand.com and Burger King's line of Xbox games.Candystand.com, which was created by Nabisco in 1997, and aimed to promote Nabisco products like Oreo cookies and Lifesavers candy to children by featuring flash games smeared with different Nabisco Brands. The site took on a life of its own and now has many sponsors. In 2006, Burger King commissioned the development of Xbox games which featured the Burger King Mascot as a playable character. These games were wildly popular, outselling all other games during the 2006 holiday season in North America.

A screenshot from Sneak King, a Burger King game with the objective of sneaking up on unwitting in game characters to offer them a burger.

What does the future hold for Advergames? Until relatively recently, advergames have mainly been used to promote products to children because, historically, popular entertainment software had been created mostly for that demographic. However, the average age of gamers has increased significantly since then. Today, 82% of the gaming population are adults and the average game player is 37 years old. This means we can expect to see more and more advergames being produced to promote more adult products like cars and alcohol.

In addition, with the proliferation of internet connectivity and social networks constantly being accessed by phones and computers, the potential for advergames to reach more people is continuously increasing. As well, the potential to share games with others has never been greater. Given the use of Facebook and Iphones as gaming platforms, we can expect the effectiveness of advergames for brand awareness to continue to rise.

Sources:

The Age, (N.D.) Gamers Getting Older. Retrieved March 24^th, 2013 from http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/games/blogs/screenplay/gamers-getting-older-20110615-1g45f.html

AtariAge.com, (N.D.) Bradley Trainer Support in Mame. Retrieved March 24^th, 2013 from http://www.atariage.com/news/Bradley/

Atariage.com (N.D.) Tooth Protectors. Retrieved March 24^th 2013 from http://www.atariage.com/manual_html_page.html?SoftwareLabelID=564

Blitz Game Studios (Dec 26, 2006) Burger King Xbox Games are the Best Selling Collection of the 2006 Holiday Season. Retrieved March 24^th 2013 from http://www.blitzgamesstudios.com/news/archive/Burger_King_Xbox_games_are_best_selling_collection_of_2006_holiday_season/11

Candystand.com (N.D.) Candystand. Retrieved March 24^th, 2013 from http://www.candystand.com/. 

Lussenhop, J (January 19^th 2013) Oregon Trail: How Three Minnesotans Forged Its Path. Retrieved March 24^th, 2013 from http://www.citypages.com/content/printVersion/1740595/

Web Archive, (N.D.) Mecc Timeline Between 1997 & 1999. Retrieved March 24^th, 2013 from http://web.archive.org/web/20090810141841/http://www.geocities.com/meccalumni/Timeline979.html