Digital Media Buzz > The Invisible Ad: The New Frontier

The Invisible Ad: The New Frontier

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By Jon Donley

While advertisers, marketers and publishers struggle to stem declines in revenue, a number of big players are quietly staking out new turf on the fringes of consumer technology.

Amazon, Microsoft and Google have filed a series of patents that would create new types of advertising slots in online gaming, print-on-demand books and mobile audio, according to documents from the U.S. Patent Office.

The game’s afoot
Microsoft, with its own best-selling X-Box systems and a line of computer software, is already deeply invested in the growing gaming culture. And a group of recent patent applications shows the company is interested in ramping up in-game advertisements in the multi-user gaming environment, using behavioral targeting, player incentives and social-media recruiting.

Microsoft’s target territory is any computer application that creates a virtual world, as described in multiple patent applications: “Virtual worlds may include any massively multiplayer online (“MOM”) computer application including, but not limited to, massively multiplayer online role-playing games (“MMORPGs”), virtual social communities and virtual reality computer applications. In one embodiment, the MOM computer application simulates a real world environment.”

The software giant describes multiple platforms — both its own and those of competitors — as well as cloud environments such as the World of Warcraft. The patent filings describe systems in which advertising opportunities could appear not only as product placements — already used in some games — but as interactive avatars or objects, offering some advantage to the gamer willing to view a pitch. A player might, for example, be able to select objects for his game inventory after viewing an ad. Collecting food, drink or utility items or various power points are normal game activities; in this scenario a bag of branded potato chips or bottle of branded soft drink might be the reward for viewing an ad.

Microsoft also describes behavioral tracking in game play, to identify influential gamers for recruitment through a ratings system. A gamer determined by the algorithm to be an influencer could be recruited to allow his avatar to be an ad delivery system. Likewise the system might identify players thought to be receptive to certain categories of advertising; much like behavioral targeting determines ad delivery on web pages.

Especially in conjunction with its new affiliation with Yahoo’s ad delivery system, Microsoft might be able to open up a new targeted ad product in some demographics. And Microsoft isn’t the only big gun focusing on gaming.

Google has staked out its own turf by applying for a patent on a system designed to track advertising impressions within games. Unlike web pages, in which impressions are standard, based on a delivery or a unit of time, the advertising within a game may be fleeting or repeated, or viewed from an angle relative to the player. “When an ad is included in video games,” Google wrote, “A question to be resolved is how to compare ad impressions in different games, on different platforms, with different content display techniques.”

Google proposes a measurement grid that rates an ad placement in several categories, including the time the ad is visible, the size, the angle of view, repetition, etc. This would allow a standard comparison for ad delivery.

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