Europe gains first ever Advertising in Games conference

Following the success of similar events in New York and San Francisco earlier this year, event organiser The Game Initiative has announced the first ever Advertising in Games conference for Europe.

Scheduled for the 17th November at the Imperial College in Charing Cross, the event is designed as a focal point for publishers, developers, ad agencies, brands and technologists to discuss existing ventures and new revenue opportunities for utilising videogames as a viable medium for brand communication and marketing activities; specifically the emergence of more complex 3D in-game advertising.

The one-day conference will feature a keynote speech from Microsoft Casual Games' director of advertising, Shawn McMichael, which will focus on securing advertising partners, planning ad products and implementing a strategic revenue infrastructure.

Additional seminars will focus on a range of topics, beginning with a market overview and covering new platforms and technologies, campaign tracking, and a look at the sector from both developer and publisher perspectives. Key industry figures will be providing advice, expertise and seminar speeches, including Justin Townsend, CEO at IGA Worldgroup, Sean Dromgoole, CEO at Gamevision, and Guy Bendov, founder of in-game advertising firm Double Fusion.

In a recent survey conducted by Double Fusion and Nielson Interactive, it was suggested that in-game advertising generated a 60 percent improvement in new product awareness, and that 3D advertising creates nearly twice that of static 2D billboard advertising.

In-game advertising is viewed by many industry observers as having the potential to become an extremely lucrative business sector in the industry. Earlier this year, Michael Goodman from market research firm The Yankee Group forecast a leap in spending from USD 35 million in 2004 to approximately USD 875 million by 2009.