Jarvis to Head Advergaming at Blitz Arcade
30th May 2007. Leamington Spa, Warks, UK. Blitz Games today announced the appointment of John Jarvis to Director of Advergames at Blitz Arcade and lead its new 'advergaming' business, part of the Arcade division and creates games for digital download. Folliowing the overwhleming success of the three games developed for Burger King, Blitz has received many enquiries from other FMCG brands looking to emulate the landmark North American sales promotion.
John Jarvis, Advergames Manager of Blitz Arcade commented, "This is an area that has huge potential particularly as the new consoles (PlayStation® 3, Nintendo® Wii and Xbox® 360) will live in the lounge and become the focal point of home entertainment.' He continued, "In-game advertising has begun to make in-roads but having a brand fully interpreted in a fun, compelling gaming environment is a much more powerful, longer-living and creative option."
Blitz Games developed three games for Burger King, to be sold excusively on Xbox 360 throughout Burger King restaurants in North America. The most successful promotion of its kind began at Thanksgiving and has to date sold 3.2 million units at $3.99 each in the six week holiday period of 2006. Burger King recently cited the games promotion as being responsible for increasing its Q4 profits by 40%.
Philip Oliver, CEO of Blitz Games add, "Brands and advertisers are continually looking at ways to keep their messages relevant to current and future generations of consumers, clearly videogames hit a large and continually expanding demographic - and the growth of online gaming will offer very interesting possibilities for advergames including: live tracking of consumers habits; likes and dislikes of players on an unprecedented scale."
"Twelve years ago, you could reach 50 percent of the American audience with three TV spots, and today, it takes seventy. Media fragmentation has absolutely forced advertisers to rethink the way to build brands." Says Chuck Porter, a founder of Miami-based advertising powerhouse of Crispin, Porter and Bogusky (CP + B). CP+B is a leading US agency and an integral part of the BK Games promotion.
For further information please contact: Alison Beasley, Lincoln Beasley PR
T: +44 (0) 1608 645756 E: Alison@lincolnbeasley.co.uk M: +44(0)7966 449130 www.lincolnbeasley.co.uk
About Blitz Games
Blitz Games is based in Leamington Spa and was founded in 1990 by twin brothers Andrew and Philip Oliver and now boasts over 180 staff. The Olivers are responsible for developing over 100 games since the early 1980s with recent releases including Reservoir Dogs on the Volatile Games label (Eidos) and SpongeBob Squarepants (THQ) for Nintendo's Wii, GameCube and Sony PlayStation 2 and hit the headlines worldwide for developing three Xbox 360 games for the North American restaurants of Burger King. The company continues its huge long-term investment into BlitzWare, its in-house technology, which provides one of the best game development environments of any independent developer. www.BlitzGames.com.