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No… advergaming is the concept of promoting one's brand through online games. It has the ability to involve users and get them to interact, entertain and engage with them. This mode of advertising is increasingly catching up pace with new inventions like TIVO and tele-zappers.
Today when various players in the market are grappling with the issues of consumer attention and coming in the TOMA of consumers, the concept of advergaming has come to their rescue and is facilitating the "sought after" Utopian Attention Value exchange.

Not only online games, advergaming is also publicized through mobile games. The three most common uses of mobile include talking, messaging and playing games. So the advertisers are finding yet another smart way to catch the attention of consumers; through the games in mobiles. Media planners feel that advergaming is still at a nascent stage in the country, but with growth in GPRS-enabled phones and increased Internet connectivity, it is poised for a take-off.

Types of Advergaming

Advergaming can be broadly divided into following three categories: -

In the first kind, the company provides interactive games on its site in the hope that the potential customers will visit the site and gain more awareness about the product and become product aware. The games usually feature the company's product more prominently.

In the second form, games are published in the usual way that are intended to interest the player in the game's subject and cause them to investigate further. The subjects may be commercial, political or educational. Examples of the second form of game include America's Army, intended to boost recruitment for the United States Army, and Special Force, intended to promote Arab resistance to the state of Israel.

In the third category, there is often forms of advertising within a game, especially of that kind that is not advertising the game maker. This is similar to subtle advertising in films, where the advertising content is within the "world" of the movie or game. There are many ways and examples of how this can be done. A recent example is this racing game which puts advertising logos directly on the player's vehicle and around the racetrack.

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* Contributed by -
Manisha Singh,
PGP - II,
XIM Bhubaneswar.