Now you might wonder what department store Kohls, food packager Sara Lee, and microchip manufacturer AMD all have in common, and so do we. But we learned from
Media Post Publications (free registration required,) that the answer is all three of these companies are sponsoring a new online game for kids on AOL. The game is called
Flushed Away, and is based on an upcoming DreamWorks animated movies. The AOL
game will ask participants to solve puzzles and other challenges featuring characters from the film. Kohls, Sara Lee, and AMD are featured as advertisers before and after the game, but also have product placements in the action. Together, the value of the sponsorship by these three companies is about $ 4 million. Countless other advertisers recently participated in Gold Rush, an AOL online game for adults.
Marketing Blurb suspects this trend will grow, until the difference between editorial and advertising at AOL is impossible to distinguish.
The funny thing is that there are thousands of people playing the Gold Rush game on AOL. It is hard to tell from the outside whether it has been worthwhile for them in terms of retention and clicks, or for the sponsors' $$, but by traffic alone it seems a hit. A community has evolved around the game as seen in the directory site at GoldRushGame.com Directory , which includes blogs, links, news, a myspace group and more. There is buzz around it.
Posted by: Anonymous | September 30, 2006 1:09 PM | Permalink to Comment