Advantage, Advergaming: Why Online Gaming is Outplaying its Offline Rivals
When it comes to fun and games, what’s the favorite way to play? Crowded around the kitchen table with a familiar board game? Thumbs flying over the controller in a software game? Mouse-clicking for fun or for prizes at a gaming site? In line or anytime from a mobile phone? Or safe on the couch, screaming along with the TV contestants?
Casual-gaming destination Uproar.com teamed up with market researcher Synovate to find out. In May, we asked 1,000 adults from all over the United States which type of game play is “most rewarding to you.”
Nearly two out of five (39 percent) choose traditional board games — a preference that holds true across both genders, all income levels, all geographies and all age groups over 25. Not a shocker, since the MONOPOLY Man has been collecting Boardwalk rent for more than 70 years. And what’s more rewarding than playing for laughs (and bragging rights) with your family and friends?
We were a bit surprised, however, that nearly a quarter of American adults (24 percent) pick online gaming as the clear second choice — beating packaged software games (18 percent), TV game shows (15 percent) and mobile devices (3 percent).
After all, when it comes to playing games on the computer, Americans are still more apt to play something they pull out of a box than something they find on the Web. A recent Associated Press-AOL Games poll found that 55 percent of computer gamers play packaged software, while only 45 percent venture online.
So what makes online gaming “more rewarding” — and what implications might this pose for advergamers and marketers?
Guys and gals rack up different gaming rewards
For starters, there are gender differences. The traditional board game is the preferred way to play for both women (43 percent) and men (36 percent), but the sexes do not pair up when it comes to software and online games. According to survey respondents, joysticks are from Mars and mouse clicks are from Venus.
Packaged software games rank second for men — and fourth for women. Men are twice as likely to enjoy software games (25 percent vs.12 percent), and less likely to prefer both online games (22 percent vs.26 percent) and TV game shows (13 percent vs.17 percent).
These gender-based discrepancies are in line with the different reasons for why men and women play. Men play to get revved up, so they’re more prone to get caught up in the whirlwind alternate universes of packaged games. Women play to wind down, visiting casual gaming sites for a quick, comforting game of Zuma or Wheel of Fortune after they’ve put the kids to bed. Of the 1 million unique visitors each month to Uproar.com, women gamers outnumber men two to one.
So the obvious suggestion to advertisers is, if your message appeals to the excitement-craving, testosterone-driven man, seek product placement or sponsorship of a packaged game. To reach a more female-centric audience that associates gaming with “me time,” sponsor online advergames that may or may not offer cash and prizes.
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