Coca-Cola, Nestle lead in new ad campaign via online games

Leading multinational brands Coca- Cola and Nestle’s Nescafe are adopting a new advertising campaign called advergaming in an attempt to penetrate the growing number of Internet users and online gamers.

Advergaming is the practice of using video games to advertise a product, organization or viewpoint. Specifically, advergaming is expected to be a $312.2 million industry by next year.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has been encouraging local firms to continuously develop online gaming as the industry is expected to grow by 50 percent this year.

According to Iggy Javellana, business development head of local search portal Yehey, instead of advertising in a traditional manner, online games are now increasingly being used as the creative conduit to express points of view.

“Advergaming refers mostly to casual online games,” he explained further.

The program, he said, is very basic and takes the user only five minutes to learn. Also, it is easy to initiate via website or download.

For Yehey, Javellana said they are poised to take advantage of the upstart industry.

“We have done a few advergaming initiatives for local campaigns like the Coke mini game and some casual games we did for Warner Brothers (Superman Returns, Harry Potter, Exorcist),” he noted.

“For us at Yehey, it’s 100 percent  easier to close deals that included advergaming in the campaign,” Javellana added.

Advergaming is likewise featured in the special track for the IT game development at e-Services 2008.

“Dangka is an online virtual community that incorporates both casual gaming and social networking – two of the most common online activities for Filipinos,” he said.

With a seemingly boundless environment, advertising opportunities are limitless, he noted.

“Clients can choose to do anything from branding an entire building to putting up their own landmarks and icons. They can even incorporate their own characters and mascots in the world. And let’s not forget available ad spaces on media such as billboards, posters, walls and floors,” he said.