"Analog Life Social Edition" into the game built-in advertising perfect carrier

How to put the ads more close to the original problem, looks less abrupt, has been the game operators and advertisers headaches. And it turns out that EA's most popular Facebook game, The Sims Social Edition, is the perfect vehicle for the built-in ads.

Dave Madden, senior vice president of EA Global Media Solutions, said: "It can be perfectly integrated with all kinds of brands." In The Sims Social Edition, there are a variety of nutrition, health and career-related content. ”

After all, it is more far-fetched and difficult to add a bottle of shampoo to a forest-backed game or a poker game. However, when the content of the game is related to the content of life such as sleeping, eating microwave dinners or showering, this product implantation becomes easier.

That's why Unilever is interested in the game.

The big consumer-branded company, the world's second-largest advertiser, spent millions of dollars in January signing an ad contract with EA for a 1-year period.

Ea_dove-sims-shower (from AllThingsD)

First, the company placed Virtual Dove hair Spa in the bathroom of The Sims Social Edition, and the player's role was to shampoo the company's products. The upcoming Unilever products also include ice cream brands such as the new Magnum mini ice cream, yosicle popsicle, Cornetto ice cream ball and heartbrand ice cream.

Ads offer virtual goods for free, so players usually don't mind interacting with the products in these games. The Sims Social Edition has a large player group around the world, with about 3 million active users and 17.2 million months of active users in the game. According to AppData data, the game currently ranks top 15 on Facebook (game Bang Note: The data in this paper is April 2012).

While it is not new to add ads to the products of social game publishers such as EA and Zynga, Madden says this will become more common.

He said: "Everyone knows the game has a lot of users, and they spend a lot of time in the game every day." But from the media point of view, it is still a newer advertising carrier. International companies such as Unilever are willing to collaborate with EA and carry out activities around the world, indicating that the game is constantly establishing its position in the advertising industry. ”

To meet customers ' needs, Madden says they have developed 4 types of built-in ads, as well as a timetable for integrating ads.

The following are the 4 types of ads currently focused by EA:

1. Traffic drivers: Typically, these ads drive players in the game to visit the brand's Facebook page, where they can download the game's built-in virtual goods for free. In the two-week period, more than millions of players have won Dove Hair spa virtual props in The Sims Social edition, and 50% have chosen to "praise" the brand's page.

2, the task: this is the deepest and most can trigger the interaction between the player and the brand method. In the game, the player needs to pass several steps to finally obtain the valuable props. Toyota, for example, has released a task in which players can make the Prius.

3. Store Tags: in the virtual goods store, you can set up labels that are designed to present brands. Unilever plans to use all 4 types of advertising, so it plans to launch the Dove label, which allows users to see 5 items related to hair care.

4, Media integration: Users can watch short video ads or other types of media to unlock virtual goods.

Madden said that EA's schedule for this year had been ordered for 10-11 months. Other brands, such as Dunkin Donuts, Wendy's and Toyota cars, are also appearing in The Sims Social edition. Madden also claims that the game's collaboration with Unilever is also cross-platform, meaning the latter's brand will also appear on mobile phones and host games.