In-game advertising revs up Electronic Sports World Cup
April 3, 2006
IGA Worldwide, the multi-award-winning in-game advertising specialist, has been selected by developer Nadeo to handle the in-game advertising for its Trackmania Nations ESWC title.
In a world first, Trackmania Nations ESWC, Nadeo's updated version of the infamous driving game Trackmania, developed especially for the championships, has been made available for free via electronic download. The development costs have been offset by revenues generated from in-game advertising via IGA Worldwide's Radial ad serving network.
The 2006 ESWC championships also include Gran Turismo 4, Pro Evolution Soccer 5, Counterstrike and Warcraft 3. With entrants from 53 countries, the Grand Final will be televised from Paris where the best players from each country will compete before a crowd of 40,000 over three days. With qualifiers completed in January, drivers are now battling it out to win regional heats and the hundreds of thousands of dollars of prize money on offer.
"e-Sport is one of the most advanced forms of network gaming so a free game available around the globe is a great starting point for getting people involved," said Florent Castelnerac, studio manager at Nadeo.
"In the real world, racing drivers and teams have sponsorship deals and the entire industry is supported by advertising and promotions. As advertising in games takes off, this is now being replicated in the virtual world by gamers."
"This represents a key milestone for the in-game advertising industry - for the first time a AAA-quality new release is subsidiszing itself via advertising so gamers are able to participate in a major virtual sporting event without having to shell out," said Justin Townsend, CEO at IGA Worldwide. "It's a tremendous testament to the growing strength of this medium that developers and publishers are confident in relying on in-game advertising revenues to recoup significant portions of their development costs."
The title is already proving immensely popular with gamers across the globe. IGA has already served content to over 800,000 unique users, logging almost 2 million hours of connections to their ad servers.
Townsend continued: "With racing and sport titles, gamers expect to see advertising to add to the overall realism, and the advantages of dynamic delivery via Radial is that the content that people will see will stay updated and will be both time-specific and geographically relevant to them. These titles also offer unparalleled exposure for advertisers, both through the game and via the live event."
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NOTES TO EDITORS
About Nadeo
Nadeo is an independent developer with more than one million online registrations from players. Nadeo develops the VirtualSkipper and TrackMania series. Nadeo also provides key technologies for the film and television industry.
About IGA Worldwide, Inc. (www.igaworldwide.com)
IGA Worldwide is the global leader in 360-degree in-game advertising solutions, helping brands to achieve measurable results in the world's fastest growing and most engaging new communications medium. Through its proprietary ad serving network, Radial ®, IGA enables advertisers to dynamically target millions of engaged consumers across a broad range of game platforms, titles and genres, whilst its wholly-owned communications consultancy, Hive Partners delivers strategic consulting services and exclusive access to unique integrated product placement and co-promotion opportunities.
Headquartered in New York with offices in London and Berlin, the group is backed by Easton Capital Group, Morgenthaler Ventures and DN Capital. IGA has recently been voted by ad industry-leaders as the 'Breakout Company of the Year 2006' and as a 'Top 100 Private Company' in the media and entertainment sector in the OnHollywood awards.
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Email: ed.bartlett@ingameadvertising.com
Website: www.igaworldwide.com