The Harbinger

Now we have in-house, outdoor advertising.

May 6th, 2006

If you want evidence of how much advertising is changing, look at the company Microsoft has just bought, called Massive.

Massive sells and manages advertisements inside computer games, particularly online games. As the report in The Guardian said:

“Massive’s technology enables the delivery of ads within online games, often in formats that mirror real-life advertising media.

“Hoardings, billboards and poster sites are commonly seen in games, especially sports titles, which attempt to mirror reality by providing the same look as, say, a real golf course, basketball court or racing track.

“The likes of Xbox and PlayStation have enabled gamers to play against each other in living rooms across the globe, who are now effectively linked in a real-time online world.

“Because the ads are delivered in real-time, MSN is aiming to sell the value of the service on the back of its ability to target individuals or small groups of consumers.

“Not only are the in-game ads updateable and trackable, elements such as the geographic location of the player, particular audience demographics or time of playing can be catered for and delivered globally.�

This will enable advertisers to reach that growing, young group of people who are spending more time online than watching television in particular.

The estimate is that this kind of advertising will be worth $1-billion by 2010.

So there you have it. Virtual ads in virtual places in virtual games. Only the products themselves are real (I hope).

I have one question: if you buy a billboard in an outdoor position in a game, is it outdoor advertising, or in-house, or in-house outdoor, or outdoor in-house, or virtual outdoor, or what?

Entry Filed under: Anton Harber, Online

1 Comment Add your own

  • 1. Pierre van Zyl  |  May 24th, 2006 at 9:24 pm

    When I buy a computer game, the assumption is that I would own (through licencing) that virtual reality real estate. It is only by consent that others may join in the game and modify that virtual world.

    Opportunistic, real-time marketing intrusions like these, cousin to the web page pop-up, are an infringement of privacy and should only be referred to as Outhouse Advertising.

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Anton Harber: Media

Anton Harber

Professor Anton Harber directs the Journalism and Media Studies Programme at Wits University. He is former editor of the Mail & Guardian.
Full bio

Department of Useless Information

Among the main results from the World Association of Newspaper’s Newsroom Barometer (a survey of 700 editors and senior news execs in 120 countries) for this year:
- 86% believe integrated print and online newsrooms will become the norm, and 83% believe journalists will be expected to be able to produce content for all media within five years.
- Two-thirds believe some editorial functions will be outsourced, despite frequent newsroom opposition to the practice.
- A plurality - 44% - believe on-line will be the most common platform for reading news in the future, compared with 41% last year. Thirty-one cited print (down from 35% last year), 12% mobile and 7% e-paper. The rest were unsure.
- A majority of editors - 56%- believe news in the future will be free, up from 48% from last year’s survey. Only one-third believe the news will remain paid for, while 11% were unsure. - From Editors’ Weblog

Worth Reading

There is a crisis in trust and communication between the British public and the mainstream media, a new report has concluded. The gulf between public expectations of news provision and the actual nature of articles, which oscillate between esoteric or irresponsible, leaves readers feeling confused and excluded.
The report, entitled ‘Public Trust In The News’ was conducted by researchers from Manchester and Leeds Universities and was published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. - From Editors Weblog

Other writings

Reflections on Journalism in the Transition to Democracy - Ethics & International Affairs 18, no. 3 (2004).

Journalism in the Age of the Market
- Harold Wolpe Memorial Lecture, Centre for Civil Society, University of KZN, Aug 2002

The Untimely Death of SA’s Finest Daily - Sunday Times, May 2005

“Two Newspapers, Two Nations? The Media and the Xenophobic Violence” from Go Home or Die Here, edited by Shireen Hassim Tawana Kupe and Eric Worby (WUP, 2008)

Remarks at Goedgedacht Forum, October 2008

The rise of social network journalism - From The 2009 Flux Trend Review (Macmillan, 2008)

A recent piece by me on the Zapiro cartoon row which appeared in Comment is Free, a Guardian blog.

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