Engage In-Game Advertising Announces Launch

Officials from Engage In-Game Advertising have announced the company’s official launch today, highlighting a campaign for fast food restaurant Subway, powered by the IGA Partners radial network, and accomplished by modding Valve's popular Counter-Strike to include billboard ads. The San Francisco-based company aims to serve companies on both regional and local levels on a market-by-market basis, and a statement cites research suggesting that television viewership amongst men aged 18 to 34 had declined by 12 percent in 2004, with the same group spending 20 percent more time playing video games. “Since it’s a relatively new medium, many companies are unaware of the promotional reach and creative flexibility video game advertising can provide when trying to target the elusive 18 to 34 year old male audience,” said David Smith, vice president of business development for Engage. The company’s initial Subway campaign will target specific market areas including San Francisco, Las Vegas and Sacramento. After three weeks of advertising in online title Counter-Strike the ads reached 31,000 unique games and achieved 19,000 “eyeball hours” of exposure. “Not only was the campaign incredibly effective in connecting with our target audience, but it was cost effective as well,” said Shawn Hazeghazam, a local advertising board chair for Subway “Our post-campaign survey showed a 94 percent ad recall among our target audience. For every penny we paid, our brand received one minute of exposure. This in-game program really delivered for us, at a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising mediums.”