Interview with Justin Townsend, IGA Partners

Gaming is probably one of today’s most dynamic media, drawing a sizeable chunk of TV viewers away from their sets. This presents todays’ advertisers with daunting challenges, as well as tremendous opportunities for those who can offer a solution.

One such person with a solution is Justin Townsend, 33, CEO of IGA Partners, a technology enabled media company that specialises in the placement of advertising within PC, Video and Mobile game environments. IF caught up with Justin and talked with him about advertising in the gaming space.

What exactly is in-game-advertising?

Strictly speaking, in-game advertising is the placement of advertising within video and PC games. Until now, any ads within games have had to be hard coded into games during the game development phase and prior to the game being retailed and this has a number of disadvantages.

What IGA Partners now facilitates over its “Radial Nework”, is the ability do dynamically serve ads into games by means of a software that is included within the game. IGA Partners aggregates individual games within our “Radial Network” to provide a single cumulative advertising reach, essentially providing leading brands with the ability to purchase “ consumer reach and demographics” similar to when buying Ad space on TV.

Where are the strengths of gaming as an advertising medium, compared to “classic” and interactive media? Both for consumers and advertisers?

In-Game Advertising’s strengths are many – essentially we take any “above the line” Ad campaign including print, TV and radio and insert this into the game environment whilt at the same time delivering “below the line” measurement metrics so that advertisers have the best of both worlds. Furthermore, the gaming environment is both extremely immersive and also provides a positive emotional setting leading to extremely effective advertising and results unheard of in classic advertising media.

People want to play games. Is compelling and non-disruptive in-game advertising feasible?

More than feasible – first of all you take any sports genre from racing to football to basketball and there you will find advertising exists already – Why? Because it adds to the reality and in actual fact it enhances the gaming experience. Another example, lets say you are taking a stroll through a 3D city environment, what would you rather see on a billboard – soda pop or Coke?

Acme or Adidas? IGA Partners are extremely protective of both the IP of the game and the IP of the brand, thus we ensure that ads placed within games are both contextual and enhance the reality of the gaming experience.

Do you see a general convergence between interactive tv and gaming, or will these always remain two different genres and technologies?

From a media usage perspective TV is an entertainment medium, as is gaming, so I definately see a platform convergence and this is reflected in the so called “Battle for the living room”. However whether this convergence extends to the minds of the consumer remains to be seen. I think that the the next 10 years will be a very exciting time, and that with memory, technology and graphical advances, and that it is hard to predict how gaming will look in 10 years from now, irrespective of platform.

Which products and brands do you reckon are best suited for in-game advertising?

Again, this is context relevant – wherever you see real world advertising, you can expect the same to be mirrored in the gaming environment. Early adopters have been in particular car brands and FMCG. We are continuing to work with an increasing number of international leading brands from many different sectors.

Thank you

IGA Partners

This interview is a cooperation between IF and trnd.