Yesterday McDonald’s debuted in FarmVille, the popular Facebook social game with its own farm - giving players the chance to play with the Brand and win prizes.
The program was created by appssavvy and OMD, and includes a McDonald’s Farm where players grow tomato and mustard seed crops and can earn prizes.
I’m surprised that more brands haven’t worked with Zynga.
via: Brandweek
A lot of hype has been building over in-game branding and advertising. Also it has spawned a lot of discussion on effectiveness and questions about how you measure engagment of the user with the game vs the engagement with the advertising in the game. Here is an example that is very good as it makes the advertising a real experience, and a part of the actual game flow and story.
Ikea created virtual furniture for the well-known SIMS game. Not only the furniture unmistakably IKEA, but it is key element of the game to furnish your home. So engagment should be easily measurable, and top of it it: since the furniture is virtual, you don’t even have to put it together. 
For more cases of in-game advertising check out Dario Raciti’s article.
It seems that most video-gamers react positively to in-game ads: 82 percent say the games are just as enjoyable with such ads as without them, according to a study by Nielsen BASES and Nielsen Games on behalf of in-game advertising network IGA Worldwide, writes MarketingCharts.
Moreover, integrating dynamic advertisements into videogame environments gives brands a measured lift in consumer awareness and opinion of the products players see during gameplay, the study found (via Wired).
Post-play, there was a 61 percent increase on average in consumers’ favorable opinions of products advertised in-game, according to the “Consumers’ Experience with In-Game Content & Brand Impact of In-Game Advertising Study.”
“With young adults now spending on average six hours a week gaming, advertisers should be excited at how well their messages were embraced and the brands positively perceived,” said Justin Townsend, CEO of IGA Worldwide.
Read more select findings from the study.
Source: http://www.marketingvox.com/82-of-gamers-dont-mind-contextual-in-game-ads-039331/
