Resources consumed:
-Secret of Googlenomics article
-Camtasia videos on in game advertising
I began the week's activities for this final portion with what I found to be both academic and practical description of the Google AdWords that we hear so much about. I was interested mostly in the concept of how the system is set up as an auction, and how the amount of data that they have access to is finally lending a positive reinforcement system to learning what is and is not effective advertising. The old marketing phrase that I remember goes something like this: I know that something like half of my advertising dollars are completely wasted; the trouble is, I don't know which half. What a difference some mathematicians and statisticians make. I was extremely impressed at the concept that it is a learning system and that it was brought about by tweaking an already popular and profitable system.
On a personal note, I have noticed over the last couple of years that Google's algorithms and the presentation of the AdWords have dramatically improved for me to actually consider clicking them once in a while, not that I do. I found it almost inconceivable some years back how ridiculous both the content and appearance of the supposed vaunted AdWords looked to me. I consider myself to be pretty good at spotting irony and it seemed that was almost Google's intent with some of the ads that would appear next to my email, where it was clearly reading the words in the mail and blanketly pulling similar subject ads to appear. In once instance I was making plans for a friend's funeral and the AdWord displayed several casket and other macabre ads which at that time I could only laugh at as a computer version of a sick joke. I thought to myself how far they had to go to make that an effective advertising algorithm that targeted the individual, not just some random keywords one email to get the elusive click.
The Camtasia videos are always wonderful tools to tie in videos, slides, and audio to a pretty seamless and professional package. These were no exception as they were perfectly suited given the subject matter. I personally think that the advertisements snuck into games can be done well or they can be done poorly and could cause empirical harm to the brand. Of course I say these things with no stats or background to pad my position, but the gut reaction of one consumer is at least telling. The free games that are brand centric or offered at insanely low prices for the quality of the game like the BK King game seem to be overwhelming hits and certainly should be an area worth continued effort. The games that consumers pay for are probably the most likely to receive negative reactions from customers if the ads are blatant and take away from gameplay. I think a parallel runs with something like satellite radio, where one has to pay to subscribe to the service and would expect that consequently all stations are ad-free. The cruel reality, and incidentally why I did not opt for a subscription even as an avid music fan, is that not all stations are ad free. It is always an interesting thing to note that another subscription service, cable TV, does not offer any promise of ad-free channels and they get away charging large fees to get those ad filled channels. Perhaps because they are an established paradigm that was spawned from ad-supported network TV or the medium wouldn't be supported by subscription fees alone given costs of producing shows. An interesting argument nonetheless. The only weak point of the videos was that they left me hungering for closure on analysis of the questions posed at the end concerning if advertising in games is effective or not. I would venture that there are studies that could answer these questions and hoped the video would shed some light on the subject.
More to follow tomorrow!
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