50 Cent, Snoop Dogg Help The Gaming Industry Claim Its Stake In Advertising
Published: Tuesday - April 26, 2005
Words by Jay Casteel
50 Cent (Photo: Interscope)
Isn't 50 Cent generous? The rapper, along with Snoop Dogg, have helped in bringing advertising revenue over to the gaming industry. On April 14th, the Game Initiative sponsored the first "Advertising In Games Forum" in New York City.
With the new marketing strategy, real posters, snipes and billboards will be placed throughout some of your favorite video games, instead of fake mock-up ads you see currently.
Snoop and 50 Cent are just some of a few hip-hop entrepreneurs who have entered the gaming world and brought new ideas of cross marketing properties across different fields. Already, ad spaces in 50 cent's upcoming game "Bulletproof" have been claimed by many companies the rapper has relationships with.
Tomas Melian, VP of Integrated Marketing, Vivendi Universal was shocked that when he got the game from the developers, there was already space reserved for Ecko, Vitamin Water and Reebok.
"Gamers logged in over 30 billion hours in 2004 (over 90% being 18-34 year old males) with 30% of all broadband traffic being driven by the gaming industry," said Mitchell Davis, CEO of Massive, a new advertising agency that has put together the first video game advertising network.
Video game developers are starting to realize that product placement in their titles can help cover their production costs, while record labels, film companies, and clothing companies are becoming aware of the game industries advertising potential.
"MTV, BET, Hot 97 and all the rest by definition have limited space for me to get one of my artists some love," an industry executive stated. "Plus I have no idea if that BDS spin on Monday afternoon hit my key demo. I like the idea of advertising in the games because I know kids will be paying attention to my poster or listening to my tracks. Especially if in '25 to Life' you are running from the cops and my billboard is the landmark for the safehouse."
50 Cent's "GTA" style "Bulletproof" is expected to drop late this year, as well as Snoop Dogg's game "Fear & Respect."
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