A New Wave of Advertising

Hi everyone,

I can across a few articles that are related to something we talked about last week:

https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/34717938/nhl-debut-digitally-enhanced-dasherboards-virtual-ads-replace-traditional-signage-arena-rink-boards

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/video-games-are-the-new-battleground-for-big-brands

We touched on how AR and VR present a new way to think about advertising. I certainly have noticed that to be the case when watching NHL games. This year the NHL has introduced virtual advertising on the rink boards. During NHL games this season advertisements on the boards rotate every minute or so. This allows the advertisements to display prominently as they often take up all of the board space and it also enables the NHL to cycle through multiple advertisers a period without the need for physical space/signage. The NHL has reimagined its in-game advertising.

Other brands are also thinking about what opportunities there are in the VR/AR and video game space more generally to advertise their goods or services. The second article discusses how fashion mega-brand Gucci has sought to advertise in the hugely popular video game title, Roblox. They set up a virtual Gucci store in the game and sell handbags to users. An interesting tidbit from the article was that there is a perception that 15-year-olds think of in-game items the same way they do tangible stuff in the real world. They see the video game space as a huge area of potential growth for marketing purposes. I wonder just how much video games will change in the future as game designers and brands look for ways to incorporate advertising in video games.