Disney debuts ad tech innovation 'Advergames'

[joelr]

Major brands are looking for ways to incorporate gaming into their advertising products. Take Disney, which recently rolled out two new “advergames” on Hulu and ESPN called Quiz Show and Beat the Clock.

• Quiz Show offers brands the chance to give viewers a short trivia game on screen, while Beat the Clock incorporates a brand’s identity into rapid-fire games.
• Brands have already shown some interest. Topgolf was the first to take advantage of the Beat the Clock ad format in an experience where viewers were able to practice golf using their TV remotes.

The gamified ad formats, which are also being embraced by companies like Amazon and Discord, represent a bid to engage users while making the experience of watching ads potentially a little less tedious.

“Ads are very prominent now, so it’s really hard to break through and feel personalized to each customer,” Carli Jurczynski, associate VP and paid media client lead at the agency Kepler, said. “Something that feels new and interactive, especially in the TV space, is something that’s really appetizing to our clients.”

The possibility of inserting game-like experiences into ads has brought in some companies that have historically been resistant to advertising to try the format out.

 

[Ravenfreak]

This is definitely more interesting than other interactive ads out there. Doesn't really surprise me that Disney is the first company to try this.

 

[Darth Cognus]

They want to make it less tedious, they should go back to the ads that didn't intrude on the content space, perform cross internet tracking for preferences (deliver what is relevant to the content I'm interested in currently) and deliver malware potentially straight into the session with scripting. This seems to me like a venue to continue all three negative implications and would do nothing to soften my ad extermination attitude. But for TVs and stuff I guess I see where some would be engaged. I don't really watch TV so I'm clearly not the market for that sort of thing.

 

[Heatman]

They want to make it less tedious, they should go back to the ads that didn't intrude on the content space, perform cross internet tracking for preferences (deliver what is relevant to the content I'm interested in currently) and deliver malware potentially straight into the session with scripting. This seems to me like a venue to continue all three negative implications and would do nothing to soften my ad extermination attitude. But for TVs and stuff I guess I see where some would be engaged. I don't really watch TV so I'm clearly not the market for that sort of thing.

I'm with you on this because what it appears to me is that they are trying to sugar coat everything in a different way to make it look like they have changed what they used to do with how intrusive their ads have been over the years. I don't expect them walking away from it because it brought them so much success already.