Field Notes Inside an Integrated Communications Agency

During the Great Depression, the majority of Americans were forced to tighten their belts to a degree hard to imagine today. With millions of people deeply worried about getting “three hots and a cot,” survival was in – and luxuries were out.

Yet millions of Americans somehow found a way to scrape up the then-princely sum of 28 cents for one luxury nearly everyone refused to give up: a movie ticket. The hard-pressed, hardscrabble times created an unquenchable thirst for spectacular fantasies of high society and easy living that few people would ever experience. No matter how threadbare your existence, for about a quarter you could spend hours basking in the suave, debonair world of Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn. Marketers latched onto this trend, and found ways to reach consumers’ wallets even in the toughest times.

For example, with the help of product placement, cigarette consumption per capita shot up two and a half times between 1930 and 1940. Many reports stated that tobacco manufacturing was one of the most stable industries during the Depression.

Fast-forward to 2008 and a financial collapse so deep and vast that comparisons to the Depression are inevitable. Plunging stock prices and rising tides of pink slips certainly provide plenty of bad news from which Americans might want to escape. Wallets are shut tight to frivolous items, and consumers begin to ignore shiny ads and marketing tactics. But marketers still need to reach their customers. Brand loyalty is challenged more than ever and consumers still want to be engaged and interact with everyone and everything around them. This time around though, movies have serious competition when in comes to helping consumers escape the daily doom and gloom. You can bet where there’s escapism there’ll be magic for advertisers.

Video games just may be the bright spot advertisers need. Like Depression-era movies, they transport people worlds away from real problems. You may briefly forget about your finances while fending off hordes of evil undead threatening to eat your brain. Sweating the future seems unnecessary if you can escape for a few hours as a heavy metal axman rocking a packed arena.

Product placement worked in movies (reports show a 59% retention rate), but when Mario and Luigi jump Pizza Hut pizzas for points will consumers open their wallets? If the product’s audience is the highly sought after 18-34 male then advertisers are practically giddy with possibilities. This enthusiasm for creating new dynamic advertisements has prompted growth for the in-game advertising industry.  According video game network leader Massive Incorporated, ad revenue will grow from $56 million in 2005 to as much as $1.8 billion in 2010. No doubt this deal will become sweeter as advertisers continue allowing game designers to push experimentation with more innovative game-play. This promising new cost offset also helps increase profits for publishers by an extra 20% per game.

These are odd economic times but I think marketers are taking the right steps for future progress. The gaming industry is going to deliver us all a sweet escape from our humdrum lives. That’s inevitable, just as movies have done in the past. This recession is just a bonus level for the gaming industry.