Campaign Seeks Viral Growth For MMO ‘EVE Online’

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CCP Games has launched an interactive ad campaign for MMO game EVE Online.   The online campaign is designed to entice the game s 300,000 subscribers to recruit new players.  CCP Games is placing interactive banner ads on sites such as MSN and AOL that contain rich media widgets.  The widgets, which include video from the game, can be downloaded and placed on MySpace, Facebook and other social sites.  The campaign runs October through the end of the year.

Read more at MediaPost {link no longer active}.

Spore Film To Be Helmed By ‘Ice Age’ Director

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Twentieth Century Fox and EA have partnered to develop a film based on Will Wright’s Spore, reported Variety.  Chris Wedge, director of Ice Age, is confirmed to helm the picture.  The screenplay is being developed by the writing team behind Disney’s The Princess and the Frog.

Released in September 2008, Spore has sold 3.2 million copies so far on various systems.  The game property joins recent film deals based on other EA licenses The Sims, Army of Two, Dante’s Inferno, Dead Space, and Mass Effect.

Read more at Variety.

Human Trio On Board For ‘Transformers 3’

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Michael Bay confirmed his involvement and revealed a much earlier than expected summer 2011 release date for Transformers 3, reports Hollywood Reporter.  The film was originally slated for a 2012 release.  Also returning are Megan Fox and Shia LaBeouf, along with the co-writer of this summer’s sequel in the series.  Bay said on his web site that he has already met with Hasbro regarding new characters.

Read more at Hollywood Reporter {link no longer active}.

‘Resident Evil: Afterlife’ 3D Coming In 2010

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In the fourth film installment for the game franchise, Resident Evil: Afterlife is confirmed for a 2010 release.  Reported by MTV, the film is again being helmed by Paul W. Anderson, who is shooting entirely in 3D.  Among the cast reprising their roles is lead actress Milla Jovovich.  One of the original game characters, Chris Redfield, is being worked into the storyline.  Wentworth Miller of Prison Break fame is cast for the role.

Read more at MTV.com.

Straighten Out Your Friends With Twitter Lists

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Twitter is testing a new feature that allows users to compile lists of the Twitterers they follow, reports ComputerWorld.  Twitter Lists will let users pull together the people whose Tweets they track into categories such as friends or celebrities .  Twitter didn’t disclose details of the testing including how many were invited.

Read more at ComputerWorld.

Use Your Head, Drive A Prius

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Toyota is showing off the new heads up display for its hybrid car Prius through an interactive online ad.  The ad uses head tracking through a webcam to let people control point-of-view inside the Prius HUD.

In recreating the actual HUD, the ad s visuals are not entirely impressive (and for gamers could conjure up memories of Sega’s classic Thunder Blade ).  The neat part is the interactivity.  We should mention here the link is to a video

Watch it at Creativity Online.

‘The Twilight Zone’ Turns 50

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Today is the 50th anniversary of the classic sci-fi TV series, The Twilight Zone.   Falling on a Friday, [a]list daily thought you might have some time to spend with NY Times thoughtful commemoration of the anniversary.

The Times has posted four clips ranging from condensed episodes to full acts that define the formulas the series almost religiously followed.  Formulaic storytelling and dated production value aside, Rod Serling’s thought-provoking, sometimes mind-bending, socially conscious stories stand the test of time.  Happy anniversary, fifth dimension.

Watch the clips at NY Times.

CPR For CTR

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A study by ComScore found that 50 percent fewer people click on display ads compared to two years ago, prompting marketers to speak up about the value of click-through rates and possible alternatives.  Reported by Kunur Patel for Ad Age, ComScore s study also found that a clicking core responsible for the majority of measured click-through shrunk from 16 percent who made up 80 percent of clicks last year to 8 percent accounting for 85 percent of this year’s activity.  The number of overall clickers among internet users fell to 16 percent from 32 percent in 2007.

Perhaps anticipating that its findings would fan the flames for those who think it’s time to reevaluate what the measurement means, ComScore incorporated alternatives to CTR into the study.  It measured behavior such as brand site visitation and brand searches by people over a proximate period of time after getting exposed to display ads.  ComScore found that these behaviors are being influenced by the ads.  People exposed to banners were 65 percent more likely to visit the advertised brand’s site within one week of exposure, and 45 percent were still more likely to do so after four weeks.  Users also conducted more searches based on ad exposure, and once exposed to both banner ads and search placement people were twice as likely to make an online purchase.

These types of alternative measurements are taking a foothold.   Among marketers Ad Age interviewed, one agency has devised a system for clients where they assign dollars to various consumer behaviors such as the amount of time spent at a web site.  Others question whether ad creative is compelling consumers to click-through at all.  Most see the solution as monitoring different behaviors, as done in the ComScore study, and viewing the value of online display ads through a larger lens.

Throughout this article and other recent coverage of falling click-through rates, it s surprising not to see data tied to motivation driving the behavior.  In an academic study reported in NY Times yesterday, and picked up by [a]list daily, most Americans object to advertisers tactics in monitoring online behavior to target ads to them.  Perhaps some of these same people see a flashing, dancing banner as nothing but a giant trap to place a cookie on their computer and start following them online.  This could be why, as ComScore’s study found, people respond to a banner ad on their own terms, visiting the brand site or searching for the product but not clicking on the ad.  Given these findings, creative in banner ads could start communicating differently with consumers too, perhaps less caught up in getting them to click on the ad.  In short, banners should start selling the product, not the ad.

Recent media reports for both U.S. and UK clearly show the online ad sector continues to grow, and is forecast to keep expanding as advertising dollars shift from other media sectors.  It seems the right time to put its system for measuring effectiveness under the microscope and reevaluate which metrics matter most.  ComScore s study certainly sends that message, as does Ad Age s coverage.

Ad Age concludes the article with five tips on moving away from complete reliance on click-through rates.

Read more at Ad Age {link no longer active}.

Is Japan Game Market Caught In A Shrink Ray?

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The once-Godzilla of the game industry continues to struggle.  As reported by Kotaku, Japan magazine publisher and research data provider Enterbrain has released figures for the first half of fiscal year 2009 ending September 28, 2009.  The results show a 10.5 percent decline in the country’s video game market, with sales declines of 15 percent for hardware and 7.5 percent for software.

Read more at Kotaku.