Xbox Live has over 25 million users worldwide averaging over 30 hours per month on the service, with a 157 percent increase in the time spent watching movies and television on Xbox 360 in the past year and 42 percent of Gold members in the U.S. watching an average of an hour of television and movies on the service every day. BRDC Continental’s research director Max Willey points to these figures as part of the reason why the platform is important for advertisers.
The intuitive nature of Xbox Live navigation (those nice big icons on the dashboard) is increasingly being used to place targeted, interactive advertising, said Willey. The advertising, whilst noticeable, is relatively unobtrusive to those who choose not to interact, but its key strength is the extent to which it rewards users who do click through, giving them a mix of immersive content and virtual freebies such as downloadable gamer pictures, themes, streamed video and even branded games.
It’s positive for both the consumer and the brand if they can interact with some feature in a positive fashion. In a study of a recent Xbox Live ad campaign, it led to a 150 percent increase from pre to post exposure on spontaneous recall of the brand advertised.
It is a fair assumption that Xbox Live users – who fit the digital consumer profile (being significantly more likely to have Virgin or Sky) – are less likely to be consuming other media whilst navigating the XBL menu, noted Willey. The service is predominantly a gateway to online gaming, and any gamer will tell you it’s virtually impossible to do anything else whilst gaming, particularly online, where pausing a ‘deathmatch’ puts you at an enormous disadvantage! This gives Xbox Live advertising an edge over other media.
Given the attractiveness of the audience, the positive impact of advertising on users of Xbox LIVE, and the unique potential of the platform for giving users an immersive, rewarding brand experience, advertising on Xbox Live looks set to grow, concluded Willey.
Source: GamesIndustry.biz
