Gaming is good advertising

When logging in to my hyves profile this morning, the amount of advertising which I was confronted with surprised me. Normally it does not bug me, but looking for another subject for my blog it hit me in one time! Different banners, invitations from brands, invitations to play games from brands.. especially the last one sounds interesting to me.

To conduct some good investigation ;) I tried to play the "Maffe Marathonspel" from the Bijenkorf.

A popup came up with the game (beautifully designed though). I clicked on "Start het spel" to begin, and an explanation of the game appeared. In this game, a lot of products which are offered during the real Maffe Marathon appeared. At the end, you needed to fill in a form with your personal information and the option to receive a newsletter from the Bijenkorf was already clicked on. After filling in this form the possibility to open the productbrochure of the Maffe Marathon came available.

In my eyes, the whole game is a advertising opportunity. Showing your products, getting customers familiar with the name and the event, signing them up for newsletters; everything is advertising, but just wrapped up as a nice game. This is just one example of all the "advertising games". I think it is a good way to get some attention for a product or event, even when customers don't sign up or don't buy the product; at least they know it exists and they can tell it to their (hyves) friends!