Honda advertises on Facebook game
Brands using social networks
Honda Motor Corp.’s campaign for its new CR-Z car features the hybrid vehicle in some colorful roadside billboards that can’t be seen from a highway.
The ads are on display in Facebook Inc.’s virtual game Car Town, as Honda advertised on the social network site for the first time yesterday. The game, which allows users to collect and customize cars, has 3.1 million users. It was released on Facebook two weeks ago by Cie Games Inc.
Brands are turning to social networks to reach an audience with leisure time on its hands and the patience to sit through branded messages.
Walt Disney Co., Electronic Arts Inc., and Google Inc. have bought games makers in recent months to benefit from millions of users signing up to play.
“You can have 200,000 people drive past a billboard on an LA freeway every day, but you don’t have the same level of engagement as when people select Car Town,’’ Steve Center, Honda’s vice president for advertising, said in an interview. “Marketers and game developers will discover they are building powerful channels and that there’s enormous property for sale.’’
Dove Soap and Breyers Ice Cream are running ads on TikiFarm, while Energizer batteries are promoted on Family Feud. Microsoft Corp., Cascadian Farm Organic, and 7-Eleven have marketed themselves on Farmville, a game with more than 62 million users that lets users try their hand at virtual farming. A player grows and harvests crops, purchases items like shovels, tractors, and rakes, and raises livestock.
Global advertising in social games and applications will total $293 million next year, a 60 percent increase from 2009, according to researcher EMarketer Inc. in New York.
By comparison, expenditure on television advertising was $166.9 billion in 2009, according to ZenithOptimedia.
As ads move online and marketers follow consumers to the Internet, traditional advertising in print newspapers and magazines has declined. Internet ads are forecast to make up 17.1 percent of the ad market in 2012 from 12.7 percent in 2009, ZenithOptimedia Group Ltd., a London-based ad buyer owned by Publicis Groupe SA, said last month.
Zynga Inc., the top maker of Facebook games whose titles include Farmville, Texas HoldEm Poker, and Mafia Wars Game, said it’s in talks with numerous brands about advertising.
“We believe that advertising will play a larger role at Zynga by providing brands the reach of TV, the measurability of online, and the most engaging ad integrations available,’’ said Manny Anekal, director of brand advertising at the company.
“A lot of the growth around Facebook has been because people play social games so much,’’ said Simon Mansell, chief executive officer of TBG Digital, a London-based digital ad agency that also sells ads on Facebook.
“Users spend so much time playing that during downtime in the game they can respond to offers.’’
