Fun with advergaming

Back to my bit about casual games, I thought I'd talk a little about advergaming. The latest Gaming Insider post by Josh Lovison talks about how important it is to catch consumers attention online, now that all other forms of media are converging in on the internet. People are getting their news online, they are watching their favorite TV shows online, they are listening to music online, they are getting their magazine content online - and through all of this it seems that that marketers are still struggling to catch people's attention on this not-so-new medium.

A large part of the problem is that the internet is interactive. No one is sitting around to watch the 30-second spots interrupting their shows online - they just switch over to a new page. You can't expect people to accept advertising passively the way they (sometimes) do in television and radio - you have to adapt your advertising to the medium.

One way to do this is through advergaming. Lots of banner ads with mini-games have been attempted, but not usually well, and instead of engaging consumers with the product, it just ends up annoying them. Probably the best way to go about it is with games such as the one pictured above. M&M's do a great job of making their site fun to visit. There are games, recipes, and even a place to make your own M&M character. Now there has to be a way to make these types of games accessible outside the advertiser's websites without just annoying people...