Microsoft is planning to buy Massive. That’s what a lot of news sources are publishing. If it’s true, it’s yet another great leap for the already very strong company. Massive in an in-game advertising heavyweight and has a piece of the pie in this section of the industry. In a deal worth $200 million to $400 million, Microsoft expects to acquire the 80-person North American stronghold in an effort to bring the technology behind much of the ads found in video games today in-house. Quoting from C|Net:
But by buying Massive, Microsoft is putting itself in a position to cash in both from the sale of games, and from the revenue generated by the inserted ads. This will also allow Microsoft to maintain more control over how the ads are placed and to consider new business models in which it could potentially allow the ads to subsidize lower prices on its game titles.
In-game advertising is a growing market. More and more games have links to the online world and the software can be tweaked everytime a player logs in or connects to the game servers. A lot of brands are already actively participating in this market and when Microsoft goes ahead with this plan, it’ll most certainly develop a nice cash stream. It’s an ad ad world we live in.
Closely connected to this announcement is the fact that Microsoft recently decided to incorporate the Ad-ID for it’s interactive advertisement. The Ad-ID has been developed by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA).
Ad-ID provides the foundation for advertising digital trafficking and tracking, as well as digital connectivity. It is the equivalent of the retail community’s “UPC code.†By assigning a unique system-generated identification code to all advertising assets, including television, video, online, print, radio, outdoor, wireless, etc., Ad-ID improves the accuracy and efficiency of many advertising processes from delivery through billing, and will ultimately contribute to improved tracking and measuring advertising effectiveness across campaigns.
If you wonder why this is:
“Microsoft believes the future lies with identified, targeted, customized advertisements, and the best way to effectively track and measure results from advertising assets is by using Ad-ID – a universal code which provides end to end system connectivity.”
Read more in this .pdf announcement (90.5kb) from ad-id.org
Related:
In-game advertisement roundup
The Coming Death Of Advertising Based Business Models - Advertising Science
April 27, 2006 at 2:48 am
[...] Microsoft Assimilates Massive ? Microsoft is planning to buy Massive. That s what a lot of news sources are publishing. If it s true, it s yet another great leap for the already very… [...]
Will Waugh
April 27, 2006 at 6:54 pm
Any thoughts on the Ad ID announcement? I am particularly interested in what you think about Microsoft’s position that “the future lies with identified, targeted, customized advertisements”
Coolz0r
April 27, 2006 at 9:08 pm
Well as far as I see it, but this is futuretalk, the intention is to see which content a certain consumer accesses, to analyze that content to see which type/sort of advertisement would suit best for that certain consumer. Since it’s a global package, your (digital) TV ID will be the same as the one for internet (sites you visit, games you play online, etc) , as the one for print (which paper you’re subscribed to, which magazines etc). You’ll be defining a personality by the means of content you want to receive and based on that content, you’ll be seeing ’sizemade’ ads, which would be personalized, contextual and targeted. Not only will the relevance of the ads increase, in it’s slipstream the ads will be generating a rather large source of income for Microsoft and its advertizers. That’s what I think it means. But it’s just my humble opinion.