Sony Playstation announced on June 4th that they will introduce dynamic in-game advertising on Playstation 3. This is the very first time that advertisers can use the Playstation platform to advertise other things than fixed “logo” sponsorhips in games. Unlike the fixed advertisements, the dynamic ads can be altered and tailored for a very specific reason - for a limited time period. This way of using dynamic advertising has been available in online games for quite some time and have been used by large multi-national companies such as Coke, Hewlett Packard, Toyota and the major Hollywood film companies (and maybe Naked…).

This provides an opportunity for advertisers to reach a large and valuable global user base of “younger” consumers with disposable incomes. It also provides opportunities for advertisers to engage through an entertainment medium outside the traditional TV spot.

Massive Inc., which is one of the leading networks in in-game advertising has done research for over 30 clients in North America and Europe, looking at the impact, purchase interest, brand recommendation, and brand attributes. One of the studies which include Adidas, advertisement for a DVD release and a candy bar revealed that 70% of the gamers thought the ads contributed “realism” to the game and liked the appearance of them. 

The selected distribution partner to Sony Playstation is IGA Worlwide and they predict that this will bolster an already rapidly growing worldwide in-game industry, expecting the market to grow 1150% until 2011 .

Check out some examples here: