PC In-Game Advertising Revenue to Top $400 Million by 2009

PC in-game advertising will increase from $80 million in 2005 to more than $400 million in 2009, according to interactive entertainment market research firm Parks Associates (via Tekrati and MarketingVox). In April, Massive predicted that in-game advertising of any sort (not restricted to PC games) would near $2 billion by 2010.

Although videogames have become a mainstream entertainment pursuit in homes, in 2005 U.S. internet gamer households received about $0.10 worth of advertisement-supported gaming content per month, compared with $50 worth of TV content, Parks says.

Online Advertising Spend to Reach $20 Billion in ‘06

Online ad spend will constitute 12 percent of all U.S. measured media spending in 2006 - up from 10 percent of the total a year ago - TNS Media Intelligence projects, reports MediaPost (via MarketingVox). TNS on Tuesday released a mid-year update of its advertising outlook, revising upward its estimates for internet display ad spend: from January’s estimate of 9.1 percent growth for 2006, to 13.0 percent.

KMC Releases Competitive Tennis Players List

KMC Marketing Inc. announced today that it has a new list available for client usage and rent, through list manager NAI Inc., made up of 25,000 active competitive tennis players from 40 states. Over 90 percent of the players maintain a USTA rating between 2.5 and 5.5, according to the company.

Carlyle Group to Purchase Oriental Trading Company

The Carlyle Group, a private equity firm, has agreed to buy Omaha, Nebraska-based Oriental Trading Company, a DMer with 18 million customers on file, DM News writes. Oriental Trading Company mails 300 million catalogs annually, offers 25,000 product SKUs and operates three Web sites - OrientalTrading.com, TerrysVillage.com and FunExpress.com, which account for nearly half its total revenues.

Chernin: Fox Sold 70 Percent of Upfront Inventory

Still not dealing

Fox has sold 70 percent of its upfront prime time inventory, at a 2 to 3 percent CPM increase, according to News Corp. president and COO Peter Chernin, Mediaweek writes. Chernin would not discuss specifics, and some media buyers said they would only believe the numbers once Fox publicly announced which agencies it had completed business with. Mediaweek writes that calls to media agencies could not discover which had completed upfront business with the network.

Toyota Targets Kids, Hopes to Influence Parents

In April, Toyota began paying to place its Scion on Whyville.net, an online interactive community populated almost entirely by 8- to 15-year-olds. Toyota hopes Whyvillians will do two things: influence their parents’ car purchases and grow up to buy a Toyota themselves.

Shocker: Chinese-Speaking Asian Americans Prefer Chinese Language Radio

Arbitron has released the results of a Winter 2006 survey of radio listening by Chinese language consumers in the Los Angeles metropolitan radio market. The survey found that 56.7 percent of radio listening by Chinese-speaking Asian Americans in Los Angeles is to Chinese language radio. That number is up a bit from the Winter 2005 radio survey (which also looked at New York City) that found 56.2 percent of radio listening by Chinese-speaking Asian Americans is to Chinese language radio.

Black Enterprise Mag CEO: Ad Industry Racist

Earl Graves Jr.

Earl “Butch” Graves Jr., president-CEO of ‘Black Enterprise’ magazine, said that the advertising industry is “licensed to practice racism,” and has called for activism aimed at increasing the number of marketing dollars spent with black-owned media.

Couple Inks Sponsorship Deals for Wedding

On July 8, Radio station sales manager Caroline Fisher and marketing consultant Dave Kerpen will be wed behind home plate at the end of a Brooklyn Cyclones class A minor-league baseball home game. The cost of the wedding is approximately $100,000, but the bride and groom will only pay $20,000.

‘AARP The Magazine’ Grows Audience Despite Trends

AARP The Magazine’s audience increased 2.3 percent to 28.5 million, effectively reaching 13 percent of all adults in the U.S. In the Spring 2006 MRI report, AARP The Magazine’s household income and home value both rose to $53,693 and $268,335 respectively. The 50-59 age-segmented edition of AARP The Magazine is up 12 percent from last year, reaching over 12.5 million readers, with household income up 4.6 percent to $70,926, and median age dropped slightly to 53.