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Massive Teams with comScore to Measure In-game Campaign Effectiveness

Microsoft’s Massive Inc. and comScore have entered into a research partnership designed to give advertisers a better understanding of the impact in-game ads have on users.

The two entities have developed a new methodology that will allow advertisers to measure how in-game ads motivate gamers to visit websites, conduct brand-related search queries, and engage in other online actions.

AdEffx Action Lift for Gaming matches in-game console ad serving data from Massive with comScore’s third-party, post-campaign panel data to track and measure in-game advertising effectiveness, the companies say.

By combining Microsoft’s proprietary, anonymous ID data and Microsoft web properties (known as Windows Live ID) with user data from comScore’s panel of 2 million internet users worldwide, comScore can determine if panelists who saw in-game advertising subsequently visited a brand’s web site, searched brand-related terms or engaged in other online behaviors important to advertisers.

The methodology is similar to the ad tracking and measurement standards currently accepted for other forms of digital advertising.

Preliminary research conducted by comScore using the new methodology on a number of recent Massive in-game campaigns showed that people exposed to in-game ads demonstrated the following behaviors when compared with a control group of people who were not exposed to the ads:

• 280% increase in visits to a TV channel’s website
• 125% increase in search queries for a movie rental brand and 57% spike in visits to its website
• 17% increase in visits to entertainment sites after seeing ads for a particular movie

comScore says the new AdEffx Action Life methodology puts in-game advertising on a level playing field with other digital media. “With this kind of methodology, we are addressing the need for better standards of ad effectiveness measurement across all forms of digital media. Advertisers can now track post-campaign online activity, including direct website visits, search queries and other consumer behaviors among people who have been exposed to in-game ads,” says Mike Hurt, senior vice president, comScore.

comScore and Massive have submitted this new methodology to the Advertising Research Foundation for validation.

Until now, Massive has provided advertisers with top-line campaign data such as number of impressions served, but has not been able to offer performance data. Massive still will not be able to blend campaign data from the in-game campaigns with traditional media efforts, but comScore is exploring that possibility with Massive for down the road, Mediaweek writes.