Marketing in virtual worlds: which company gets around the most?

by William Dobson Jan 24th 2008 at 9:00PM

Filed under: Business models, Economy, MMO industry, Second Life, Virtual worlds

These days we're becoming used to seeing advertising pop up in all aspects of daily life. A lot of the free games out there are only free because of the deals that have been made with various marketing companies. To get a good overview of the advertising in virtual worlds, Kzero created a table that shows companies and the games they are represented in, with an accompanying write-up.

The study shows that Toyota is the most "adventurous" marketer, shopping themselves out in five different MMOs. I recall that they also had a game available on Xbox Live Arcade until the end of 2007 called Yaris, which was free to download, and thankfully free to delete, as it was nothing more than a giant ad for the launch of the car by the same name. It looks like Toyota is definitely switched on to marketing to the gaming audience. On the games side of things, Second Life and Gaia have the dubious honor of being the home to the most advertising. Clicking on the table above will take you through to the bigger version at Kzero.

[Via Virtual Worlds News]

Tags: advertising, gaia, in-game-ads, kzero, linden-lab, marketing, sl, toyota, xbla, xbox-live-arcade, yaris

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Ghen said on 4:58PM 1-25-2008

I own a Yaris, its a great car for the price.. I just wish it came with a roof mounted laser gun like the game.

DAMN YOU ADVERTISING GURUS, YOU GOT ME AGAIN!