作者：Tricia Duryee

事实证明，EA旗下最流行的Facebook游戏《模拟人生社交版》是游戏内置广告的完美载体。

EA全球化媒体解决方案高级副总裁Dave Madden说道：“它能够与各种品牌完美融合。在《模拟人生社交版》中，有各种营养、卫生和职业相关内容。”

毕竟，要在以森林为背景的游戏或扑克游戏中添加一瓶洗发剂更为牵强和困难。但是，当游戏内容与睡觉、吃微波晚餐或淋浴等生活内容相关时，这种产品植入就变得更加容易。

这正是联合利华对该游戏感兴趣的原因。

这家大型消费品牌公司是世界上第二大广告商，1月份他们斥资数百万美元同EA签订为期1年的广告合同。

EA_dove-sims-shower(from allthingsd)

首先，该公司在《模拟人生社交版》的浴室中放置虚拟的多芬Hair Spa，玩家的角色使用的洗发剂就是该公司的产品。即将出现在游戏中的联合利华产品还包括冰淇淋品牌，比如新的Magnum Mini冰淇淋、Yosicle冰棒、Cornetto冰淇淋球和Heartbrand冰淇淋。

广告会免费提供虚拟商品，所以玩家通常不会介意与这些游戏中的产品互动。《模拟人生社交版》在全球有相当庞大的玩家群体，游戏约有300万的日活跃用户和1720万的月活跃用户。据AppData数据所示，该游戏目前在Facebook上的排行位居前15位（游戏邦注：本文所涉数据均以2012年4月份为准）。

尽管在EA和Zynga等社交游戏发行商的产品中添加广告已非新鲜事，但Madden表示这种情况将越来越普遍。

他说道：“人人都知道游戏有很多用户，而且他们每天都在游戏中花大量的时间。但是从媒体的角度来看，它仍然是个较新的广告载体。联合利华等国际公司愿意同EA合作并开展全球范围内的活动，这表明游戏正不断确立自己在广告行业的地位。”

为满足客户的需求，Madden表示他们开发了4种游戏内置广告类型，也给出了整合广告的时间表。

以下是EA目前专注的4中广告类型：

1、流量驱动器：通常情况下，这些广告会驱动游戏内的玩家访问该品牌的Facebook页面，他们可以在那里免费下载游戏内置虚拟商品。在两周的时间里，在《模拟人生社交版》中获得Dove Hair Spa虚拟道具的玩家超过百万，50%的玩家选择“赞”该品牌的页面。

2、任务：这是最深层次且最能引发玩家与品牌互动的方法。在游戏中，玩家需要通过几个步骤才能最终获得有价值的道具。比如，丰田发布了一个任务，玩家可以赚得Prius。

3、商店标签：在虚拟商品商店中，可以设置专门用于呈现品牌的标签。联合利华计划采用所有这4种广告类型，因此计划推出多芬标签，用户可以看到与头发护理相关的5种道具。

4、媒体整合：用户可以观看短视频广告或其他类型的媒体，以此来解锁虚拟商品。

Madden表示，EA今年的时间安排已被订购了10到11个月。Dunkin Donuts、Wendy’s和丰田汽车等其他品牌也出现在《模拟人生社交版》中。Madden还声称，这款游戏与联合利华的合作也是跨平台的，意味着后者品牌也会出现在手机和主机游戏上。

游戏邦注：本文发稿于2012年4月4日，所涉时间、事件和数据均以此为准。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Four Types of Advertising Are Emerging in Social Games, EA Says

Tricia Duryee

As it turns out, Electronic Arts’ most popular game on Facebook, The Sims Social, is a perfect candidate for in-game advertising.

“It lends itself well with brands,” said Dave Madden, EA’s SVP of global media solutions. “Across The Sims Social, there’s nutrition, hygiene and careers.”

After all, it’s much harder to work a bottle of shampoo into a game that’s set in the forest or at a poker table. But when a game is about sleeping, eating microwave dinners or taking showers, that sort of product placement becomes much easier.

That’s how Unilever got interested.

In January, the massive consumer brands company — known for being the second-largest advertiser in the world — kicked off a multimillion dollar, year-long advertising campaign with EA.

It started with providing a virtual Dove Hair Spa in the Sims’ bathroom, where people’s avatars shampooed using the “Care & Repair with Dove Hair Therapy shower.” Upcoming Unilever products will include ice cream brands for the spring and summer, such as the new Magnum Mini ice cream bars, Yosicle ice pops, Cornetto ice cream cones and Heartbrand ice cream.

Because the advertisements offer virtual goods for free, players don’t typically mind interacting with the product placements. The Sims Social offers a fairly large global audience, attracting roughly three million daily users and 17.2 million monthly active users to make it one of the top 15 games on Facebook, according to AppData.

While advertising in social games by Electronic Arts or other big publishers like Zynga isn’t new, Madden said it is becoming more routine.

“Everyone knows the audience is there, and that they are spending a lot of time in the games, but from a media standpoint, it’s still been fairly new,” he said. “For a global company like Unilever to want to partner with EA and launch a campaign globally, it’s an indication that gaming is finding a stage.”

To accommodate the interest, Madden said they’ve created a rate card, developed four types of in-game advertising features, and have determined a calendar for how much integration work the developers can handle.

Here are the four advertising types that EA has focused on:

Traffic Drivers: Typically, these ads drive players in the game to visit a brand’s Facebook page, where they can download a free in-game virtual good. In a two-week period, more than one million players from The Sims redeemed the Dove Hair Spa virtual items in their games, and 50 percent of the players chose to “Like” the brand on their own accord.

Quests: These are the deepest and most involved. Players will have to take a number of steps inside the game to earn a valuable item at the end. For instance, Toyota launched a quest where players earned a Prius.

Store Tabs: In the virtual goods store, there will be a whole tab dedicated to the brand. Unilever, which plans to do all four types of advertising, plans to roll out a Dove tab, where users will see five items related to vanity and hair care.

Media Integrations: Users can watch a short video advertisement or other type of media, to unlock a virtual good.

Madden said EA’s calendar is currently booked for 10 to 11 months out of the year. Other brands that have appeared in The Sims Social are Dunkin Donuts, Wendy’s and Toyota. The partnership with Unilever, which is being announced by Madden today at Ad:tech, is also cross-platform, meaning that its brands may also show up in mobile and console games. (Source: All Things Digital)