Advertising in the simulated racing environment

[Derek Speare]

Hi All,

Anyone who enjoys motorsports, whether real life or simulated, has seen many advertisements for various commercial offerings. In fact, from a marketing perspective, the entire whole of motor sports exists nearly for that very reason! Indeed significant technological advancements are developed at race tracks, those technologies finding their ways into street cars, but as well all know, if you can slap a sticker, poster, billboard, patch or logo on it, it will have it.

Some will argue that we have too much advertising, and I agree to an extent. We have too much useless advertising, actually, and my opinion is that as folks become more and more desensitized to marketing messages, marketers feel more advertising is necessary to penetrate the increasingly evolving psychological rejection barriers consumers develop. Advertising is useful if it's considerate of audience, offers meaningful information, proposes a valuable product or service and respects that some will reject the offer. Good advertising is critical to any commercial effort.

Manufacturers should be perceptually seeking positive and creative ways to position their offers to their customers and future customers. In the case of gaming hardware, those makers of products want to be seen where their customers frequent, and no place is better than in the environment where those customers actually participate in their gaming experience. For a maker of sim racing components, it's my opinion that one of the best places to have one's name or presence experienced is on the virtual tracks and cars "inside" the racing simulation space.

From a developer's perspective, offering for sale advertising space on trackside objects, cars and other areas of their title has the potential to increase additional revenues. We've seen some of the recent videos of AC and have seen logos familiar to us. Has KS considered offering advertising opportunities to manufacturers? I'd like to know. Personally, I'd much like see billboards, signs, logos, liveries of components known in the sim racing world in addition to the various advertising bits that make the sim racing experience that much more realistic.

Thanks for the time to read Happy racing and Happy Holidays to all!

d

EDIT To Add - It seems as if I cannot make replies to this thread. Odd Still nothing.

I'll respond here - advertising makes the world go round. Some people don't buy products. Manufacturers know this and accept it.

 

[Fred Joseph]

Would be good to have some real adverts indeed.. From you I mean Derek

 

[Hampus Andersson]

It´s an interesting thought and makes sense from a PR point of view.

One thing though is how does it work with the licensed stuff?
I know in iRacing teams can get sponsored and use a licensed car and put their logos on and thus pay drivers etc

but i wonder if not let´s say if you put DSD logos all over Monza, if the track owners want a piece of the pie since you are using their tracks and since the track is only licensed by AC?

I have no idea but i like the idea

 

[Nico Van Elk]

Fine with that as long as it is done in a realistic way.
So no blinking boards, scrolling text, annoying bright colours and things like that.

Win win situation for all I guess.

Edit:
Oh, and you can sponsor my car anytime Derek

 

[Hampus Andersson]

Using the in-game billboards would be the optimal for everyone involved i think.
(or wherever it is they have advertisement around the tracks)

 

[Mapu]

While it is not useless at all, having imposed advertisement tied to a cause (computer hardware and software) is not only hugely bold, but also destroys the immersion in any racing and/or driving simulator. I would rather have billboards advertisement which are tailored towards a realistic race environment (like the Le Mans Series, FIA Championship, Formula 1 etc.), precisely because they add to the immersion of taking part in a event of a real racing series than hardware/software related adverts which doesn't fit into a race weekend. I can accept blank billboards also because this kind of approach let's you concentrate on the car and track alone. However there is nothing more annoying and fun breaking than getting products shoved into my brain (which are, after all, of no use to me). NFS Shift stole the show in regards of annoying advertisement and therefore I hated it a lot.

I'm mature, self-reliant; I believe mostly independent and when I need something, I put on my shoes and go out to visit my vendor, connect to my favorite news communities or use a search engine where I can find loads and loads of things that will direct me to my needs.

The only environment were I could accept imposed advertisement to some extend would be fictions simracing leagues or championships. But these kind of advertisements are obvious and therefore acceptable.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

EDIT To Add - It seems as if I cannot make replies to this thread. Odd

Are you sure? Thread is open for all to reply. If not shoot me a pm as that would be an odd bug I've never seen before.

 

[Hampus Andersson]

True, he told me 2 days ago he could not respond to my post, bit odd.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Best to try another browser then, clearing cookies and such. Or create a thread here and see if more people can reproduce this, cause i cannot with whatever browser I use.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

On the topic of in game advertising. It doesn't really work unless you advertise with an overlay (like in the first raceroom game). Billboards and other trackobjects don't get noticed by players as they tend to focus on the road and other cars.

Secondly the ads are only visual and you cannot click or learn more about them.

If I were a game developer I'd allow loading screen advertisements. That is something I have never understood why I have to watch the same boring loading screen for 30 seconds each time and time again. Just show me a nice on topic sponsored message instead and I am sure nobody would mind

 

[Hampus Andersson]

I can´t replicate it either. (Chrome/win 7)

I think though what he means by the billboards etc is not for the drivers.
It´s for the people watching the broadcast. Just like real motorsport.

 

[Mapu]

[...] If I were a game developer I'd allow loading screen advertisements. That is something I have never understood why I have to watch the same boring loading screen for 30 seconds each time and time again. Just show me a nice on topic sponsored message instead and I am sure nobody would mindJust show me a nice on topic sponsored message instead and I am sure nobody would mind

This is a difficult matter because there is a potential risk tied to it, for example that loading times get lengthened artificially. Something similar to youtube advertisements comes to mind.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Yeah but most video commercials dont last longer than the loading of a track. I don't mind if it takes 20 to 30 seconds to be honest. If implemented correctly it would also be a great way for league admins to monetize their server as that is the hardest part for those wanting to start a league: financing a proper server.

This is how imo free-to-play should have been implemented in all those so called freemiums we currently see that aren't free at all.

 

[Mapu]

Like I said before. I this case, when it comes to financing/supporting "free" or voluntary community racing clubs or leagues (like RD), I do accept advertising without questioning.

 

[Ian Strom]

If you have video ads in the loading screens I will block the ad server(or not use the service/game) if said videos have sound. Just going to say that.

A piece of software called GameRanger uses video ads when you join a room. They are really really loud. You cannot hear your clan-mates in any voice chat program, your hand dives for the volume knob or your headphones and you get very annoyed. (I actually like to avoid the companies that *really* piss me off, btw. So it is a really good thing that I see few annoying ads for the products that I do quite like because this could spiral out of control.)

In the case of gameranger.
a) you are wasting my bandwidth when the program /already/ has flash ads in the main server browser window.(I also hate flash and block it in my web browser)
b) too loud. screw you.
c) oh yea, did I mention my internet connection sucks so I wait to load the ad and then wait some more?(and then pay for the bandwidth because every little thing adds up to something big)
d) Bite me. If I wanted to see this I would watch TV. Oh wait, I would just use the mute button anyway.

I am ok with my internet connection costing me something because of desirable activities. But I am not going to pay for things that get on my nerves. That is not limited to ads, btw. Stupid youtube videos that morons spread are also included.

I blocked the video ads that microsoft uses for their xbox dashboard too. Though the static images are still there. Having the xbox dashboard filled with static images is not very nice to look at but I can get by. Having it cram video and audio in my face is just something I am not willing to tolerate on that device.(remember consoles of the past? yea, I am stuck in the past.)
I mean, even if you pay for xbox live gold the ads do not go away, but microsoft is microsoft, what do you expect?


As far as people expecting to get their product in my face.. *shrug* Try not to piss me off.
If I am in the market for something then I buy it based on my requirements and product availability, not what I saw in an ad so I am not even a potential customer with their ad money having been wasted on me.
I can do some ads, but most on TV tend to be pretty bad.


That being said, I would still be interested in playing AC if you had static racing related images in the loading screens of small filesizes that could be cached locally. No dating sites or crap like that. I am not cool with sitting down to some quality racing and having ads for sexdatefinder3000 pop up.

Sex is not offensive, it is just that this is racingtiem and not sexytiem.(unless I am driving 60s/70s Trans Am cars. )