Bastiaan van Rooden in conversation with Werbewoche

WW: With what expectations of an advertising game do customers come to you?
Bastiaan van Rooden: Often our clients are looking for a way out of the usual online advertising methods like banners or microsites and want to present themselves to their target audience in a more modern, bold and innovative way. They expect us to come up with a tailor-made concept that we know can translate their message, product or service into the form of a game. Consulting still plays a major role at the moment. During the first contact we can take away the uncertainty of this new medium due to our long-time experience and existing statistics. We can show that visitors are still willing to engage with (advertising) messages if they get something in return - play, excitement and the opportunity to interact.

How much does the development of online advertising games cost and what is the total effort that the customer has to expect?
To produce a well-rounded, high-quality game, i.e. to bring concept, design, development to a level that achieves a relevant effect, we start with a budget of 20'000 francs. If sophisticated server components such as secure online hiscore and statistical analysis, but also recommendation systems via e-mail, Twitter and Facebook are added, higher investments are necessary. Since games can be complex or extensive in terms of logic, design and marketing, and we always tailor our products, a budget for a series of games running within a campaign, for example, can run to 200'000 francs.

Based on your experience, what figures can you use to prove the success of advertising games?
While banners fight for click rates in the per mille range or product websites for attention in the range of seconds, we are talking about click rates in the double-digit percentage range and several minutes of intensive attention. In extreme cases, even hours. Reason enough to take games seriously as an advertising medium! On the part of clients, too, the number of those who firmly incorporate games into their marketing activities after an initial production is increasing.

Typically, online games are part of an overall campaign and the total outlay is correspondingly high. Is the impression correct that in the small Swiss market, only the very big companies can afford this form of advertising?
Our customer portfolio in the area of promotional games actually consists mainly of large companies such as Migros, Viseca, Swisslos or BKW. Interestingly, however, this is more due to the fact that the marketing departments of the aforementioned companies recognized the effectiveness of such games earlier and SMEs still tend to be conservative in offering their products and services. This is despite budgets that are ideal for game productions: with 40,000 francs, a comprehensive one-game campaign can be made; even a large company does not pay more here. Of course, advertising games embedded in an overall campaign have the advantage of initially attracting a lot of visitors, which then makes them true self-starters in terms of the viral effect. But it's not just the number of visitors that's important, but also the quality of the visitors: players can become effective brand ambassadors. After all, games have an enormous branding effect and can convey messages excellently thanks to their immersive properties. Games open up very interesting perspectives for relatively small budgets, especially for companies that are not large.

Which online games - whether developed by you or not - do you consider exemplary and why?
I would like to mention two examples that were produced with very different premises and budgets: http://www.gettheglass.com: A large-scale production for the California Milk Processor Board, which won several awards, in order to present to a young audience the many properties of milk consumption that have a positive effect on health.
http://game.login.org: For a cross-media campaign of Login, the training association in the world of transport, Nothing produced an action game. Future apprentices were to be familiarized with the services of Login. The yellow ball was distributed in the summer of 2010 in beach resorts with a printed link to the game. The result speaks for itself and I quote the project manager responsible for it: "The best thing Login has ever done." cjw