The advertising reach of games

This is very little to do with the 50-plus, other than this age group is a significant part of the gaming community.

In his blog, Richard Donkin, a well known UK writer and journalist talks about his son’s venture as a Flash Game developer with his own Web site where you can play the games for free.

So how does he make a living – advertising.

The stat that amazed me is his most popular game to date has had more than 10 million plays. That figure is twice the audience for British television's most watched programme in the second week of September (the latest figures available at the time of this blog). Who Do You Think You Are? that pulled in audience of 4.6 million.

OK, I know that by its very nature a games site will attract a global audience but then there are lots of global brands. That’s astonishing.Dick Stroud

Good to see that Apple cares

The first video is from the Ellen DeGeneres show. It is an amusing parody of the Apple's iPhone 4 ad. I have to say I think it contains a smidgen of truth.

The next video is Apple's response.

I think the mighty Apple could see the funny side - maybe not. Whatever, it shows that the company is conscious and concerned that older people might think the iPhone is a product they cannot use. That can only be a good thing. Dick Stroud

Is this for real?

I have sat through countless focus groups where older people say that they just “don’t get” contemporary advertising. Alas I have joined this group having just seen, what is supposed to be a blockbuster infomercial, to convince us all to take climate change seriously.

The Guardian has an interesting article about the venture.


I guess the aim of the thing was to create buzz for the climate change cause. Who said all buzz is good buzz?
Not only has the thing been criticised by the mainstream media but it has attracted a torrent of abuse from the Green World who are aghast at the message it conveying - "if children don't agree with us blow them up". If you want to push the boundaries you had better be sure you know what you are doing - the makers of this clearly don't.

It reminded me of the dreadful ad that the Labour party ran during the general election that completely misjudged the mood of the public.

I just cannot believe these ads had any testing. They do make great case studies for how not to do it. Dick Stroud