Time to Play

So after all of this reading about advergames, I decided I would get my feet wet and see if I thought they were as great as others have made advergames sound. Online advergames can be found in many different places, particularly on company websites so that consumers become more intrigued about the products and services they may already be interested in purchasing. Even though advergames seem like they may be targeted towards younger children, that just isn’t always the case. Companies add incentives for adults, and frankly, once they start playing, they realize that it is just a fun thing to do when surfing online.

The first of two websites that I looked at with advergames on it was from the Orbitz, which is a travel company. They had an advergame that said you could win free travel by playing Dunkin’ Mascots, where the customer simply has to dunk a basketball into a hoop and they are automatically entered to win. First, the player selects a mascot and then they begin the first round. It is easy to play: just hold the space bar to run, the up arrow to jump onto a trampoline, and basically your ball ends up in the hoop every time. Orbitz’s advergame is a great way to get the consumers interested in their company and it also helps the consumers remember Orbitz for future travel needs if they had a fun experience playing the game.

I also checked out Oscar Mayer’s website to see what kind of advergames their site featured and they had games where the consumer could drive the WIENERMOBILE around the town to pick up Oscar Mayer kids or Oscar Mayer brand products. Other games on the site include Weiner Pong, Learn to Play the Weiner Whistle, and Jingle Jukebox. All of these games, though they do not offer free products, prominently show the Oscar Mayer brand and its goods. Advergames such as these help to make the product that is shown in the games memorable for the consumer when they are making purchasing decisions. When the games resonate with customers, it may lead to brand loyalty and in turn more profits for the company.

The two advergame websites that I looked at definitely seemed to be accomplishing what advergames are supposed to: they showed the product, and made sure that the consumer was having an enjoyable experience while participating. As long as consumers actually visit websites of companies that have advergames, they seem like they will work as intended for the companies.