This story was updated on July 25@ 14:31
Vancouver’s Reloaded Interactive has launched a new international ad network offering advertisers a chance to get in front of videogame playing consumers.
Prior to the launch of its ad network, Reloaded was an in-game ad agency and media sales firm that created ads to display on billboards and other virtual ad space within games. It had worked with brands such as Red Bull and created ads that appeared in popular games such as NHL 2013.
Jordan Howard, founder and CEO of Reloaded, said the company decided to instead create an ad server that could deliver ads in real time to spaces game publishers had made available.
Reloaded’s gaming ad network functions almost like a virtual out-of-home network, offering brands a chance to fill empty real estate in games, whether its the on the boards of an arena in a hockey game, posters on the streets of a city in a first-person shooter or lit up billboards around a race-track in a racing game.
Howard said Reloaded is working with four “major” videogame publishers and in the coming weeks plans to announce both the publishers it’s working with and ad opportunities in specific games.
The ads, which can be monitored through the company’s dashboard software, only display when consumers are playing a game with an internet connection. If they are playing without a connection, house ads (usually with logos of fake companies) will display instead.
The network currently offers ad space on PC and mobile games for Android platforms. It has plans to look for opportunities to serve ads to games played on major consoles like XBox and Playstation in the future. Both those leading consoles set limitations on how ads are displayed in games, though Howard said his team is experimenting with possible ways to sell real-time ads in the console environment.
Reloaded is trying to fill a gap in the market left by the departure of Double Fusion and IGA Worldwide, two gaming ad networks that closed down in 2012.
Howard said his company is able to find a genre of game to target almost any demographic, whether it’s young females or older males. He said that while sectors such as automotive and engergy drinks that have traditionally done such marketing continue to find success in the gaming space, the broad range of gamers means there are opportunities for all types of advertiers
“Just about any industry could benefit from in-game advertising. The gamer demographic is so broad and with [a variety of] genres, we’re able to target specific groups,” he said.
Correction: This story was updated to reflect that Reloaded had created ads for NHL 2013 but had not acted in a media placement capacity in that instance. Incorrect information was provided by a source.
