I recently read a report from the Reuters service about Viacom's (NYSE: VIA ) exploration of advertising opportunities in video games. The company's chief financial officer, Richard Bressler, apparently believes there could be a vibrant market within the medium. Back in April, the Fool reported on Sumner Redstone's interest in Midway Games, and the latest news on that front is that he may be interested in taking the company private and folding it into his media empire, thus making Viacom's initiative a logical move.
I love ads... know why? They represent important revenue streams for businesses. And I honestly believe their reach should be expanded in every conceivable manner. This is going to sound stupid, but I assure you that I'm not joking: Every time I go to McDonald's (NYSE: MCD ) and come home with a bag that doesn't have some sort of cross-promotion/paid ad on it, I get depressed. I see empty real estate that could have been used as a billboard for something. I see opportunity lost; I see money that could have been captured.
It's the same thing with a can of Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO ) or a bag of PepsiCo's (NYSE: PEP ) Doritos tortilla chips. To be certain, there are oftentimes promos on such packages for movies, local amusement parks, and other concerns. But I think the norm should be an ad on the package all the time. Whatever incremental value a company can secure for its products is crucial for fighting the rising costs of production.
Product placement in films and television shows is becoming more and more popular, and there has been a backlash at times over the trend. But people won't be able to fight it because there is just too much coin to mine for the companies involved. If Motley Fool Stock Advisor selections Activision (Nasdaq: ATVI ) and Electronic Arts (Nasdaq: ERTS ) can strike an increasing quantity of deals with companies such as Pepsi and McDonald's to reach the valuable young male demographic addicted to franchises such as Tony Hawk and MVP Baseball, then the value of such brands is more fully realized. It's already happening, and I want to see the practice expand exponentially.
I'm probably not the first to make this observation, but I see a time when Viacom or Disney (NYSE: DIS ) will pay to place trailers in video games. The trailers could be special parts of the game that must be unlocked, or would be integral to the plot in some fashion (perhaps a character in a game needs to meet another character in a movie theater and sees a trailer on the screen, deriving clues from it).
Scene clips from upcoming tent-pole projects could also be embedded in games for players to find. This concept would, in addition to fulfilling marketing goals, instantly render collectible status to games; imagine if complete scenes from Star Wars: Episode 3 were thrown into some of Lucasfilm's titles that were published ahead of the movie's release?
Once again, the things I've mentioned here have already occurred in one form or another, but I want advertising and synergy in video games to reach a critical mass and become the status quo of the industry.
Do you think I'm ludicrous for loving ads? Would a culture full of ads annoy you? Head on over to the Video & PC Games discussion board and post your thoughts.
Fool contributor Steven Mallas owns shares of Disney and Coca-Cola.
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