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According to a recent study from the research firm TNS in conjunction with ESPN and Electronic Arts, 38% of sports video gamers spend at least as much time playing sports games as they do watching the same sport on TV during its season. This study suggests that advertisers are missing a major opportunity with in-game advertising. The sports gamer demographic is 75% male and half are between the ages of 18 and 34, on average they are single and have a disposable income. This demographic is increasingly difficult to reach using traditional media and sports games could be the ideal outlet. First, it would be very easy to implement; all sports games now feature online support and are constantly undergoing content updates, this would allow advertisers to place updated brand messages and ads into the updated game content so the in-game ads constantly change if the player is playing online or not. Also it would add to the authenticity of the game; broadcast sports already have many ads and brand messages displayed on the playing field and having the same look in the virtual environment would make the game more realistic while providing a new, largely untapped ad space. While this new medium is just starting to gain momentum, I predict this ad space will becoming increasingly effective and sought after.

This video was recently released from the Technology. Entertainment. Design. (TED) Organization features Pranav Minstry, a PhD student in the Fluid Interfaces Group at MIT’s Media Lab. He explains the potential of “SixthSense technology” that integrates the digital world with the physical world. This technology is a wearable “gestural” interface that augments physical objects around us with digital informaiton  and natural hand gestures to ineract with that information.

This type of technology has been evolving for quite some time now in everything from video game applications like the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft’s Project Natal to iPhone augmented reality apps like “Metro Paris Subway“. It is really interesting to see it all come together utilizing an intuitive interface with a flexible useful system. To read more about this new technology directly from Pranav’s blog click here.