Social Media Brand Integration Increasing in Games and Apps
Social media brand integration includes everything from labeling items in-game, offering benefits to the gamer for participating in the brand marketing to entire games and platforms focused exclusively on one brand. Marketing brands benefit on numerous fronts.

December 17, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Social Media Brand Integration Increasing in Games and Apps

The convergence was likely inevitable; with social media and smartphone app use skyrocketing and advertisers searching for more and more ways to promote brand names, brand marketing into social media has increased significantly in recent years. Integrated brand marketing on social media provides marketers, entertainers and others with a vehicle to reach as-yet untapped consumers.

Social media brand integration includes everything from labeling items in-game, offering benefits to the gamer for participating in the brand marketing to entire games and platforms focused exclusively on one brand. Marketing brands benefit on numerous fronts. The potential for new consumers, the relatively low cost and customer interaction all contribute to this growing marketing niche.

Types of Brand Integration in Games

According to Inside Social Games, which tracks information on social gaming, there are three distinct levels of branding:
-Light branding, the most popular form of social game branding, uses company logos or decorations in-game -- much like the traditional concept of product placement in movies or TV
-Medium branding actively uses a storyline or quest to engage the user in the product or service while playing the game
-Deep branding usually occurs when the game itself is made entirely for the brand

Branding in Action

Most Facebook users who play social games are familiar with light branding. For example, McDonald's recently used Zynga's massively popular FarmVille game to integrate its brand to FarmVille's millions of users. Lady Gaga took this a step further with GagaVille, which made quests, prizes and free music a part of FarmVille for a limited time to promote her May 2011 release Born This Way.

Deep brand integration (also called "advergames") provides users with an immersing experience in the brand. TV game shows such as Wheel of Fortune can market themselves by providing a social game available to consumers who might not otherwise watch the show. Other shows or movies also routinely market through social media games based on their particular premise. Even an otherwise seemingly unrelated product may be able to advertise through deep brand integration: Twix, for example, created FeedBreaker, a game on Facebook, to promote its candy bar by bouncing a white ball into blocks.

Negotiating Brand Integration Into Social Media Games

Advertisers and marketers looking to explore advergames or other brand integration strategies should contact an experienced attorney familiar with how to structure, develop and execute a brand integration marketing campaign.

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