It's All a Game

Apparently, I am part of the Generation Y demographic. I was born in the mid 80's; growing up with plenty of toys, cartoons, Nickelodeon, and the rise of video games. The world I grew up in was vastly different as opposed to what my parents experienced. Generation Yers also got to see the explosion of the World Wide Web onto the world's population. Then, more means of technology brought better, faster, and easier ways to market to us--when really all this information is just easily filtered. Studies suggest that Gen Yers are very capricious when it comes to what they want. They are very brand conscious and, honestly, we hate having products or services shoved in our faces. We have consumed so much marketing/advertising tactics in the past that we have become skeptics towards traditional means. For a good portion, it seems the word "traditional" is tossed out the window all together (along with our desktop computers).

Generation Yers also have experienced not only changes in the media and technology, but changes in the workforce, family, and attitudes towards life in general. They are typically much less brand loyal then Generation X and Baby Boomers According to Miami-based Market Segment research, only on in five look for a particular brand--their choices are much more spur of the moment. The trick is then to catch us at the right moment or in the right manner. We are attached to technology at the hip in numerous places and even though some of us are too time-comsumed to play video games, we still have them in our blood.

BrandGames, a media game design agency in NY, specializes in developing advergames for consumer promotions, corporate/HR, and activation purposes. There overall culture is to "speak the language of a new generation" by "speaking the language of video gaming." They believe that computer media plays a crucial part in building a brand. People are constantly surfing the Web and have mouse-in-hand, always ready to interact. Videogames are still an entertainment pheonomenon. And since there exists an entire generation that was rasied on them--what better way to really get the consumers attention. Advergaming has strong brand retention because the consumer is not only looking at the brand messages longer then a print ad or a :30 TV spot, they are also interacting with the brand--bringing that brand a step closer to the consumer.