It's been well established that there is a large casual games market that advertisers want to tap into. At the same time, there have been plenty of attempts to tap into said gaming field with ads. But do those ads make an impact? And how do the players perceive said ads?

When it comes to RealNetworks and their Eyeblaster technology, the above questions have been answered in a nearly unanimous positive appraisal from players. The numbers speak for themselves: over 500,000 unique users witnessing over 1.5 million in-game streaming video ads. It's a force to be reckoned with. Players are paying attention to these ads with a greater than 20 percent click-through rate—nearly ten fold better than most web browser banner ads.

We talked with Chris Houtzer, RealNetworks' Director of New Media for the Games group, to get the skinny on this new in-game ad tech.

As has been previously documented, the main audience for these casual games is actually women over the age of 30. The casual puzzle titles available on the site, like Mah Jong Medley and Super Collapse 3!, directly appeal to this demographic. The ads obviously appeal to most of them as well, with over 50 percent of the ads playing until their conclusion.

"Smart marketers have recognized the value of placing engaging in-game ads into casual games as a way of targeting the highly desirable, under-tapped casual gaming audience of women over 30," said Michael Schutzler, RealNetworks' senior vice president of Worldwide Games. "With these first results of our tests, we can now see that this model serves consumers, game developers and advertisers equally well. We are very happy with the initial progress we have made in just a few months."

"The integration of the ads is very non-intrusive to the gameplay," explained Houtzer. "Only in natural breaks, like between levels, do we use the ads. With the Eyeblaster technology we're able to insert multiple ads, that are several megs in size, instantly. These ads are clickable, and while the game pauses, a web browser window launches. After they close that browser window, the game resumes. So it's extremely user friendly."

"The games are extremely popular to women over 30. We have ads for consumer products and entertainment products that try to target them directly," he continued. "This is important, as this demographic makes 80% of purchasing decisions in most households. They spend a lot of time playing these games; six hours per week on average. Those are rates that are similar to TV in what people are using for entertainment."

Right now, only 12 games are ad-enabled with Eyeblaster but that's sure to increase. The example of one title, ShapeShifter, saw a revenue spike of 200 percent after integrating these ads. The typical structure of these Eyeblaster-enabled games shows an ad before the first level and in a natural stopping point every 10 minutes thereafter, creating natural pauses that TV watchers are certainly comfortable with.

"In exchange for ads in the game, we've given them extra value. Extra trial times, such as 90-minute trial times instead of 60, and with two of the games we offer an unlimited trial period," said Houtzer. "People want to play games for longer without having to buy them. Casual games have many, many different levels, so if they can't finish a game in the first trial period, it can be frustrating for certain people."

"Currently we have 12 titles that can be downloaded. We have begun the process of adding 11 casual developers, such as PlayFirst and PopCap Games, to our network. We've piqued their interest, and they agree that it's the next big thing. We're working with each individual developer on ad-enabled titles and hoping to have 30 by the end of the year."

"We are always looking for more ways to drive incremental revenue in the emerging casual games space, and we feel in-game advertising is the next vehicle to drive significant revenue growth in the industry," said Paul Jensen, president, Mumbo Jumbo, a top game developer. "The game developer community has long awaited a business model that would create new revenue opportunities. Given this early success with in-game advertising and the substantial growth projections for in-game advertising among analysts, we anticipate significant revenue growth for the industry as a whole."

"We're looking forward to implementing our technology into these additional game developers' games," added Gal Trifon, Eyeblaster's president and CEO. "The market has shown great interest in video streaming advertisements and we intend to work closely with our partners to provide the right balance between successful ads and great experiences for game players."

Eyeblaster seems to have a bright future ahead of it. With ads appearing in games never before thought possible, advertisers are clearly happy. And with the extra revenue those ads generate, publishers are quickly warming up to the ads as well. And let's not forget about the players—with extended trial times and other bonuses, players seem to be pleased. It's a win/win/win situation.

"The level of engagement for the user is about the best you can get," claims Houtzer. "It's full screen, and the breaks in the action of the game really captures their attention. There's a 'wow' factor with the ads; no one has integrated streaming video ads in casual games before. The video content itself, with the movement and audio, is very appealing to see in the game environment."

"Our product is one that will continue to evolve. We're talking to advertisers and publishers on what they'd like to see. Advertisers said they'd like to have permanent placements on the ads. They've also requested the ability to take the video full screen. We're also looking to ad a 'skip' button to the ad."

"We're working on an extremely flexible technological product. We can control the content, embedding it in the game, such as putting it on playing cards. With our innovations, we're working to put out an ad model that works. We will be generating a third line model for advertisers: subscriptions, license purchases, and the third revenue is in-game ads," he concluded.