Part one of Ad Watch's two-part examination of 2005's video game marketing landscape highlighted those campaigns that stood our for their excellence, quirkiness, and creativity. Putting a comedic actor inside of a giant plastic ball. Giving gamers a real mannequin hand. Telling people "you're gonna die." These were all campaigns that couldn't have been utilized in many other industries, but video game companies (understandably) have more than a bit of playfulness in them, and are able to push the marketing boundaries and let other industries then follow suit with their own youth-oriented campaigns.

Those memorable campaigns only tell half of 2005's marketing story, however. The year was also an important one for emerging technologies and trends like in-game advertising, advergames, and new banner ad innovations, with Ad Watch there every step of the way. Let's take a look at what 2005 trends will become 2006's standard practices.

It seems more and more likely that those publishers that don't jump on the in-game ad bandwagon (and fast) will be at a significant disadvantage in the coming console war. The technology was still just emerging at this time 12 months ago, but it is now here and in practice thanks to in-game ad network Massive, with several other competitors vying for publisher attention as well. In-game ads were not only the most important advertising breakthrough in 2005; they were the most important breakthrough of the last 10 years, and will most likely reshape revenue structures and game designs in the coming cycle.

In late 2004 Ad Watch interviewed Massive COO Katherine Hays, who at that time was speaking about the technology in a future tense. When we followed up a year later, company CMO Nicholas Longano was singing a considerably different tune, thanks to Massive's network being online and growing.

"It varies game-to-game depending on the specific ad implementation, but in-game ads can increase publisher revenue an additional 20-30% above the amount generated by the title's retail sales," Longano explained to GameDAILY BIZ.

Various other companies have also entered the space in order to promote their own ideas about how in-game ads can or should look. Double Fusion outlined to GameDAILY BIZ how the company wanted to widen the definition of what could and couldn't be marketed within a video game. Founder Guy Bendov envisions a world where his company's technology could be used to insert a new hit single inside the newest Grand Theft Auto. DemonWare's DNA (Dynamic Network Advertising) would allow for in-game, virtual sponsorships of the #1 clan in any online FPS, company CEO Dylan Collins explained to Ad Watch. Hidsbelief is that performance-based dynamic in-game ads will significantly increase publisher revenue.

Another lesson learned in 2005 was that advergames can be more than cheesy, cheap, flash/java affairs. A complex, engaging video game will capture the attention of gamers and generate a favorable response, regardless of whether the experience is "blatant marketing" or not. More has to be invested in the development of such "advertitles" but the games generally prove themselves quite cost-effective.

Sony Pictures' official site for its horror film The Cave is actually a surprisingly complex advergame, created by marketing firm Ignited Minds. Half the adventure plays out in a manner reminiscent of LucasArts' old point-and-click adventure games, with gamers collecting items and interacting with the environment with their mouse, in an attempt to escape from the cave. The other half of the experience is derived from a more action-oriented side-scrolling element.

"With Enter the Cave we were looking less to innovate and more to take an existing technology and find unusual and organic ways to use it in advancing a storyline that would capture a user's attention and give him an experience worth spending multiple site sessions at up to 20 minutes a time," Ignited Minds told Ad Watch.

Unilever created another one of the year's big advergame success stories with Mojo Master, a dating game designed to promote their line of Axe products for men. Developed by WildTangent in conjunction with Conductor, the game presents an investment and a level of game design that most likely has never been previously attempted in an advergame. Unilever's Axe Development Manager David Rubin explained the simple justification for the investment: "As long as they perceive value in the experience they don't mind that they're being marketed to."

The advent of rich media in the online advertising realm raised the ire of many gamers, but implementation is everything. Ad Watch spoke to Richard Sankey, Vice President of Marketing at Ayzenberg Group, about how the emerging technology can help unify previously splintered campaigns.

"The industry buzz term 'integrated marketing' has been thrown around for a long time now, but finally with the advent of Rich Media, marketers have the ability to leverage existing creative executions to their full potential," Sankey said. "Rich Media vehicles, like Eyeblaster for instance, allow for much more content inclusion than traditional forms of online and even offline media."

The maturation of flash as a vehicle for delivering video within banner ads represented another 2005 advancement in banner ad delivery. GameDAILY BIZ spoke with new media marketing technology firm The Aura Group about their Vid-Ad technology, and how it allowed for lower file size, greater compatibility, and greater flexibility than many other options.

"[TAG has] been working on a flash FMV solution for a long time. We saw the concerns people were having with Java coming down the pipe, and knew there would be demand for an alternative. Only now are some of our competitors beginning to realize the importance of Flash and announcing that they too are making the switch," TAG's CEO David Bailey said.