Monthly Matters is a monthly review of marketing news in the world of entertainment. The September 2006 issue is largely focused on the evolution of in-game advertising; however, of note are convergent devices on the prowl, a presentation on Table Tennis by Rockstar luminary Wolfgang Engel, and business lessons from leeches.

• I’m currently working on several articles for this weblog that cover a range of topics. Branding Convergence will discuss four convergent devices in terms of branding and why technology businesses should not be quick to embrace convergence as strategy. Design: A Different Perspective will discuss how I think about and apply design to branding. This article is really a spinoff from a conversation with Raph Koster. Following a conversation with Terri Perkins, Beyond In-game Advertising will discuss the current state of in-game advertising and what I think the future holds for participants in this business.
• Double Fusion, an in-game advertising migrator, began implementing advertising ROI metrics through Interpret’s Gameasure service. Growing competition in this market now includes the “Big Three” migrators Double Fusion, IGA Worldwide, and Massive Incorporated. In addition, Adscape Media and Exent Technologies have entered the race. The marketing challenge these businesses are facing is that of establishing a strong, nontechnology-based competitive advantage. In-game advertising ROI measurements will add value to the middleman offering over the short term, but these metrics are not the white knight. They’re simply an expectation.
• Greystripe is also an in-game advertising migrator with a twist. Instead of focusing on the desktop gaming market, Greystripe is after games in the mobile arena. Greystripe chief executive Michael Chang was interviewed by Gamasutra and Modojo.com. Michael believes that mobile in-game advertising is a catalyst for “free ad-supported” mobile games. He also believes that mobile in-game advertising is “personal” because mobile phones are what Gamasutra describes as “more personal than TV or websites” and “personal extensions of their owner”. Are brochures and flyers personal simply because the viewer possesses these materials with their hands? Of course not. Advertising is impersonal regardless of where the ads are displayed.
• Nintendo will debut its Wii to retail four days after Microsoft’s scheduled release of the Zune in November. Convergent devices such as Apple’s iPod, Sony’s PlayStation Portable, Nintendo’s Wii, and Microsoft’s Zune are hot commodities for gearheads and technology fanatics; yet, all convergent devices are destined for short product lifecycles because convergence not only eats its young, convergence eats its dead too. San Diego-based Mercora unveiled at DEMOfall 2006 the availability of the Mercora “M” service three days ago. Mercora’s “M” service transforms Windows Mobile 5.0-based Smartphones and Pocket PC phones into handheld high-fidelity music players. Enjoy the iPod’s triple-digit growth while it lasts, Apple. It’ll be a short ride.
• The San Diego Chapter of the International Game Developers Association organized an event on September 28 featuring ShaderX series editor Wolfgang Engel of Rockstar San Diego. Wolfgang discussed the shaders and graphics algorithms that were used for Rockstar’s Xbox 360-exclusive title Table Tennis. We will also be organizing an October Mixer at Pizza Port in Carlsbad as well as a major gaming press panel to be held sometime between November 2006 and February 2007. Traffic to the chapter website, which is sponsored by my company Heretic and Real Pro Hosting, also exhibited 375% growth during September.
• Business Lessons from Leeches: “The medicinal leech has regained some of its lost popularity by its present use in microsurgery,” the authors write in the British Medical Journal. “Sometimes, however, the leeches refuse to cooperate properly. To overcome this problem doctors in the nineteenth century used to immerse leeches in strong beer before applying them to the patient.” German doctors ”renowned at the time as the world’s best” also recommended garlic and sour cream as alternatives to beer.

  Anders Baerheim and Hogne Sandvik of the University of Bergen in Norway “realized that no one had ever actually tested whether beer, garlic, or sour cream really does stimulate the appetite of a leech. So they ran a simple experiment and discovered that the old advice didn’t hold up. Sour cream didn’t make leeches hungry for blood. Garlic killed them. And beer apparently made them drunk.” (Harvard Business Review 84)