Good News From the Digital Ad World

There were a couple of interesting stories recently in the world of digital advertising that should be of interest to Web and mobile game developers who build ad-supported games.

The first is this Reuters article covering a comment made by Google Engineering Vice President Vic Gundotra about mobile advertising:

"'We hope and believe that there's even a chance that we could exceed desktop in the future,' Gundotra said in reference to the cost per click of mobile ads."

One reason for this expected upsurge is search relevance. As one would expect from an engineering guy, Gundotra feels the distinct technology opportunities associated with mobile platforms, such as location-based advertising, will give them an edge.

In other news, Kantar Media released a report today on the state of the advertising industry. Not surprising to those involved with advertising, 2009 for the most part sucked. But there was a high point:

"Internet display advertising expenditures increased 7.3 percent in 2009, aided by sharply higher spending from the telecom, factory auto and travel categories."

So to all those game designers that built games with an advertising component about travelling in cars and talking on phones - congratulations! May 2010 favor you equally.

© Jeremy Buehler and Rogue Tendencies (www.roguetendencies.com) 2010.