The latest call of Duty Black ops game is due to be released this November in time for the Christmas rush. Known new features are at a minimum. A post I cam across on Twitter led me to this video: Call of Duty Black Ops preview.

The game is sure to be a hit, absolutely guaranteed! It will be played by 16-25 year old males predominantly for hours on end. I am not here to discuss how great the game is, no point, but this is a marketing blog so I put on my marketing hat. 16-25 year old male audience would be considered cash rich or at least they would have been a couple of years ago.  How can you take advantage of the game to push your brand or product.

I am talking about essentially billboard ads in games. It is being done, mainly online games which allows advertisers to buy an ad impression similar to how one would do in normal display advertising. In a static game sold separately it is not so simple. To retain control of the advertising the user would have to be gaming online. This is becoming less of an issue as the online multi player part of Call of Duty (and similar games) become more dominant over the single player story option. So once a user is online you can control (in theory) how many times an ad is shown in the game and hence you have your market.

The question is, is it feasible. Computer games take years and millions to develop. Adding in an advertising element will not sit well with the gamers designing the game, lets be honest. But there is a market possibility in the idea.

• Sponsored online battles.
• Free giveaways to top players.
• Product placement
• Billboard advertising

The possibility to make money is there, it just won’t initially be liked and there in lies the problem. Were Call of Duty to implement these ideas they would be slated. But sooner or later someone will so why not be first?