Advertising within the gameplay of video games has become more prevalent as developers team up with companies specializing in advertising technology. While some advertising in video games can is met with significant backlash like the unskippable ads within NBA 2K21, other advertising can be harmless like Adidas billboards in FIFA soccer games, or may even add to gameplay like Death Stranding's partnership with Monster that adds the energy drink into the game, or Fortnite's partnership with Marvel introducing Thanos to the battle royale to promote Avengers: Infinity War.
The latest company to add billboards within a title is Codemasters. Recently acquired by EA just this year, Codemasters is behind many racing titles such as Dirt, F1, and TOCA. Now, Codemasters has teamed up with Bidstack, a company specializing in geo-targeting advertising within video games. The partnership has resulted in new ads in the Codemasters titles Dirt 5, Dirt Rally 2.0, and GRID for a select few players. Because of Bidstack's specialization in geo-targeting, only players in the UK will see the new ads within the game.
The new advertising billboards are not for a product, but advice from the UK government. The ads have two different messages, which are "Stay Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives", and "Every Mind Matters." The first ad is intended to pass stay-at-home advice from the UK National Health Service during the pandemic, while the "Every Mind Matters" ad will address mental health and provide resources with the Mind Plan initiative, an online service designed to improve mental health and well-being.
With Bidstack's geo-targeting technology, only players in the UK will see the ads, however, unlike ads for products, the billboards are designed to have beneficial messages for them. Codemasters marketing director John Merchant says, "It’s great being able to use our games to direct players to mental wellbeing advice. Even if we can help just one person then this has been a worthwhile addition."
Both Codemasters and Bidstack see importance in the stay at home advice and mental health messages from the UK National Health Service and implementing them in the games will provide some gamers with a unique way to consume these messages within a video game.
Bidstack CEO James Draper says, "We’re really proud to be working with the UK Government, Public Health England and our partners Codemasters again to reach audiences that might not have engaged with these important messages across other media channels."
Codemasters recently launched a free update for Dirt 5 that includes a new content pack, adding new cars, features and improvements for the racing title. Dirt 5 is also available on Xbox Game Pass so owners of Game Pass or Xbox Ultimate can jump right into the off-road action, and the game's UK players will be able to see the NHS stay-at-home and mental health banners along their favorite tracks.
Dirt 5 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Codemasters