Nielsen to Meter Game Ads

The video game industry should be getting a huge influx of cash from advertisers during the next few years. Nielsen/Netratings will start providing metrics about brand recognition in video game ads, an industry that the company expects to grow from $75 million last year to as much as $1 billion by 2010.

According to BusinessWeek, game companies are more acquiescent to advertisers about product placement and control over how the products are represented, so they are willing to play.

And of course, mentioning the gamer demographic in front of advertisers prompts Pavlovian salivation. Being able to quantify the effectiveness of in game ads will inject incredible interest among advertisers and game companies looking for revenue to offset game development costs.