Monday, November 20th - The UK’s leading behavioural research consultancy, Bunnyfoot, has today announced the launch of its standardised metric to validate the investment costs of in-game advertising.

Until now, the gaming industry has not had an independent method of tracking consumer attention and receptiveness levels. With its expertise in behavioural research and consumer reaction, Bunnyfoot has developed a robust technique that intelligently validates the effectiveness of advertising, product placement and brand impact within digital environments.

Hotspot data identifies key areas of attention

Key to the Bunnyfoot approach is its ability to passively observe and record gamers at play by capturing eye tracking and physiological data, such as heart rate and galvanic skin response. Removing moderator influence, cognitive bias, and verbal questioning allows the user to interact completely naturally with the game environment and ensures accurate responses.

Peter Edward, an executive producer at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, “Bunnyfoot’s unique methodology has interesting implications for advertising in games, and possibly for game design as a whole."

Bunnyfoot’s ‘emotive engagement model’ has the unique ability to predict consumer response to in-game advertising with an independent standardised metric: the Sponsor Fixation Index (SFI). By monitoring visual and emotional responses during game play, the Sponsor Fixation Index correlates excitement and receptiveness with isolated game events or game play dynamics. Once these peak ‘receptiveness events’ have been identified, the delivery of in-game advertising can be re-engineered for greater impact and emotive engagement.

A study of current games revealed significant shortcomings in advertising models, resulting in poor brand impact. This is largely due to the fact that most in-game advertising fails to factor in emotional engagement and moments of peak excitement. The study split 120 gamers into 8 groups and assigned each a specific sports title, including Project Gotham Racing 3, NBA Live and Gran Turismo 3. SFI scores, in conjunction with standard recall and recognition rates, were exceedingly low, and in some cases completely absent, in relation to the prevalence of advertising within each game.

Understand exactly what players engage with

By combining SFI scores with its extensive experience in evaluating TV advertising, consumer goods packaging, outdoor advertising and printed media Bunnyfoot can accurately and efficiently evaluate the effectiveness of in-game advertising as well as supporting game assets to supply a comprehensive analysis of a game's entire marketing plan.

About Bunnyfoot
Bunnyfoot is the UK’s premier behavioural research consultancy specialising in eye-tracking technology and consumer engagement. It is at the forefront of cutting edge research and has successfully implemented digital strategies to optimise consumer experience and targeted user interaction.