Advergaming is the practice of using video games to advertise a product, organization or viewpoint. The term "advergames" was coined in January 2000 by Anthony Giallourakis, and later mentioned by Wired's "Jargon Watch" column in 2001. It has been applied to various free online games commissioned by major companies.

With the growth of the internet, advergames have proliferated, often becoming the most visited aspect of brand websites and becoming an integrated part of brand media planning in an increasingly fractured media environment. Advergames theoretically promote repeated traffic to websites and reinforce brands. Users choosing to register to be eligible for prizes can help marketers collect customer data. Gamers may also invite their friends to participate, which could assist promotion by word of mouth, or "viral marketing".

Categories

Advergaming normally falls into one of three categories:

ATL (Above the Line) Advergaming

Examples of ATL advergames include promotional software.

In employing ATL advergaming, a company typically provides interactive games on its website in the hope that potential customers will be drawn to the game and spend more time on the website, or simply become more product aware. The games themselves usually feature the company's products prominently. These games may consist of reworked arcade classics or original programming, and they are usually designed for Adobe Flash or similar multimedia software.

The earliest custom video games featuring integrated brand messages where developed in the era before substantial penetration of the World Wide Web and were distributed on floppy disk. These games were typically of a higher quality than the modern flash games and were distributed for free, often bundled with other products from the company advertised for. The first floppy disk advergames were developed to serve dual purposes — as promotional incentives that drive response and as media that deliver awareness. American Home Foods Chef Boyardee, Coca-Cola, and Samsung brands issued the first-ever floppy-disk advergameshttp://www.gamedaily.com/articles/features/dunkin-for-advergames/68443/?biz=1. Other early brands to use the format were Reebok, General Mills, GAP and Taco Bell which distributed games as "kids' premiums". The first in-box CD-ROM cereal box advergames were General Mills' Chex Quest (promoting the Chex brand) and General Mills' All-Star baseball (starring Trix Rabbit and his friends playing baseball against Major League teams and stars).

With the spread of broadband internet, ATL advergames have become more in-depth than the simple arcade style flash games and larger games that were confined to being distributed on disc only. A number of technologically advanced advergames have been released online for free through the sponsorship of companies such as Schick. Kuma Reality Games, for instance, has developed the advergame, The DinoHunters, as a full first person shooter based on the Source Engine. The DinoHunters is released for free through Schick's sponsorship and consequently Schick's products feature prominently in game. Accompanying machinima episodes have also been created alongside The DinoHunters to help advertise the products.