n a move that pushes the digital game world closer to being a coherent advertising venue, Nielsen Interactive Entertainment plans to launch the first in-game ad auditing service. The system, slated to go live in 2005, is a collaborative effort of Nielsen and Massive, the world�s first video game advertising network.

Once established, such a system could allow media ad buyers to compare the effectiveness of in-game ad campaigns to those on the Internet, TV and in print. The new Nielsen project is particularly interesting because it has the potential to corral the most avid game players - the 18 to 34-year-old male demographic that continues to drift away from watching TV. Recent report indicates there are 20 million of these male gamers in the US and that they spend roughly the same amount of time playing games as they do watching TV. Advertisers spend approximately $12 billion annually to reach this demographic through TV commercials, and $10 billion through in-game ad messages.... more