Touted as the countrys first advergame,Dual Sensation is a game created by Zapak that has been launched across DTH companies for toothpaste brand Close-Up. The game marks the toothpaste companys brand into the digital space to promote its new variant Close Up - Fire Freeze. As a concept,advergaming is quite big in the West. In India,this is the first time that a game that features attributes from a company is being launched on DTH platforms, Manish Agarwal,Chief Operating Officer - Digital Business,Reliance Entertainment Limited that operates Zapak,said. According to him,companies have been tapping into other digital avenues like Internet and mobile devices over the past three years but have largely stayed out of DTH platform so far. However,DTH has recorded an impressive growth over the past year and has now caught the attention of brands. We are present in the mobile and Internet space. However,a lot of clients were not convinced about games on DTH. We found a willing partner in Close-Up and are ready to exploit this new market, Agarwal said. The game is set in an office scenario wherein the player needs to avoid the pesky bosses at work. An user can choose to play as a boy or girl. If the player chooses to play as a girl,her task will be to kiss all her men colleagues at work under her bosses nose. If the player chooses to play as a boy,then he needs to get kissed without getting caught. The game is set across three levels and the gamer needs to impress all his/ her office- mates while avoiding pesky bosses. The user needs to go near his/her colleagues using arrow keys and impress his/ her blue dress colleagues by pressing key 6 and red dress colleagues by pressing 4. The game is currently available on Reliance Digital TV,part of Zapaks parent company Reliance groups DTH arm and Dish TV. Addition of more DTH companies will take some time,Agarwal said. We will have to build the game from scratch for other DTH companies because there is a difference in the technology used by others as against Reliance Digital TV and Dish TV. According to Agarwal,the DTH gaming market is set to grow over the next few months due to various factors,the most prominent of them being the ability of using a game to target audiences. Advertisements need to reach out to their target audience in innovative ways today. They cant be in your face all the time. Games engage with audiences intimately. Also,with rising print and TV costs,it is not feasible for all brands to advertise on these mediums. DTH gaming can also deliver accurate numbers regarding the reach of the brand to its target audience. These games are also cheaper to create and maintain. All of these factors will help the gaming industry for DTH platform in the days ahead, he said. The scope to earn money from these games is at a very basic level though. The most popular model is freemium wherein users play the game for free and gaming companies share revenues with DTH companies depending on the number of gamers. The majority revenue goes to our DTH partners, Agarwal said without giving any details on the deals. Mobile and Internet screens are currently consolidating their gains and waiting to come back with the advent of better services. Agarwal says that DTH will fill the gaming gap until then. 3G will change the way we use mobile devices and faster broadband will propel the growth of Internet soon. Until then,brands will look to use DTH companies to promote their products, he said. Gaming,even on DTH platforms,is largely a youth phenomenon with males forming a majority number of users. Not all brands cater to this demographic,thereby hurting the chances of DTH gaming in the future. Agarwal,however,is confident of finding the right spot with Dual Sensation. The plan is to attract everybody who watches television on DTH to play the game as well. The game is simple enough for everyone to understand and play, he said. He also admitted that a brand cannot simply use a game on a DTH platform to fulfill all its marketing needs. However,brands are more than willing to experiment with this new platform. As the platform evolves,more brands will come up with games on DTH to reach out to the digital audience, Agarwal said,signing off.
