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the bar TV game
Ads run amid interactive games on video screens
By Kathy Prentice
Enhanced targeting—both by category and demographic—is what advertisers get when they push their product on interactive game programs at sports bars and restaurants.
Between rounds of poker and BrainBuster, products like liquor and beer are pitched to an audience of players who are mostly young men.
Houston Oiler executives came up with the concept for QB1, a football strategy game that launched the network.
Today the updated version is part of a loop of dozens of games from the world’s largest collection that anchor consumers to their bar stools and video screens.
To find out how to get your client up on the screen between rounds of QB1, bingo and beer, read on.
This is one in a Media Life series on buying the new out-of-home venues. They appear weekly.
Fast Facts
What:
Ads interspersed with interactive sports and trivia games at bars and restaurants.
Who:
NTN Network, headquartered in Carlsbad, Calif.
How it works:
NTN uses satellite technology to bring programming and ads to screens provided by the venue. Number and placement of screens varies with outlet.
Programming consists of general and entertainment trivia, sports trivia, playmaker games and interactive sports games, including Countdown, Showdown, Passport and Sports IQ.
The majority of games last half an hour, with lunchtime games pared down to 15 minutes, and premium games lasting an hour.
Satellite-driven games and ads run 15 hours each day, 365 days a year, from 11 a.m. until 2 a.m. Fresh content is downloaded daily.
Options for advertisers:
- Advertisements, full-motion video or stills, are interspersed with games, placed after score screens at intervals of eight minutes. Ads are clustered and their time range is 15 seconds to four minutes. Each ad runs once per hour during the 15-hour day.
- Advergaming, which makes the advertiser’s message central to the game, works by developing custom interactive games integrating a brand’s look, feel and essence.
- Sponsorships, which include in-game presence, promotions and ads throughout the programs. For example, Warsteiner Importers sponsors the network’s Octoberfest with some identification of the German beer on the screen 10 minutes out of a 30-minute game.
“Before the Octoberfest game our consumer awareness was only 51 percent. After the game it was 80 percent,” says Gregory Hardman, president of Cincinnati-based Warsteiner Importers.
- Ticker, a scrolling ticker featuring news, sports scores and other current announcements sponsored by an advertiser.
- Omnipoll, interactive questions placed at the end of a game when the scores are being fed back into the main server.
Polls are set up to measure the effectiveness of ads, as well as to test variations in ad executions and to scan public opinion on brand preferences, consumer habits and other marketing issues. Polls typically elicit 3,000 to 7,000 responses per question.
- Local ad screens are allotted to each establishment, for a total of eight 15-second spots each day. Each ad runs once per hour. Local venues use their time to advertise in-house specials, or they can sell the time to outside advertisers like a car dealership, says Jeff Grindrod, president of Nova, NTN’s rep.
Advertisers often buy more than one option to run simultaneously.
The game and ad loops are broadcast on television sets that are already in restaurants and bars.
“The screens can be nine inches or six feet,” Grindrod says. One or all sets can be tuned to NTN.
The playmaker keypads can be scattered throughout the establishment. All games are interactive and most are commonly played by several players.
Creative is provided by the advertiser, with copy created for television frequently used if it isn’t audio dependent, Grindrod says. Spirits, one of the largest advertisers, generally creates original ads because they typically don’t develop TV copy.
NTN’s in-house production staff is available to help customize ads.
“A good tie-in to motion and limited copy make good creative,” Grindrod says. Alcoholic beverages frequently feature an image of their bottle or packaging for branding, while non-alcoholic beverages use a logo. Web addresses are frequently an element of creative.
Creative can change as frequently as the advertiser needs, with most using the same creative for at least one month.
Banners, TV strips and other attention-getters are provided by NTN to promote the programming in bars and restaurants.
Markets:
NTN is available in many major markets. The top 10 states, listed alphabetically, are: California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas.
Advertisers can cherry-pick markets, with 80 percent buying national and the remaining 20 percent buying regional, Grindrod says. Regional placement is made by restaurant chain or by state.
NTN is available in 3,500 restaurants and bars including T.G.I. Friday’s, Damon’s International, Bennigan’s and Buffalo Wild Wings.
Numbers:
How measured?
Numbers of participants are audited by the Circulation Verification Council in St. Louis.
Impressions number 13 million per week, based on one ad per hour.
There are six million unique visitors per month.
The number of promotional units distributed also provides a count.
Research:
What product categories do well?
Anything that is available in the restaurant or bar, with alcohol topping the list, Grindrod says. “Also, anything you’d see in Men’s Journal, Maxim or Playboy appealing to men 21 to 34. Fashion, cars, trucks, electronics.”
Ads from competitive restaurants and chains aren’t accepted.
A case study of Foursquare Rum found that after the product was introduced to 22 states without any advertising other than the NTN network, which consisted of 1,200 bars and restaurants in those states, awareness increased 25 percent after the initial five-month flight.
Separately, the distributors experienced a 50 percent increase in demand in most of the NTN locations.
Demographics:
The median age of NTN users is 33, with 53 percent in the 18 to 34 range, 77 percent in the 21 to 49 range and 65 percent in the 25 to 49 year old range.
Of the users, 55.4 percent are male and 44.6 percent are female.
Single users make up 53.5 percent of the total while married ones make up 46.5 percent.
The median household income of users is $69,536.
Source: Simmons Market Research 1999, Circulation Verification Council 1998 and Monthly Player Activity Reports, NTS Servers 2000.
Consumer profiles of NTN users include the following:
- TV sports viewing includes 22 percent each for college and professional basketball, 33 percent college football, 47 percent pro football and 18 percent major league baseball with 69 percent watching five or more hours of TV weekly.
- Alcohol consumption includes 42 percent reporting drinking imported beer, 36 percent tequila, 25 percent bourbon, 43 percent rum, 39 percent cordials, 46 percent vodka and 15 percent pre-mixed drinks.
- Cigarettes are smoked by 33 percent and other tobacco products used by 12 percent.
- In the past year 49 percent have made a clothing purchase and 48 percent plan to purchase a new car in the next 12 months.
- Frequent flyer members number 41 percent while 81 percent each have vacationed and traveled domestically over the past year.
- Dining out once a week or more accounts for 82 percent of users while 58 percent attend a movie once or more a month. In addition, 59 percent have rented a video in the last month and 44 percent have purchased one.
- PC owners number 76 percent with 72 percent connected to the internet; 86 percent own a CD player, and 58 percent a video game console.
What NTN players say about themselves, described by index vs. population, includes:
- Somewhat liberal politically at 149
- Like to be outrageous at 146
- Like others to think I’m rich at 131
- Do things unconventionally at 128
- Entertain on the spur of the moment at 128
- Brave and dominating, each at 123
- Conservative Christian at 73
“What it allows you to do is very targeted advertising right at the consumer, right at the point of purchase,” says Kay Olsen, managing partner for The Spirit of Hartford.
“At home you see a commercial, you have to get up, put on your shoes, get in your car and go to the point of purchase. Instead you go into a bar, staring at the screen and say to the barkeep, ‘I’ll have one of those.’”
Another targeting issue is reaching consumers that meet the minimum legal drinking age, Olsen says. “You don’t want to target anyone under 21 for distilled spirits. When you’re driving by a billboard you see it, your grandma sees it, your daughter sees it. Being in a bar eliminates this issue.”
Making the buy:
Lead-time is typically six weeks, with creative in hand.
Ad cycles are typically one week and are purchased in monthly cycles with a three-month minimum and 12 month maximum.
Factors that affect pricing are length of contract and number of venues, with an option for category exclusivity also available.
The following rates are for a basic one-week package airing once an hour between 11 a.m. and 2 a.m., Monday through Sunday.
- Full-motion video at a base rate of $16,000 per week, a quarterly rate of $14,250 (per week) and $12,800 annual rate (per week).
- Graphic slide show at $14,000 a week, $12,500 quarterly rate (per week) and $11,250 annual rate (per week).
- Tickers (sponsorships) are available for $3,000 a week with an eight-week minimum buy.
Targeted ads are also available on a monthly basis.
Sales contacts are Grindrod in Avon, Conn., at 860-673-3963 and
Tommy Toy, NTN rep. in San Francisco, at 415-380-5061.
Who’s already on NTN screens:
Warsteiner Importers, Foursquare Spiced Rum, Miller Brewing, American Express, American Airlines, Priceline, Ford Trucks and others.
What they’re saying:
“We bought national advertising through them and so our message was picked up by over 3,000 accounts and what that did for us was increase exposure of our brand overnight by literally tens of thousands percent. We had people calling both NTN and Warsteiner direct asking to handle our product.
“We had customers emailing and asking if we could talk to their bartender about carrying Warsteiner beer. But the biggest residual effect was customers going into their local Kroger or Meijer store and asking for it there.”--Gregory Hardman, president of Cincinnati-based Warsteiner Importers Agency, Inc.
Web site info:
NTN at www.ntnnetwork.com
July 23, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
-Kathy Prentice writes about out-of-home advertising for Media Life, penning her stories from the resort town of Traverse City, in the upper reaches of Michigan.
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