Virtual Baseball with Real Life Ads

One of my favorite things to do at a baseball game is to look at the ads placed around the stadium (Can you tell I'm not a huge baseball fan? Hockey, on the other hand...). Those ads have become a rather integral part of real-life baseball games. When I was first learning about the game of baseball, my friend took me to a game. As I got swept up in the action, I started confusing players. She helped me figure out who was who and what position is where by using the ads around the field as place markers. Most sports, in fact, have similar advertising.

I know very little about Fantasy Sports, RPGs and the like, but I do know that a lot of people put a lot of time into playing them. Business Week had an article last week that discusses the use of branding the stadiums used in these online, multiplayer sports video games. The article also discusses the use of brand sponsored players in the game.

In the real world, stadiums and players are filled with sponsors and branding. The big difference here is, as Julie Shumaker of Double Vision -- the company that's in charge of this -- says, it opens the athletic world up "for marketers who want to tap into the sports space but don't have league rights."

I really like this idea -- especially if, as mentioned in the article, the company takes it a bit further and creates branded stadiums. Except, wait... don't those also exist in the real world? Either way, it's a smart move. People are already caught up in multiplayer sports games, and sports advertising isn't even really noted on a conscious level any more. It really is a smooth transition for these games, and it's a huge opportunity for marketers to make a mark in branded entertainment.