Speaking Sensis

In a first for in-game advertising in Australia, MediaSmart has negotiated an innovative deal with Victoria’s Transport Accident Commission to make targeted advertising available within PlayStation 3 games.

Australian gamers using Sony’s gaming console will begin to see targeted messages about drink-driving and speeding throughout PlayStation 3 games while exploring the virtual worlds.

According to the latest Roy Morgan data, about half of males aged between 18 and 34 have played computer games at home in the last three months. The ads will enhance the user experience by making the game more realistic in terms of relevance to real-world advertising on the dangers faced by motorists every day.

Using this model, the ad blends smoothly with the action, allowing content to mix easily with the message and providing an interactive experience.

The campaign will run across MediaSmart’s action, racing and sport games from January to June 2009. TAC’s advertisements will feature exclusively on the NFL, NBA and Tiger Woods PGA Tour PlayStation 3 games, as well as the cult racing video game Need for Speed.

MediaSmart has an exclusive Australian partnership to represent IGA Worldwide, the world’s largest independent in-game advertising network, which has recently been extended to include several major Electronic Arts titles on PlayStation 3.

MediaSmart is the digital display advertising division of Sensis. For more information, check out www.mediasmart.com.au.

Sensis bods have been invited to share their knowledge with the business, media and advertising communities over the past few months at a range of different events.

General Manager, Online Search & Directories and Sensis Interactive, Chris Smith participated in a panel discussion the Kelsey Interactive Local Media Conference in Santa Clara, USA. The panel discussed “The ‘New’ Business Directories: Reaching (and satisfying) Small Businesses”. The panellists provided a glimpse of international trends in local media. Other panellists included Pieter Grasdijk, CEO of iLocal (Netherlands); Eric Peacock, GM of Insider Pages (USA); and Manoj Verma, CEO of MyVirtual Paper (Canada).

Rachel De Sain, Strategy & Commercial Manager for Sensis Mobile presented at the Australasian Media & Broadcasting Congress about the consumer and advertiser benefits of mobile advertising, including mobile’s ability to transcend advertising from physical to digital with scannable mobile code technology. Mobile advertising is no longer the next big thing – it’s here and gaining huge traction by the month.

General Manager, Marketing for Yellow™ & White Pages®, Michelle Sherwood gave a reflective presentation at the Leadership 21 Rebranding & Repositioning Conference in Sydney on the Yellow™ story and how the brand and products have evolved to meet consumer and advertiser needs.

Traffic Manager, Ash Nallawalla spoke at Search Engine Room in Sydney and PubCon in Las Vegas, USA on the challenges of search engine optimisation for large sites like yellow.com.au and some tips for SEO success.

Design Lead Chris McLay and Experience Innovation Manager, Fiona Ingram have both addressed online design conferences on their adventures in discovering what works in user-centred design.

Group Manager Marketing, Strategy & Business Development for Digital Media Services, Andrea Cartwright presented at an AIMIA seminar on opportunities and challenges in today’s digital display advertising market. This was one of 12 seminars that Sensis is hosting in the auditorium at our QV headquarters in Melbourne through to August 2009. We’re really pleased to be supporting AIMIA with this seminar series and enjoying hosting AIMIA’s Victorian members at our offices each month.

And Sensis CEO, Bruce Akhurst, has been particularly busy on the speaking circuit, addressing business leaders, journalists and analysts in Sydney and Melbourne about Sensis’ multi-channel strategy at Trans-Tasman Business Circle and Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce boardroom events, and at Telstra’s Investor Day.

Sensis looks forward to sharing more learnings and stories with the industry in 2009.