Ben Sherman: Advertising Clothes In-Game

In an unlikey catagory for in-game ads, Ben Sherman moves into the virtual.

From the article:

"The ability to customize the racers' attire comes courtesy of Ben Sherman, a clothing brand popular among soccer fans in Britain and urban hipsters in America. Realizing that many young men spend more time with their Xboxes, Playstations or Nintendos than their televisions, Ben Sherman joined a growing number of marketers who see video games as a promising new frontier in advertising.

"So many people were stuck in this idea that gamers are lonely 12- year-old boys in their bedrooms," said Ed Bartlett, vice president for Europe at IGA Worldwide, a specialist ad agency that developed the Ben Sherman campaign. "In actual fact, they are 29-year-old, affluent men with plenty of disposable income."

For Ben Sherman and Atari, which is owned by Infogrames Entertainment of France, the potential audience seemed to intersect so well that it prompted a surreal twist. The partnership will extend beyond the in-game advertising and into a real-world link between the two brands, with Ben Sherman stores installing "pods" where customers will be able to take a spin at the controls of "Test Drive Unlimited."

"You can go into the stores in the game, and into the game in the stores," Bartlett said. "It's all pretty weird."