Video Game Marketing in the U.S. in '08 Exceeded $823 Million – Nielsen

2008 was a record-breaking year for video game sales in the U.S. The industry racked up $22 billion in sales, but behind every blockbuster there's usually a fair amount of advertising. According to research from Nielsen-Monitor Plus, more than $823 million was spent on video game marketing in the U.S. last year.

Nielsen shared the data as part of an announcement that the firm is partnering with Electronic Entertainment Design and Research (EEDAR) in a long term agreement "to provide detailed analysis of historical marketing campaigns in the video game industry."

Under this collaboration, Nielsen's Monitor-Plus advertising monitoring service will be integrated with EEDAR's proprietary database of video game features ("Game DNA"), which covers more than 8,000 historical game titles. This combined data will then be delivered via EEDAR's GamePulse and DesignMetrics services.

"EEDAR is very pleased to work with The Nielsen Company - one of the most trusted names in marketing research," said EEDAR Executive Chairman, Gregory Short. "The integration of Monitor-Plus marketing data and creative assets into EEDAR technologies will redefine how the video game industry can analyze and best leverage the pivotal role marketing plays in the consumer purchase process."

"The combination of Nielsen market intelligence with EEDAR's games metrics and analysis will be a valuable resource that will enable games publishers to make more informed decisions regarding the $823 million spent promoting video game titles," said Enid Maran, Vice President of New Business Development, Media Services for The Nielsen Company.

Nielsen and EEDAR also said that attendees of the D.I.C.E Summit in Vegas next week will be able get a sneak-peek at the results of the Nielsen and EEDAR data analyses via GamePulse kiosks in the D.I.C.E lounge.