Click on the Video Below and Sample a Session from the last Digital Hollywood event. For Additional Video Sessions, Click Here Media Summit New York Thursday, February 8th 3:45 PM - 5:00 PM Session B: Advertising and Games: From In-Game Advertising to Cross Promotional & Custom Brand Extension As the games industry continues to gain momentum and consumer loyalty as well as massive sales, as with all the other mass mediums, it was simply a matter of time before the industry discovered an appropriate relationship with the advertising and brand management industries. Games are not a niche. Games are a primary entertainment medium with growing power and consumer loyalty. The combination of the greatest brands with the greatest game titles makes perfect sense. If a hit CD can be broken in a video game just as the movie industry can spawn a soundtrack hit, the relationship of games to brand extension and advertising can not be far behind. The evolution of advertising, brand extension and promotions in the games industry is at hand. Julie Shumaker, VP of Worldwide Sales, Double Fusion Ralph Rivera, VP & GM, AOL Games Colleen Aylward, Category Development Officer, Entertainment, Yahoo! Nique Fajors, Senior Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Atari Brandon Berger, Senior Strategist, Digital Innovation OgilvyInteractive Bryan Cashman, Senior Consultant, Deloitte Consulting LLP Katherine Hays, Chief Operating Officer, Massive Incorporated Andrew Frank, Media Research Director, Gartner Research, Moderator Julie Shumaker, VP of Worldwide Sales, Double Fusion: Julie Shumaker, VP, Worldwide Sales, DoubleFusion is formerly EA’s National Director of Sales, Videogame Advertising, Shumaker established EA as the number one direct seller of integrated advertising placements in games. During her five year tenure, she increased year-on-year revenues by more than 60%. Shumaker’s successes include the implementation of a five-title advertising program with Procter & Gamble, a revolutionary sponsorship program with Daimler Chrysler around Madden NFL, and the industry’s first seven-figure product placement deals with McDonald’s and Intel in Electronic Art’s (EA) The Sims franchise. Prior to her work at EA, Shumaker drove sponsorships and advertising sales on Yahoo! Inc.’s FIFA World cup site. Before joining Yahoo, Shumaker was director of sponsorship sales for Quokka Sports and its joint venture with NBC. Shumaker’s experience in sports and sports marketing was established early on in her career, with three years as a professional golfer on the Asian and US tours. In 2005, Shumaker was featured in the "The Ad Age 2005 Women To Watch Report: Twenty-Five Executives Who Made A Difference," underscoring her success in building videogames as a viable advertising channel. Ralph Rivera, VP & GM, AOL Games, America Online, Inc.: As Vice President and General Manager of AOL Games, Ralph Rivera is responsible for all programming and business strategy for AOL Games, which provides content, services, and marketing for Web, PC, and console games for AOL members and game fans on the Web. Under Mr. Rivera’s direction, AOL Games continues to offer new initiatives that bring AOL members exclusive content and maximize their overall gaming experience while delivering valuable promotional and marketing benefits to game industry partners. Throughout his career, Mr. Rivera has focused on the intersection of technology and media. Prior to his position at AOL Games, he held executive and staff positions at America Online’s Moviefone, Pearson, Simon & Schuster, Deloitte & Touche, and IBM. He earned his undergraduate degree from Columbia College and an M.B.A. degree from New York University. Consistently ranked among the leading online gaming sites, AOL Games offers online games, exclusive demos of the hottest video games, comprehensive video games information including cheats, tips and reviews, and exclusive original streaming video programming. According to comScore Media Metrix, nearly 9 million game fans visit AOL Games and spend an average of 267 minutes per visitor each month, making games the second most popular activity on AOL behind email/instant messaging based on time spent per account. Nique Fajors, Senior Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Atari – New York: Marketing and branding veteran Nique Fajors brings more than 15 years of experience to his position as Senior Vice President, Sales & Marketing for Atari, Inc., one of the world's largest publishers and distributors of interactive software entertainment. Fajors' creative work has been profiled in The Boston Globe, Essence Magazine, The Source, The San Francisco Examiner, and The Bill Cunningham News Radio Show. Prior to Atari, Fajors held a similar position at Acclaim Entertainment. He began his business career at Procter & Gamble in brand management and has held leadership positions at Schumberger, Snyder Communications, The U.S. Department of Commerce, and The White House. At Snyder Communications he was President, Consumer Marketing Services, overseeing a $50 million division. Brandon Berger is the Senior Strategist for Digital Innovation for OgilvyInteractive. Brandon is responsible for leading client engagements regarding the application of innovative technologies for their evolving business challenges. For clients including Unilever, IBM, Hershey's, American Express, Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), AT&T wireless and others Brandon has used digital innovation as a key means to engage customers in new ways, thus providing brand relevance for their ever increasingly complex customer lifestyle. Prior to joining OgilvyInteractive Brandon Berger was the Director of Marketing for WideRay Corp, a wireless technology company he co-founded in 2000. In addition to WideRay Brandon has been a consulting resource for Entertainment, Technology, Gaming and Mobile Marketing companies on leveraging gaming, wireless, and emerging platforms for extending a brand message into an individual's personal environment. Brandon is a member of Ogilvy's Global Telco Task force, Tribe 25, their youth marketing practice, and is currently leading efforts for all Gaming and Wireless programs at Ogilvy. Bryan Cashman, Senior Consultant, Deloitte Consulting LLP: Bryan Cashman is a member of Deloitte Consulting LLP's media industry practice. While with the firm, his work has helped telecom, media, retail, and publishing clients to develop and deploy successful business strategies as they respond to the changing interactive landscape. He is a member of the firm's "Future of Games" industry focus group and has recently worked with clients helping them to develop new strategies related to deployment of mobile games. Prior to joining Deloitte Consulting, Bryan was an industry journalist who wrote for several enthusiast and consumer websites about the entertainment software industry. His latest printed work includes a public white paper, It’s All Phone and Games, which discusses the next phase of growth in the mobile game market and the related opportunities for profit. Andrew Frank covers marketing and advertising technology trends as a research director with Gartner Research's media industry team. Mr. Frank has over 25 years of experience in entertainment technology and business. He has spent the past 12 years focused on innovation in interactive marketing and Internet development, providing him with knowledge not just of the technologies, but also of the business goals and practices of media and advertising companies. Andrew’s coverage includes search engine marketing, online marketing, analytics and metrics, customer engagement, ad serving, PVR and VOD advertising, in-game advertising, mobile advertising, and digital ad networks in general.