Get In the Game Score marketing points with video game product placement.

Hip businesses can now shoot for sales in a new way. SaysMichael Oxman, managing director of JAM InternationalPartners Inc. in Chicago, a firm specializing in video gameproduct placement, this growing segment may be a better choice forsome businesses than film and TV placement. "You target thegaming audience in the same way you target through traditionalmedia," he explains. "Look at the game [and] who playsit, and identify opportunities that make sense."

Hoby Buppert, creator of Bawls Guarana (www.bawls.com), theworld's most caffeinated soft drink, believes this marketingvenue has potential for some products but can be deadly for othersthat don't appeal to cynical, marketing-savvy gaming audiences."If the product is out of place, there's no quicker way toturn them off," advises Buppert, 30. He also believes thatjust putting a passive logo within the game does little for yourbrand. Instead, he insists that his product be featured as aninteractive part of the game. In one game, Bawls bottle caps areused as currency. In another, the product's vending machinesdispense energy points. If you're not making the product partof the game, he says, you're wasting your money.

How much money? According to Oxman, that's a trickyquestion. Buppert's Miami Beach, Florida, company, HobaramaInc., has bartered placements in exchange for promoting the game tohis customers, which include a large concentration of gamers.That's not the norm, and Oxman estimates placementopportunities start at $25,000 and go as high as $700,000 or more,depending on interactivity and visibility.

If you think this venue has promise, Oxman says it's time toget in the game, either by picking the games and contacting themanufacturers yourself, or by going through product placementcompanies that can negotiate deals for you. Why the rush?"Like anything else," he says, "placing your productin video games is less expensive now than it will be in a year ortwo."