Draw advertising

A new kind of advertising is infiltrating the struggling Draw Something app. Is this an attempt by Zynga to retrieve something from a sale that went sour?

Usually, if you pay for an app, the advertising disappears; and, until recently, this was true for Draw Something, too.

Now, though, Zynga has initiated a new way to draw cash from its skinnier-than-expected cow: sponsored words.

The new advertising strategy is being pioneered by the National Hockey League (NHL) in Canada and the US, with such words as "Slapshot", "Puck", "Zamboni" and various players' names. It's proving quite popular, too, as the NHL's Pinterest collection demonstrates.

While one might think, though, that this was driven by Zynga, the strategy has been road tested from the beginning, with brands such as KFC, Doritos and Nike slipping into the game's lexicon. Ad Age quoted Dan Porter, OMGPOP's CEO, as saying, "People loved to draw the Colonel and bags of Doritos."

Nevertheless, the move smacks of desperation, and something about attempting to monetise fun in this way leaves a bad taste in our mouths.

What do you think about Zynga's new advertising strategy? Sound off in the comments below.