Tim Harris: 'Younger Media Consumers Take for Granted the Ability to Control Their Media'
The co-director of Starcom MediaVest's new video game unit says that behavior such as skipping commercials with TiVo is "ingrained in the DNA" of younger media users.

By Patrick Phillips
I Want Media, 08/26/04

Tim Harris is the VP and co-director of Play, a unit formed last summer by leading media buying agency Starcom MediaVest Group to develop advertising and promotional partnerships with video game publishers.

The notoriously hard-to-reach young male audience is believed to be fleeing traditional media, especially television, for newer alternatives like video games. Media companies are taking notice -- Time Warner recently purchased video game developer Monolith, and Viacom is said to be interested in acquiring a game publisher.

Starcom's Harris is a longtime gaming fan. The 30-year-old advertising professional admits that he skips "probably 100 percent" of commercials using TiVo and forgoes print newspapers for customized online news sources. He predicts that in the near future Internet-connected game devices will make gaming "more like cable."

I Want Media: What makes video games a viable communications medium?

Tim Harris: Gaming is not a burgeoning medium, it's not something that's emerging -- it's already a massive industry. About 50 percent of Americans play console video games, PC games or online games. Yet, until recently, no one was taking advantage of gaming as an advertising channel.

There's a lot of talk about media multitasking -- watching the TV, surfing the Internet and listening to the radio at the same time. But such multitasking doesn't exist with video games. Because if you're playing a video game, it's not possible to multitask and be successful at the game experience.

IWM: You're quoted in the current issue of Wired magazine saying: "I resent commercials -- they make me push three buttons on my TiVo." But won't marketers' messages in video games annoy game users?

Harris: Not at all. For example, a sports game may contain signage with a marketer's message. But it's the same kind of signage that you would see in an actual, real-life stadium. It's not intrusive. In some cases, it lends an air of realism because that kind of signage exists in the real world. It's realistic to see messages from Coke and McDonald's on signs at certain games.

IWM: Nielsen reported last year that younger males were leaving television in droves (although they're reportedly coming back). But why don't young male audiences like watching TV as much as they once did?

Harris: They now have choices that are highly desirable to them other than just television. Video games are not just about "shoot 'em up" anymore. Many genres of entertainment are now represented in the game community -- from music to fantasy, to science fiction, to sports.

Games now have a near photo-realistic level of graphics. They're becoming more and more compelling. As one entertainment experience becomes superior to another, people are going to gravitate toward it.

Lots of television programming is aimed at the male 18 to 34 -- but about 700 games are released for consoles every year aimed predominantly at the same audience. Games also have a social aspect like sports. They're far more engaging than any television show.

IWM: Are you a fan of TiVo?

Harris: I'm a huge fan. TiVo represents the kind of control you have in a video game. As a consumer, having control over my television viewing-time is the biggest benefit I get from TiVo. On top of that -- sadly for me in the advertising industry -- the other thing that I really love is the fact that I can skip commercials. I skip probably 100 percent of commercials when I'm watching TiVo.

IWM: Where do you get your news every day?

Harris: I'm a heavy Internet user. I'll pop into My Yahoo!, where I've got my customized news coming to me. Then I'll pop into a news source like a Wall Street Journal or a New York Times, as well as GameSpot, which is my source for game news. I like picking up snippets and going through them very quickly to get myself updated, and then I move on.

IWM: Do you read print newspapers?

Harris: No. Newspapers I get entirely online.

IWM: You're located in Chicago. Do you read the Chicago Tribune or the Chicago Sun-Times on the Web?

Harris: No, I don't read them. I get everything from the online sources that I named before. But if you want to include Metromix under the Tribune moniker, then I suppose I am a consumer of some Tribune information. Metromix is a great online dining and events guide.

IWM: Do you read the RedEye and Red Streak tabloids from the Tribune and the Sun-Times, which are intended to attract younger readers?

Harris: Yes, RedEye I pick up pretty often. I pick it up when I'm getting on the "L" [train]. I actually like it because they do some sensationalistic-type stuff and human-interest types of stories.

IWM: So you read it for the entertainment value?

Harris: Yes, not for news.

IWM: As video game users get older, won't they tire of games and move on to more traditional media?

Harris: Doubtful. The reason that 29 is the average age of the gamer today is because an entire generation of people grew up playing games and never put the joystick down.

There aren't a lot of 35-plus gamers in the console world right now because those people were on the higher end when games were introduced. They missed that Atari 2600. However, if you look at online gaming -- Yahoo! Games, or Pogo, or Shockwave -- they're actually dominated by women 35-plus.

IWM: How are younger media audiences -- under age 34 -- different from older media audiences?

Harris: Younger media consumers have never not known the existence of a mouse. If you're between 18 and 20, you wouldn't remember a time when the Internet didn't exist. They take for granted the ability to control their media -- being able to multitask, having 15 different windows open at the same time.

They have issues of expectation and entitlement. The paradigms and behaviors that come along with newer technologies are ingrained in their DNA, like skipping commercials with TiVo.

IWM: How will video games be different in the next five to 10 years?

Harris: The introduction of the connected console will be very exciting. When Xboxes and PlayStations become connected to the Internet, there will be additional content opportunities. And that will be appealing to advertisers, because they'll be allowed to change and update the messages they put into a game.

Every game device over the next five to 10 years will be either wirelessly or wired connected to the Internet, which will allow you to play people from all over the nation -- or all over the world, for that matter.

But even more exciting than that is the possibility of game programming. Being connected with the Internet means a gamer could receive content on an ongoing basis -- meaning the whole business model would change. It won't be a packaged goods paradigm, it'll be more like cable. Like, you might subscribe to the action genre, which would give you every action game that comes out delivered directly to your game device.

IWM: Gee, this makes the concept of watching a TV sitcom like "Everybody Loves Raymond" sound sort of tired.

Harris: As bullish as I am on games, there are still times when I want my entertainment to be a passive experience while laying on the couch. There'll always be a place for regular television. Sometimes I want the story to be told to me, and sometimes I want to interact with the story. I don't see either one going away. There's just going to be a lot more to do.

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