Dramatic increase (via SPOnG)

in-game advertising will be worth $1.2 billion in three years, Ed Bartlett, VP of publishing for in-game advertiser IGA Worldwide, told SPOnG (via Adverlab).

Bartlett said that two or three years ago, the in-game ad spend was dramatically under-represented in relation to its share of media usage: "Back in 2003, gaming had a 13.5 percent share of media use but only a tiny 0.06 percent share of total ad spend.

"However, the situation is changing rapidly, and the in-game advertising industry is experiencing rapid growth. Here at IGA, we've looked at numerous predictions from major analysts in the industry - including reports from Citi, IDC, Yankee Group, Forrester and SIG - and we can confidently state that the in-game advertising industry should be worth at least $1.2 billion by 2010. The growth rate is just phenomenal!"