What do you fancy more on the virtual turf – being an IPL team stakeholder, making some gains by disposing Kingfisher, or perhaps enhancing your Axe instinct to woo fantasy women? It’s time to have fun online with advergaming.

Subtle advertising messages in the shape of virtual games are becoming fast popular as an effective tool with marketers. Largely driven by the increasing popularity and demand for social networking based games such as Mafia Wars and FarmVille among the youth, leading brands are joining hands with gaming firms.

Brands like Hindustan Unilever, Mahindra & Mahindra, UB Group and Canon are trying to create games for prospective customers online. Even the IPL has entered this unique brand-building arena. Signifying the trend, Zapak Digital Entertainment of ADAG group have launched advergames on Axe brand from Hindustan Unilever and SUVs of M&M, namely Scorpio and Bolero Stringer.

Advergaming is a clever departure from the earlier one-dimensional banner ads. Zapak Digital Entertainment now comes up with 4-5 advergames at least, every month. According to the CEO of Zapak, Rohit Sharma, it’s a win-win scenario for all, as brands are able to communicate their product offering to target groups whereas the users get to play interesting games.

Other players in the fray like UTV’s Indiagames and leading social networking website ibibo too are creating catchy advergames for youth-centric brands. ibibo web has developed games for Garnier, Airtel and Vodafone. Advergaming has gained currency owing to the wide popularity of engaging social network games like FarmVille on Facebook.

According to marketing experts, social gaming helps engage the brand with the end user. It triggers viral marketing. No surprise, marketers using smart advergaming strategy to create buzz about bold and brash brands.