What role does advertising have to play in ensuring the industry makes the most of the current bad economic situation?

The UK Government yesterday announced its intentions to defend and support advertising in light of the imposing recession.

Speaking to Brand Republic, one minister said: "We have to look at the impact of every decision we make in a new light. We don't want to make a difficult economic situation even worse. We have to use every weapon at our disposal, and we need to think very carefully before taking spending out of the economy."

While this admission relates specifically to enforcing cuts for the advertising of alcohol and junk food it reaffirms the notion that advertising is still a hugely important and relevant tool in keeping channels of communication between organisations and consumers open during times of economic strife.

Only an fool would suggest that the games, by virtue of being games alone, have the potential to come out of any recession utterly unscathed. The notion of a “recession-proof” industry is counter intuitive because it implies that the industry can continue to behave the same way and still weather the storm. This isn’t true, and any belief that it might be is very dangerous indeed.

Bullet-proof glass is called so because it can just sit their passively taking hit after hit and still maintain its structural integrity. The relationship that the videogame industry has with the recession is one of strategic opportunity, not defensive strength. What the recession represents to the industry is potential. That games, by virtue of being games alone, can still represent value in these troubled times because of the overwhelming ratio of “money : hours of entertainment”. However, if consumers do not realise that then they will become an expendable luxury like so many other things.

Advertising has a huge part to play in bridging that gap and communicating this benefit. As one of ever declining number of UK industries which are genuinely profitable it is paramount that publishers, console manufacturers and retailers advertise prolifically to maximise the prominence of the industry and its unique offering among consumers.

Games and the consoles they are played on need to be shown as investments, it is too much to expect consumers to figure this out by chance. Furthermore advertising is itself an investment, for the games industry at least. While other industries are seeking to cut costs and brace themselves for weak profits the advertising budget will be one of the first places they look. By promoting itself heavily now the games industry is not just advertising and increasing its chances for Christmas but the whole of 2009.