GCHQ MAKES A PLAY FOR NEW TALENT

GCHQ and TMP Worldwide launch first ever in-game recruitment ads to appear in Massive Inc. network of PC and Console games

London, 17 October 2007: Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) has launched the UK and World's first in-game recruitment advertising campaign. This is the latest innovation from TMP Worldwide, GCHQ's recruitment advertising partner, who led the strategy and partnered with Massive Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft Corp. and a global provider of dynamic in-game advertising. The campaign will promote career opportunities in the British Intelligence services via online in-game ads on selected games in the UK.

The one month campaign, beginning at the end of October, will provide GCHQ with a highly effective and relevant means of promoting exciting career opportunities to the online gaming audience, through real-world scenarios and realistic street and billboard advertising placements in selected PC and console games in the Massive Network.

Creative ad scenarios within games have already been used to promote global brands, including Coca Cola and Nokia, with powerful effect. Whilst independent research has shown that in game advertising can increase brand familiarity by up to 64%, whilst purchase consideration and ad recall can increase by up to 41% ¹.

“Although press advertising still plays an important role, it’s now just one element of an integrated approach to recruitment that forward thinking clients like GCHQ are spearheading,” says Laura Robertson, GCHQ’s Account Director at TMP Worldwide.

“The world of online gaming offers GCHQ a further route to target a captive audience,” explains Kate Clemens, Head of GCHQ’s Digital Strategy at TMP Worldwide. “These gamers are loyal and frequent users of PC and console games and are particularly receptive to innovative forms of advertising.”

Tom Hosking, Regional Sales Director, EMEA, Massive Inc. says, “Video games continue to evolve as a mainstream entertainment medium, presenting new opportunities for advertisers to connect with a highly engaged, lean forward audience. We’re delighted to help GCHQ take advantage of the dynamic, creative opportunities we offer through our Massive network, which are specifically designed to reach online gamers with ads that reflect their real world experiences.”

Working closely with both TMP Worldwide and Massive, GCHQ has selected a number of key titles in which the ads will appear, including: Need for Speed Carbon, published by Electronic Arts; Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Double Agent and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas, both published by Ubisoft; together with a brand new game, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, published by Activision.

¹Data represents percentage change from control groups (gamers not exposed to ads) to test groups (gamers exposed to ads). Source: Nielsen Entertainment executed study for Massive in January 2007. Data from surveys with 600+ gamers in North America who played Need For Speed Carbon on Xbox 360 & PC platforms. Game published by Electronic Arts.

For more information please contact:

GCHQ:
Alan Thompson, GCHQ Press Officer
Tel: 01242 221491

TMP:
Veronica Hannon,
Tel: 077 52875285
veronica@vmhassociates.co.uk

Massive:
Alex Kingdon, PR Manager, Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions
Tel: 020 3 139 6033
alexking@microsoft.com

About GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters)
An intelligence and security organisation that reports to the Foreign Secretary and works closely with the UK's other intelligence agencies (commonly known as MI5 and MI6). Its primary customers are the Ministry of Defense, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and law enforcement authorities, but it also serves a wide range of other Government Departments.

About TMP Worldwide
TMP Worldwide in the UK & Ireland is a recruitment, communications and people solutions provider with a vision to be the partner of choice. TMP Worldwide delivers innovative solutions for the full process of candidate attraction, management and communications to organisations in the Private and Public sector. TMP Worldwide is one of the largest organisations of its kind, with 10 offices across the UK & Ireland and work as part of a global network which enables it to provide a tailored service on both a local, national and global level. www.tmpw.co.uk

About Massive Inc
Massive Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft, is the creator of a leading network for dynamic video game advertising. With 40 game publishers and more than 100 titles, the Massive Network offers advertisers the ability to reach an aggregated gaming audience in real time across multiple platforms. Over 60 blue-chip advertisers have run campaigns across the Massive Network throughout North America and Europe. Publishers in the Massive Network generate revenue through dynamic in-game advertising, enabling them to leverage the value of their content while preserving and enhancing the game experience. Massive’s technology allows for all forms of downloadable media and advertising content to be contextually integrated into the game environment, including image, audio, video and game object formats. More information can be found online at http://www.massiveincorporated.com.