Brands, sponsorship, DLC and in game advertising

I pass the Hyde’s brewery frequently, the Fosters one less so. They would be perfect for a DLC for Call of Duty or similar. Look at the inside/outside spaces/vantage points, opportunities for cover and sniping points – if it was created by the game developer, published on the network and if Mr Asian Beer brand/Cuban rum (I'm playing Black Ops at present) offered it to me for free (map packs cost £4-8 on average), I’d be pretty darn happy and very much have that brand on my mind.

Black Ops was the largest entertainment launch in history, making $650 million in 5 days and is still massive in the charts. Here is a neat COD BlackOps infographic to show you the scale and immersion of the property - why is this not a media channel yet?

It requires a much bigger commitment than billboards in a game and the negotiations woudl be long, but the engagement and awareness would be far higher. It could easily be a noodle or snack factory for the complete male slacker demographic ;) either way, all DLC accounts are for people with credit cards so less healthy food or booze brands could get involved.

Making a level clearly takes a lot of money and studio resources, but the awareness and recall from the players if a global brand agreed to supprt the dev process and leave creative sign off to the developer would be incredible. I dont think Tony Hawks style billboards would fit the Call of Duty universe, but this could be much more harmonious.

I'm going to ask Call of Duty Black Ops community man @JD_2020 and industry expert @Gamesbrief for insights on the numbers. It might go nowhere but I want to find out!

How else would you solve the issue of expensive DLC for map hungry global gamers?

Update 4 March 2011

Thanks to Nicholas Lovell who got back to me with some links & figures. Looking at these would suggest that for a brand to present a map, Acitivision would need to be compensated between $6 million - $12 million for one map due to what they could make from 1/5 of a map pack's sales, to what potentially a free map might cost them in lost revenues from users not downloading more DLC (based on Stimulus package figures). A map pack might cost a sponsor to $35 million.

Learning: essentially impossible to price up without Activision, but I still think that a one off map, released outside a multi map DLC to reduce cannibalisation would be a snip at $6+ million which can claim 2.5 million downloads in one territory in one week (for chargeable content)! The lifespan of brand presence would be years, and a truly global audience. Looking back at that infographic, if I were a brand manager I'd be looking into this.