EA bringing video ads to social games, hires WildTangent's Dave Madden

Advertising might be in trouble everywhere else, but in social games it seems to be booming. And EA is riding that gravy train until it runs dry, hiring a new senior VP of global marketing solutions, Dave Madden. A veteran of WildTangent, Madden (no, not that Madden) worked there on BrandBoost, a video advertising platform for social games. Inside Social Games reports that he aims to bring that expertise to the giant publisher. More specifically, Madden plans to bring more direct, but less forceful advertising content to social gamers.

"This biggest challenge [at EA] is engagement scalability by platform," Madden said to ISG. "Our users at EA appreciate content on multiple platforms. The biggest thing we've learned in social gaming is adding value to the user, putting the user in control." In other words, Madden wants to bring ads that users not only have control over, but will actually benefit from in their games. To do this could be simpler than you might think, according to an example the new senior VP provided ISG.