Entertainment sites are more than entertainment. These sites can be an important marketing tool, both for promotion of products and also for researching the demographic characteristics of the users that the site attracts.

Research has shown that an increase in user participation in communications positively increases user knowledge and interest. This provides marketing and public relations practitioners with opportunities when the objective is to increase awareness and product recognition. One effective strategy to communicate with online consumers – especially children, youth and young adults – is to incorporate marketing and public relations tactics into online entertainment sites. As an example, a public relations person representing a mountain bike brand could make a deal to have his or her client’s bikes and accessories featured exclusively on a new online mountain bike game. Part of the strategy could be to promote the company’s latest models of mountain bikes by offering virtual versions of the bikes as rewards once a user reaches a certain point level or if the player performs specific, complicated stunts. These two strategies would have the potential to increase the company’s online profile and create brand recognition for a specific product among a specific youth demographic. Since there is also a social networking aspect to gaming, the strategy could generate buzz about a new product.

Online entertainment sites can also be used as a research tool before planning a marketing strategy. Data gathered from people’s online activities can be used to create detailed demographic and behavioral profiles for a target market. Data mining can be used to gather aggregate information on a specific demographic’s online activities. Public relations and marketing practitioners can collect data by following and recording users’ preferences and pathways as they navigate a site. This data can be collected by using both covert software and more obvious forms of market research integrated into site content. An example of this for of research can be found on the game site Neopets.com. This site, which attracts up to 8,000 young respondents a day, gathers data on their user demographic by offering points to users who complete surveys on a wide variety of topics. Users can then trade their rewarded points for products to care for their virtual pets on the site. By integrating research techniques with features of game play, sites such as Neopets.com motivate users to supply personal information and other useful market-research data, without providing the type of personal information that violates privacy laws.