When the U.S. Department of Agriculture released a version of the new healthy eating guide aimed at elementary schoolchildren in late September, the peripheral material for teachers and parents included more than the typical lesson plans, posters and flyers. To get kids interested in the first new food pyramid since 1992, the USDA built a video game that teaches schoolchildren the healthy eating and exercise principles in the MyPyramid for Kids guide.

The government agency was taking a page from the modern marketing handbook. Companies ranging from American Airlines to Omaha Steaks have created video games that incorporate marketing material, broadly known as advergames. It is an increasingly popular tool: Boston–based business technology consultant The Yankee Group reports that advergaming and in-game ads will be a $260 million market by 2008. BMW, for instance, markets its sporty X3 with a sophisticated advergame that lets potential buyers customize a car and then race it in a variety of weather and road conditions.

The USDA's advergame, MyPyramid Blast Off, lets participants fill the tanks of a rocket ship with food and exercise. If they use the USDA's principles correctly, the ship blasts off. "Kids may see a graphic poster, but there is so much learning in the game rather than something static," says Jackie Haven, a USDA nutritionist.

Other advergame companies build generic online gaming platforms that can be branded by a company. Las Vegas–based With Gratitude created an online advergaming platform called REACT that uses nine head-to-head puzzle games and lets companies insert various advertising messages around the game screen.

REACT is a tournament platform that separates players by skill level, says Mike Calderone, With Gratitude's CEO. "That keeps people interested," he says, noting that the average user plays 10 to 15 two- to three-minute-long games per session, and logs on for a session 18 times a month for 14 months.

The tournament architecture requires users to play online, meaning clients can update the ad messages constantly, target them at specific consumers and gather back-end data about the users.