Greystripe and Simyo to offer free, ad supported mobile games

Greystripe is one company which sure knows the pulse of its customers. Ad supported mobile games are considered the next big thing and Greystripe is sure cashing in on that. First, it was the much-talked-about partnership with Myxer and now here comes another partnership with the German mobile operator, Simyo.

According to this deal, Greystripe will create a games portal which will have more than 800 free mobile games. Mobile users will be able to download them without paying a penny, as all the games are ad supported. Surprisingly, these games are not exclusively available for Simyo subscribers alone. Any mobile user from any mobile network can download these games. The reason is pretty simple.

Both Simyo and Greystripe will split the revenue generated from the targeted ads in those mobile games. So, it doesn’t matter who downloads the game – whether a Simyo subscriber or someone else – as long as the revenue comes in.

Also, one of the highlights of this mobile games portal is that it supports over 1400 handsets, which is a very good thing for mobile users. No matter what handset you have, you’ll be able to download these games. So, this will be pretty popular with users.

Btw, have you guys tried out any of these ad supported mobile games? What are your favorites?

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones, Mobile Games.

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Advertising in mobile games - A summary

This post is kinda like a summary. Of everything I’ve talked about advertising on mobile games so far. A couple of my friends asked me to explain mobile games, the concept of advertising in mobile games, how they do it, why they do it, and of course some official facts and figures to back up my claims. Though I’ve talked about mobile games and advertising in mobile games quite often in this blog, I thought it would be nice to summarize it in just one post to make it easier for my readers. So, here it goes.

If you were to rate some of the most favorite pastimes of mobile users, mobile video games would certainly be one of them. From kids to teenagers to adults, everyone likes to spend a little time on mobile games every now and then. And downloading a game to your mobile phone has become ever so easy thanks to mobile advertisers. You have ad funded mobile video games that are free to download and they are very popular among people now. In fact, media analyst Screen Digest predicts that by 2012, over 60 million mobile games will be downloaded per year. That’s a monstrous number which just goes to show the popularity of mobile video games.

There are two ways in which advertisers place their ads in mobile video games. First, ads are placed before and after a game. This is by far the most common form of advertising in mobile video games. You download a game and when you’re about to start playing it, you’ll be shown some ad spots. Then when you finish playing the game, you’ll be shown some more ad spots. This method works well with users as they are not disturbed during the course of the game. Also, advertisers tend to gain from this as there is no way these ads can go unnoticed.

Second method is called product placement. Now, this method is even more refined and the ads are blended seamlessly into the gaming environment. In this method, you’ll not find ads popping up before or after the game. Instead, you’ll find them placed within your game. The soccer players might be wearing Nike jerseys, the boxers might be wearing Adidas shoes, and the signboards might have Microsoft logos. This way, the brands are shown to us in a subtle way and it doesn’t distract our attention on the game at all. So, this method is also pretty popular with advertisers these days.

The mobile advertising industry is growing fast and ad funded mobile games have never been so popular. There are plenty of companies that offer free mobile games for download which are completely ad funded. Going by the popularity of these games, the prediction made by Screen Digest very much looks like a possibility in the next few years.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones, Mobile Games.

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Innovative mobile advertising campaign from Japan

It’s weekend time and, as usual, I started digging into the RSS feeds I’ve subscribed to. And I came across this news which I thought was very cool.

Tohato, a snacks company in Japan, has done a phenomenal job in interactive mobile advertising. Tohato has come up with a mobile advertising campaign based on its two popular brands of spicy snacks namely Habanero and Satan Jorquia.

The idea is simple. All you need to do is, buy a pack of snack, scan the 2D barcode printed on the pack, and enter the game via your mobile phone. First, you’ll be asked to pick your favorite brand between Habanero and Satan Jorquia. Each brand has its own ‘evil army’ and whoever chooses that brand becomes a part of that army. There will be a ‘World’s Worst War’ in which both these armies will fight against each other.

You can also move up the ranks in the army by recruiting your friends to join your army. In turn, they could recruit their other friends to join the army. As more and more people join through you, you’ll be promoted. There are twenty battlefields in which these armies will fight against each other and after every fight, details like how many died, how many were promoted, which battlefield was captured by whom, and other things will be delivered to you via your mobile phone.

The response for this campaign has been great so far, as the game is highly engaging. The ad agency in Japan which created this mobile advertising campaign has already got several awards worldwide for the best mobile campaign.

Japan once again has proved that it’s miles ahead of other countries when it comes to mobile advertising. If you notice, using QR codes in mobile advertising campaigns has paid off big time and it has made their job every so easy. I for one, as a mobile user, find the idea of scanning the barcode easier than say sending a text message to get more details on a particular product. I really hope that mobile advertisers in the U.S. and Europe take note of this and use QR codes in their mobile advertising campaigns.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones, Mobile Games.

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Download free mobile games from freemobilegames.mobi

Just a couple of days back we saw a report from Screen Digest which said that mobile video games will become hugely popular in a few years from now and over 60 million games will be downloaded every year. Now, we have another company which lets you do exactly the same – download video games to your mobile phone free of cost.

Freemobilegames.mobi is a site which allows you to download ad funded mobile games for free. It’s basically a simple procedure. You go to the site, select the kind of handset that you have, look at the categories of games for that particular handset, select one, and download it to your mobile phone.

Now, though these games are supported by advertisements, you’ll have to pay a small charge to download and play the game, if you don’t have unlimited data plan. If you have unlimited data plan, then the games are absolutely free for you. The advertisements will be shown before the start of the game and after the finish of the game.

I think the site’s future depends on the value they provide for users. If the games are varied and interesting enough for uses, the site can expect quite a handful of downloads regularly. That aside, I think the domain name is one heck of a name. I’ve already blogged about dot mobi domains becoming very popular and ‘costly’ and this domain name is simply the best you can get for a site that offers free mobile video games. Don’t you agree?

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones, Mobile Games.

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Free mobile web games from AOL

Seems like ad funded mobile games are the fad of the season. AOL has planned to offer free, ad funded mobile games for its customers. A US firm named Cellufun will offer its games through AOL’s mobile portal. These are not the usual Java games that you usually get, but mobile web games.

You can enjoy some popular games like Space Wars, Ice Fishing, and most importantly Call of the Pharaoh, which won the award for the best mobile game in Mobile World Congress last month. Adverts will be placed within the games and this will be done by Third Screen Media, the mobile advertising subsidiary of AOL. Cellufun has already got five million unique players a month accessing its games, which is a significant feat.

The main news, however, is not that. There is a game called The Mobile Ring, which is basically a boxing game with a twist. The twist is, it’s politically themed. So, you can actually fulfill your fantasy of beating the hell out of Hillary Clinton or Obama. Actually, a lot of people have that fantasy I guess. Apparently the game has been played a whopping two million times in just four months.

So, what are you waiting for? Go here and kick some ass.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones, Mobile Games, Mobile Web.

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