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.

0 comments.

Yet another interesting report on mobile advertising

Media analyst Screen Digest recently released a report on mobile advertising which brings out some interesting points.

The report emphasizes that mobile advertising is still in its nascent stage and will grow rapidly in the next few years. However, this is something we’ve all been told about mobile advertising for quite some time now. So, my focus is on two points which I thought stood out from the rest.

Mobile TV will be the major revenue generator as far as mobile ads are concerned. However, it needs to have its own set of metrics in order to be considered an important advertising medium by advertisers. While mobile TV is touted as the next big thing in mobile advertising by many, people need solid data to assess how effective the ads have been and to calculate the ROI. This, I think, is a valid observation.

By 2012, ad-funded mobile games will become hugely popular and over 60 million of such games will be downloaded per year. That is a huge number and should give a lot of hope to mobile advertisers. In my opinion, ad funded mobile games are a great way to reach users without actually ramming ads down their throat. We’ve already seen some examples like product placement in mobile games which have been quite successful in sending a subtle message to viewers through strategically placed ads within the mobile game. However, the report also says that such mobile games will not be the major source of revenue. Even then, I think mobile based games and other such content are a great way to interact with customers which can popularize the brand well.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

0 comments.

Text messaging - the most preferred form of mobile advertising

There are different options for advertising in mobile phones. Ever wondered which is the most profitable and the most effective of them all? Well; the answer for that question would be SMS or text messaging.

The most important reason why text messaging is considered the best mobile advertising option is simple. It’s the only facility available on all the mobile phones. While a mobile video clip or a product placement ad in a mobile site might be more attractive, it’s not available in most of the mobile phones. So, you’ll end up targeting only a few mobile users who use Blackberries or iPhones. Whereas, text messaging is one facility which is available even in the low-end phones, thereby making it easier for the advertisers to reach out to the end-users. If you wanna know how effective text messaging could be, here’s some data for you.

For this New Year, mobile users around the world sent over 43 billion text messages among themselves. That’s a whopping 30% increase than last year. Rapidly growing markets like India and Philippines sent over a billion text messages each during the New Year period, which is astounding. Text messages are faster to type and easier to send and you don’t have to own an iPhone to do so. So, users mostly use text messaging as their mode of communication, only next to voice calls.

At this juncture, mobile advertisers should undoubtedly target text message advertising options. If high-end mobiles become affordable and mobile internet becomes a lot faster and cheaper than what it is right now, I think we will see a similar boom in the usage of premium services also.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

3 comments.

Product Placement in Mobile Phone Advertising

Ever since my last post about mobile video game advertising models, I’ve been asked by a few of my friends to elaborate on product placement, about which I mentioned in my last post.

Product placement is nothing but a refined, more subtle form of advertising. Normally, we’ve got used to ads that scream for our attention – like the ones we see in TV, radio, magazines, newspapers, billboards, and so on. In product placement, advertising is taken to the next step. Adverts will be there – they will be non-intrusive, yet at the same time intelligently placed to capture our attention.

The concept of product placement has been long utilized by movie producers. I hope you remember the super cool car that Will Smith drives in I, ROBOT. The car is Audi RSQ and it was specifically developed for the movie. It was noticed by everyone. Similarly, you can see the lead characters of the hit series 24 driving Ford Expedition. Slowly, product placement is considered the ideal platform to help advertisers reach their target customers.

Product placement is best utilized by mobile advertisers. Like I mentioned in my last post, product placement in mobile video games is a big success and gamers like it that way. Let’s say for instance you like playing football in your mobile phone. Once you get into your virtual gaming environment, you might see players wearing Nike jersey or the scoreboard having the logo of Apple Computers. Ads like these are sure to catch our attention and yet they don’t disturb us in any way.

Mobile phone advertising can gain a lot from the concept of product placement. Mobile phone is private space for the users and they don’t like ads screaming at their face whenever they opt in for a service. So, product placement could be the perfect solution to make customers take notice of the ads and still not feel disturbed by them.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, Mobile Games.

0 comments.