Advergaming is the hottest new thing doing the rounds in both Advertising as well as game publishing circles.
For the advertiser it is a new unexplored and promising avenue to try and tap; For the game publisher it is a substantial financial input in the cost of game development & marketing.
When it comes to the mobile game scenario, more specifically the Indian mobile gaming scenario there have been instances when advergaming has been successfully used.
There exist some differences between adver-gaming for the mobile & adver-gaming for the PC/Console wherein the limitations of the small screen size loom large on the mobile and the chances of the branding exercise disrupting or spoiling the game play are strong.
A skilled marketer teaming up with a talented developer can however come up with great examples that deliver both gameplay and branding.
Session 3 on Day 2 was devoted to Advergaming and Mobile marketing.
A lot was debated as to what was the balance between getting maximum branding without compromising on gameplay. The audience purely consisted of people from the game development community while the panel seemed to be more marketing centric, what with Hungama chief Neeraj Roy, Airtel Live head Yatin Pahwa and the brilliant Alok Kejriwal (who has not one but 3 successful brand & game related companies Contests2Win, Mobile2Win and Games2Win) being 3 of the 4 panelists. Paradox CEO Anurag Khurana was the only pure play game development person on the panel.
According to the panelists the current C&S penetration in India was around 65 million(?) and the number of Mobile handsets too was 65 million. “Brand owners are very enticed by this screen held in our hands’ remarked Kejriwal.
Another interesting debate was about whether a consumer should pay for downloading or playing a branded advergame. There were many different viewpoints, Anupam Varghese from Tinfomobile a Trivandrum based game development company delightedly shared the fact that a branded game that they had created for Mahindra Scorpio recently received an Abby and had clocked a good number of paid downloads.
Airtel’s Yatin Pahwa stated that the objective of the game has to be realized before pricing it. The objective could be of earning revenue, or it could be of interacting with the consumer.
Kejriwal cautioned that Consumers ought to pay and the culture of paying for content should never be disallowed.
The discussions also focused upon how adver games could be promoted using cross media synergies an example being the Lays game in China wherein every Lays packet had an sms code which could be activated. “Sheer volumes of consumer touch points can be used to evangelize games” stated Kejriwal.
Presentations –
Advergaming Opportunities & Challenges
Neeraj Roy whose marketing & entertainment network Hungama has hosted 13 million gaming sessions to date opened the innings with an interesting presentation where he highlighted upon the opportunities and challenges for mobile advergaming & marketing.
Opportunities
– Better Connectivity
– Newer Handsets
– Stressful Environments (?), more travel, more individual time
– Brands are seeking beyond the 30 second commercial
Challenges
– Pricing
– Networks
– Quality, Play Time Fatigue
– Is enough being done to promote gaming
– How much branding is good and acceptable
Roy stressed upon additional factors saying,”India has the youngest population in the world with nearly 54% of the population being below 25 years of age. The number grows close to 60% if under 30s are included”
“With such a young population, the ongoing spur in retail, technology and consumerism, the mobile phone is a coveted medium for marketers” he added.
Case studies
Alok Kejriwal whose companies are now a subject of research at Stanford university stated,”Mobile2Win operates in 3 different geographies China, India and Oman and our games are available in 48 countries across the world.”
“Mobile games are not only entertaining but highly interactive” he said, further adding that,” Mobile advergaming reinforces associations of a brand with celebrities, and brand ambassadors”
He also presented a few case studies which illustrated adver-gaming.
The Nokia China case study profiled how the game enhanced Nokia’s sponsorship of the diving championships in China through an interactive gaming experience. The game was accessed by 34,000 subscribers.
The Castrol Mega racing Java Game reinforced Castrol’s association with Formula 1 leading up to the first F1 race held in Shanghai China. The game was further hyped with prizes like a BMW car for the winner.
Dominos Pizza game was themed on the Dominos TVC which features PARESH Rawal trying to get a free pizza whose delivery is promised ’30 mins or free’. The mobile game was promoted on every Dominos pizza box making good use of what Kejriwal termed as ‘The client’s real estate’
Concluding his presentation Kejriwal quipped, “Branded adver games work well because they deliver entertainment and brand communication using a popular consumer content application. The potential for the growth of this segment looks very bright”
Huge voice centric non GPRS market out there let’s not ignore them
One of the most significant observations made during Airtel live head Yatin Pahwa’s presentation was that Game Developers needed to think out of the box and come up with newer kinds of games which could reach across all handset types and address the voice centric non GPRS market too.
“Airtel is today available to millions of consumers.” he began, “and there is a Huge voice centric non GPRS market out there let’s not ignore them’
An interesting comparison between hypothesis and experience followed
Hypothesis
– Generates pre event interest
– Builds interactivity
– exposes pieces of the content to potential recipients & builds a larger following
Experience
– Not really
– Main Hoon Na, TDAT generated recall
– Longer hold periods for content with souvenir value
“The Friendz launch was one example of advergaming at Airtel” said Yatin. “Half a million people came online and participated”
The way forward
– Increase size of the mobile gaming community
– Encourage invitation
– Build a loyal base – keep them engaged
– extend beyond mobile (eg) merchandising linked to mobile content & promos
– Timing
– Strategic tie ups to use mobile as the introductory medium
– Think independent of handset type
Thums up, Hai Dum?
Paradox Studios’ CEO Anurag Khurana put in a short presentation which included examples of branded and promotional games like the ThumsUpHaiDum contest which clocked 60,000 downloads within the first 6 hrs of its launch on the Reliance network.
Airtel – Media Portal?
As the interesting session drew to a close, Airtel’s Yatin Pahwa made an interesting statement, “We are evaluating the possibilities of becoming a media portal”