Augmented by cheap data, availability of smartphones, a large youth population with a visible lean towards digital, gaming is finding its foothold in the country’s ecosystem in myriad ways like esports, ed-tech, marketing, user engagement, serious gaming and much more.
Today gaming is undeniably one of the most proficient mediums to reach the country’s youth and brands and trying their hands on quite a few experiments around it.
The latest offering by IndianOil proves just that.
Helmed by industry veteran Rajat Ojha, Gamitronics has just announced a driving game in association with IndianOil.
Titled ‘Servo Drive’, the game’s title reads:
India’s largest commercial oil company presents Servo Drive, a taxi driving game that encourages responsible driving while providing a fast-paced engaging game. Pick passengers based on the distance, drop them in time while keeping an eye on fuel efficiency, right fuel usage and speed. It’s a race against the time but by staying responsible and watchful.
“We met IndianOil to do VR around safety and training because of our immense experience in that particular domain but we were caught by surprise when IndianOil told us that they wanted a game to engage younger audience who needs engine oil, brake oil but still don’t know the brand connection with IndianOil. We immediately pitched idea of a taxi hailing experience as that’s classic example of always being on the road, being fuel efficient and most of the youngsters take Uber/Ola so there’s an instant connection with that audience”
Gamitronics CEO Rajat Ojha
Even though it is created to engage consumers and bring awareness, a subtle marketing approach lies along with the game’s launch. The game features IndanOil petrol pumps and going there quite often is key to this game so making youngsters aware of the brand (Not just another petrol pump) must have been an important exercise. Similarly positioning Servo brake/engine oil immediately boost the performance of the player’s vehicle in the game subtly promoted the idea for a real-life scenario and also the fact that Servo is a product from the brand.
This should not surprising as reports in the recent times have indicated that advertising in games are working wonders.
Recently a report by TapJoy, an advertising and app monetisation platform, showed that gamers are much more likely to pay attention to an ad placed in a mobile game at 41 per cent while ads placed on the internet and magazine and billboards stood at 17 and 15 per cent respectively.
While the aforementioned title is yet to be launched, it might be safe to say that with big brands like IndianOil testing the waters in the already surging gaming industry of the country, we might see a lot more brands joining in in the later stages.
The features of ‘Servo launch’ include:
Day and Night Mode
Three Cars to choose from
Arcade physics
Various mods for the cars
Refueling at IndianOil Petrol Pumps
Collecting engine/brake oils for better performance
Earn money to fine tune your vehicle
Penalty for delays
Challans/Tickets for overspeeding
Various traffic conditions
Adjustable graphics performance