The Mobile Gaming Phenomenon: How Can Brands Enter the Arena?
A couple of weeks ago I spoke at the IAB’s Media and Entertainment seminar alongside Google and LoopMe. In case you missed it, here are some highlights from my talk:
Mobile gaming: small but mighty
Right from the launch of Nokia’s Snake in 1997, gaming has had a massive impact on mobile. As the development of the technology has evolved, mobile games have also become more advanced and immersive. Gameloft was the only company to have 6 games available at the launch of Apple’s App Store at the very infancy of touchscreen technology, and it changed the way we play mobile games forever.
Since then the model of mobile gaming has changed. We’ve moved from a premium model, where you bought the game outright, to the freemium model more commonly used today. Games like Minion Rush (one of the most downloaded games of all time), began to show the breadth of audience — and the global hit Pokémon Go cemented that. Mobile gaming was no longer just for ‘gamers’, it attracted anyone and everyone across the globe.
This shows no sign of slowing. Just take Epic Games’ Fortnite, recently launched on mobile after success on console, as a current example. The company made over $223 million in revenue for March across this and its console version. That’s seriously big bucks. It’s success stories like Fortnite that make people sit up and take notice of the mobile gaming opportunity. But the statistics go far further than one lucrative game.
The stats to back it up
Global mobile gaming revenue was $50.3 billion in 2017 — that’s more than the global box office revenue during the same period. Mobile gaming currently makes up 42 per cent of the worldwide gaming industry revenue and is predicted to account for over half the industry revenue by 2020.
It’s also high time gaming lost it’s geeky, male stereotype. The numbers mentioned above aren’t generated by one niche group. In fact, new research by Newzoo has found that 46% of gamers are women. There is truly a game for everyone.
Brands doing it right
Those already recognising the power of gaming are producing fantastic campaigns that drive huge results. Take our campaign with Fall Out Boy as an example: we worked with Universal Music Group and BMW to promote the band’s new album within our hugely popular Asphalt 8 game. This was streamed 19.5 million times in seven days.
Another great example of two household-name brands collaborating through mobile gaming is that of ASOS and The Sims Mobile. The two joined forces to let players try on ASOS products within The Sims’ mobile game — creating an environment in which customers actively engage with both brands at once.
Finally, I’ll end on a campaign by Greenpeace which stopped a severe deforestation problem happening in Poland. Greenpeace and Ogilvy created a model replica of the forest within Minecraft, and let players immerse themselves in their surroundings. Suddenly, they destroyed it, leaving only one tree left. Players realised that the game represented very real circumstances. Subsequently, the logging was stopped, and the Minister of Environment was replaced.
When gaming has the power to change systems of government — imagine what it could do for you.
Originally posted on LinkedIn.
