Advergaming is the use of themed games for branding and advertising purposes. It gives companies another opportunity to reach customers on the growing mobile market. There has been an increase in conversation around this topic as the popularity of mobile games continues to rise. Nelson recently announced that gaming is the most popular apps within the entertainment category (most popular category of apps). This is seen in the graph below.
This might not tell the volume of opportunity but eMarketer is predicting that mobile games in the United States will see over $3 billion in revenue this year. This is from taking advantage of the estimated 162.4 million mobile gamers in the United States.
There is one stat that could be alarming or it could help show the future opportunity within this channel depending on the way a person interprets the information. The mobile marketing automation firm Swrve found that 60% of in game revenue is coming from 0.23% of players. That makes the audience of people that spend money in games fairly small. This could be a challenge for companies to find creative ways to make their app worth spending money in but that could come at a high price. Developing and keeping a game updated is not cheap. Therefore, it could depend on a company’s size and audience when determining if they should develop a game for advertising purposes.
There are other ways to get in the gaming space if a company doesn’t want to create their own game. They could look at in game branding on games that aren’t focused around their company. This can be seen in example with GMC in the video game Madden and even President Obama who advertised in NHL 09. These examples can be seen below.
Do you think it’s worth a company’s time and money to create their own game for advertising purposes? Have you downloaded any games that you think are successful examples?
Emerging Media - Building the future 
Advergaming is without a doubt the new mobile vehicle for brand marketing. This unique brand experience is growing across global markets. I think brands should get behind this trend because the combination of advertising and addictive video games can influence an audience’s behavior. This innovative strategy replaces banner ads in that its connection is more effective.
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Thanks for the reply. I’m not sure I see this replacing banner ads but instead having a different objective. In addition, it’s still hitting a specific audience type which might not be a companies entire audience. Appreciate the reply and your thoughts.
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Great post! In response to your question – I do think it is worth it to look into creating a game for advertising purposes. Specifically, if that is where your target audience resides and as you know, mobile is huge and encompasses a large audience. Although, advergaming may not be for everyone due to the cost of creation and maintaining them. A nice alternative is the use of in game ads.
One successful advergaming example that I have downloaded and also wrote about last week is Chipotle’s The Scarecrow. If you haven’t heard or seen it – check it out! It’s the companion game to a video the brand also realized in an effort to share their food with integrity message.
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Hi Brian,
Thanks for sharing all of the research in regards to advergaming. I think it’s fascinating to see how successful of a media outlet this is becoming for brands of all types. While I do not have interest in any mobile app games at this time, I think this type of marketing would absolutely be a smart investment for any type of brand. If the proper research is conducted and the appropriate audience is targeted/reached, any type of company could take this medium and run with it successfully.
Priscilla
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From all the statistics and data shared here Advergaming could be the very best next system that would promote branding. I admonish companies to exploit this option because of the benefits of wide exposures.
This is the period of mobile marketing, and gaming readily take pr-eminence in the strategy.
It’s worth a company’s time and money to create their own game for advertising purposes!
I left the above comment in kingged.com as well.
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