ADMIT IT, we’re all helplessly addicted to mobile games like Candy Crush, Dots and Temple Run. We struggle to put our phones down and concentrate on work- but that’s no fun.  Just one more try? It won’t take long. We reach out our hands and feel soothed to touch that gadget again. Boom. Another 20 minutes flies away.  People are vulnerable to games by nature. To attract players to join and keep them playing, gamification design usually provides an exciting and adventurous setting, some “goals” and “obstacles” to beat, and a world that connects the player to his or her character.  The players get a sense of accomplishment and tend to feel better about themselves from playing.[1]

Thanks to Steve Jobs, gaming has expanded its arena to our fingertips. Smartphones have rapidly become a powerful gaming platform due to its portability and technological features. The mobile application markets also open up a direct distribution channel for innovative designers to provide beautiful gaming apps in great quality. By 2015, mobile gaming revenue is estimated to reach $7.5 billion worldwide, tripling from $2.7 billion in 2012.[2]   There is no doubt consumers are turning to mobile games. Advertising within mobile games allows brands to develop their own forms of entertainment and drive engagement.

It is a whole new way to encourage consumers to interact with the brand and build a community.

Experienced with game developing in various industries, the Aurnhammer team has observed business success in branded mobile games. We came up with a white paper, “Business of Branded Mobile Games”, to put marketers at ease in regards to planning their gaming strategy.

by Cooper Zhu
Aurnhammer Marketing Specialist

With consumer spending finally seeing a comeback post-recession; there seems to be an equal rebound in marketing spending. The global advertising market is expected to grow by 6 % in 2014. However this does not mean that all forms of advertising is expected to grow. In fact it is projected that TV Ad Revenues will drop around 3 percent – in part due to a lack of political elections or the Olympics. Despite being an off year for TV Advertising, for some reason this is still the most prestigious advertising platform.

Even though the advertising landscape is changing and adapting to new technologies, it is definitely lagging behind the times: mobile is just beginning to make a dent in the advertising world. With more and more Millennials coming of age, this will heavily affect the way companies interact with their customers. The trend has already been pushing towards a tailored shopping experience, where customers expect promotions, a social media presence and brand recognition.

As smartphones become more of a necessity rather than an accessory in everyday life, many top brands are beginning to notice mobile in the marketing landscape. Although digital advertising has become an important part of the conversation amongst marketer, mobile is the next frontier. The tech-community has experienced exponential advancements in mobile capabilities within the past year; however, this technology hasn’t caught on with most industries yet.

Digital, i.e. banner and video advertisements may seem like an easy solution to changes in the advertising world, but these forms of advertising lack interactive features and do not add much value to a brand or product. Mobile Apps however do not always fall flat, unlike digital ads.

Apps allow brands to cultivate new technologies and use them to enhance the consumer experience or even to offer new ways of consuming.

In this day and age, consumers are looking for authentic brands, what better way to build a strong and unique brand than through an App. People are more interested in the companies that can relate to us in new ways without trying too hard. It’s a subtle art to master, but mobile is definitely the next platform that has the potential to bridge the gap between corporate America and the consumer – allowing consumers to better communicate with companies and vice versa.

But it seems as though many companies are reluctant to adopt a mobile strategy. Digital is an “up and coming” player in the advertising world, rivaling TV Advertising whereas Mobile is more like the underground/dive bar option for marketers. This is simply because the return on investment (ROI) is not as easy to evaluate for apps. To help businesses calculate ROI of mobile apps, Aurnhammer provides some guidelines for measuring a mobile app’s success in its newly launched whitepaper “Budgeting for Mobile in 2014”, which can be accessed for free online.

Read more about the ROI of apps by checking out our “Budgeting for Mobile in 2014” White Paper.