Commentary

Back In the Game

The announcements about mobile in-game advertising came out of last week's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) pretty much as expected. Hot on the heels of Microsoft's recent acquisition of in-game network Massive, Bill Gates was touting the potential of cross-platform gaming, from PC to Web to Xbox Live 360 to mobile.

While the focus was on seamless game play experiences across access points, it is hard to imagine that Microsoft won't leverage both its new AdCenter and Massive to push marketing programs into mobile gaming as well. Massive rival Double Fusion has its own deal going with Impact Mobile, to bring integrated ad placements and opportunities for brand interaction within mobile games. And finally, Greystripe announced that it had already soft-launched a dynamically served in-game mobile ad network, wrapping ads for Zagat Survey, Modtones, and GPSHopper around casual mobile games that consumers can download direct to their phones.

All of this inevitable activity around mobile in-game ads comes amid some confusion over the real health of the mobile game market. Two of the major metrics firms covering the mobile content space, M:Metrics and Telephia, seem to be working with different barometers. For months, M:Metrics has been reporting in its monthly "benchmarks" of mobile usage that game downloads have been relatively flat, and there has been a lot of discussion in gaming circles about stagnation. M:Metrics relies on user surveys, and competitor Telephia, which extrapolates from billing data to track mobile data revenue, insists that game sales increased a whopping 53 percent just between January and March this year. This is a pissing match over methods that will go on for some time. Welcome back to the world of Web metrics 1998.

Both companies are actually quite close in sizing the monthly audience for game downloads at about 5 million, however, and that may be the number most immediately important to advertisers. Metrics notwithstanding, I think it is fairly clear by now that for most of us mobile gaming is a low-priority, low-engagement piece of a video game hobby that enjoys much more user loyalty and spending on the other, much better platforms. Even hardcore video gamers opt for casual game play on their handsets. And for most non-core players. a single simple title or the free demo that comes with the handset is good enough for months of occasional enjoyment. It just doesn't make sense for people to buy mobile games in the same relentless cycles and across the multiple genres we see in console gaming.

That is where ad support comes in. Go to http://www.speedeeoil.com to get one of the first free, ad-supported game downloads with dynamically served brand messaging. It's a negligible Frogger-like game called "Why Chicken Why?" that has you bringing a chicken across the road. There is a feasible connection with the sponsor, a chain of oil change shops, and it is yours free courtesy of the brand.

The campaign is the first result of a partnership between Engage In-Game Advertising and Greystripe. The network was not serving the ads when we tested it, but ideally the game should fire up with a full screen coupon for $5 off a SpeeDee oil change. Players can elect to bypass the ad or click through to get a coupon texted to their phone or e-mailed elsewhere. Advertisers can sponsor and distribute games like this on their own site, or they can also buy ads across a network of four or five free titles.

The game just launched, but David Smith, vice president-business development, Engage, says "the numbers have been interesting. We have served 1500 people and 20 percent clicked through for coupon response."

These are pretty good initial numbers, and they certainly reflect the promise of ad-supported mobile gaming as a kind of value-add consumers will appreciate. Obviously, anyone going to the SpeeDee site is targeting themselves for a direct discount offer, but the mobile platform sweetens the deal with a game and actually provides a platform for carrying the ad to a retailer.

Arguably, there is more potential for dynamic ad serving to mobile than to PC games. On mobile platforms, you are automatically on a network that can always serve ads when a game fires up. More to the point, the value for consumers is more apparent, because in many cases the sponsor is underwriting the cost of the whole game or specific add-ons, tips, extra levels, etc. This is not always the case on the PC or console, where ads can and will get served into retail titles that consumers already paid $50 to $60 to own. How does the consumer see the advantage in this? On mobile, the technology makes it easy to serve a coupon, a game hint, or more content. There is a real reason for the brand to be there and a demonstrable payoff for the gamer.

I think the opportunity for advertisers on mobile games is to give consumers real exchange of value. Mobile gaming is a classic example of content users love, but don't love to pay for. That equation is going to play out on other mobile content genres, too, I believe, but gaming is going to be where advertisers can get their mobile game face on.

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