5 Examples of Brands Advertising Through Mobile Games

Mobile advertising is a huge market, worth over $100 billion but surprisingly, mobile games occupy only 15-20 % share of the market. The Mobile games industry is huge but still, most companies and brands don’t invest much in mobile games advertising since they want to be represented fully by advertising so, they just avoid gaming advertising, dismissing it as a niche activity. 

However, the gaming industry should not be taken lightly as mobile gaming is on the rise and more & more mobile users are regularly playing games on their mobile devices. 

Brands are now thinking of switching over to advertising through mobile games and trying to join the market as fast as they can but before they can do so, they will need to see some examples of how mobile gaming advertising has worked before for brands who have invested in it. So, without further ado, let’s have a look at some of the successful advertising campaigns through mobile games:

1. Gatorade And Asos Sponsored in-game events

This is an example of Sponsored in-game events in which brands like Gatorade and Asos marketed their brand through mobile games. Some games provide an obvious way for the brands to advertise their products that they cannot resist. 

Through EA's Madden NFL Mobile game, the sports drink brand Gatorade gave players a digital electrolyte boost through energy refill which allowed the players to play the game for a longer period. This is a perfect example of a brand promoting its product through mobile games via sponsored in-game events.

Another example is EA partnering up with Asos, a popular clothing brand in its popular game The Sims Mobile. Here through a sponsored in-game event, Asos branded clothes and time quests were introduced to Sims players. Not every game has the potential to advertise real-world brands but those that have can be a valuable asset for the marketers.

2. Nestlé Rewarded Ads

Another way to which you can advertise effectively through mobile games is through rewarded video ads which is the leading ad format on mobile games. Instead of having an ad forced onto players, the developers put a reward for watching the video ad such as an extra life or coins that can be useful for the players’ in-game journey. 

Rewarded ads are the reasons why games such as Crossy Roads are able to generate millions in revenue and at the same time, make their users happy.

An example of rewarded video ads is Nestlé who partnered up with King, the developing company behind the popular game Candy Crush Saga, and ran their rewarded ads across the publisher’s extensive portfolio that is over 200 games. The ads performed really well and the users weren’t even annoyed by them since they themselves chose to watch them.

3. Kellog's Interactive Ads

Banner or video format ads have been here for a long time but a new format of ads that is relatively new and unique is Playable ads, which allows the users to interact with the ad for a while. Playable ads can be perfectly paired with in-game use since they can look a lot like the actual game. They can be used to promote any brand through any game including the simplest games such as Solitaire, Chess, Spider Solitaire, etc to more complex ones such as PUBG, Fortnite, etc.

The playable ads can also be called interactive ads and they allow the users to interact with the ads which are usually a mini-game or mini task that the player has to do according to the on-screen instructions.

Kellogg's, the manufacturer of the cereal brand From Loops partnered up with Gameloft to create short, interactive ads to promote From Loops. 

4. Pizza Hut Location-based Ads

Location-based ads are relatively new but brands who know how to capitalize on these can turn out to be a huge marketing strategy for them. Pizza Hut capitalized on this and turned its restaurants into gaming hubs for the game King of Glory (China) or Arena of Valor (Globally). Players who were within five minutes' distance of any Pizza Hut restaurants were invited to meet other users and play against them.

This took out the players by a storm and in just 15-20 days, over 100,000 King of Glory players had visited several Pizza Hut Restaurants to have a battle with other players. While the players were there, the company had introduced a limited King of Glory meal set just for the event and during that time, the company sold over 150,000 King of Glory meal sets, which was a huge huge benefit for the company. 

5. Starbucks AR Ads

Remember when Pokemon GO was taking over the world by storm? Well, some brands thought that they should experiment with AR or Augmented Reality to promote their products. Starbucks saw this as an opportunity to market their brand and partnered up with Pokemon Go to make their 7800+ stores in different locations become Pokestops or Gyms while the game was at peak popularity. 

All of this was very appealing or the users and to make things even better, Starbucks created a limited custom drink called Pokemon Go Frappuccino for the users and while users were there to hunt for Pokemons, they also bought a lot of Pokemon Go Frappuccinos which was a huge return for Starbucks.