http://www.latimes.com/business/la-...s=10153288191987164&fb_action_types=og.shares
Main point of the article is to stress that Mobile-game marketing and advertising is only just beginning and that lots more is coming. Doesn't touch upon the marketing campaign itself. But it seems the results are telling, sex sells overwhelmingly yet again.
It is sad though for those of us who see these games making money hand-over-fist which are some pretty crappy games (Sorry, Game of War is bad and boring) where as traditional gaming is struggling to meet ends meat.
I guess I'll never understand the mentality that drives clearly a huge consumer base to drop hundreds if not thousands on in-app purchases rather than fully-developed game experiences in total.
More than 9,000 times since November, commercials featuring the swimsuit model have aired nationally on male-oriented programs: March Madness, NFL football, "South Park" and the like.
The ads entice boys and men to download the free-to-play smartphone game "Game of War: Fire Age." There are several versions: Upton relaxes in a candlelit bathtub. She rides a horse and leads medieval troops to battle dragons. She approaches the camera and slyly invites the viewer to "come play with me."
The boys and men have done so, beyond the wildest dreams of Machine Zone, the game developer behind "Game of War." Sales of in-app digital goods and paid "boosts" to speed up empire-building have doubled since the ads began, according to data from Think Gaming; the game now takes in about $1 million a day.
The ads worked so well that in February "Game of War" briefly sneaked past the immensely popular "Clash of Clans" as the top mobile game, ranked by revenue.
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The ad spots aren't cheap. Palo Alto-based Machine Zone has dropped about $80 million for airtime in the U.S., according to ad and social media tracking firm ISpot.tv.
Until recently, almost nobody in the industry thought a TV ad campaign for a mobile game would be worth the cost. Only a tiny segment of a broad TV audience would download a mobile game, much less spend their money on in-app purchases. The initial success of "Game of War" and others is changing minds.
That's because of the unusual way mobile apps can be lifted from obscurity to mega-popularity. A big burst of downloads following, say, a TV ad campaign causes the app to rise to the top of the charts in app stores on Android and Apple phones. That makes it highly visible to millions of shoppers who wouldn't have noticed it before. That means even more downloads, pushing it further up the charts.
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Mobile game apps brought in $25 billion in 2014 with an annual growth rate near 25%, research company Newzoo estimates. Developers want to make sure they're getting their share, and then some: TV ads from Machine Zone, King Digital Entertainment and Supercell Oy have helped games once dismissed as short-lived moneymakers remain huge profit engines for years on end. Other game publishers are following their lead, from giants such as Electronic Arts to Beverly Hills start-up SGN.
Main point of the article is to stress that Mobile-game marketing and advertising is only just beginning and that lots more is coming. Doesn't touch upon the marketing campaign itself. But it seems the results are telling, sex sells overwhelmingly yet again.
It is sad though for those of us who see these games making money hand-over-fist which are some pretty crappy games (Sorry, Game of War is bad and boring) where as traditional gaming is struggling to meet ends meat.
I guess I'll never understand the mentality that drives clearly a huge consumer base to drop hundreds if not thousands on in-app purchases rather than fully-developed game experiences in total.