The 2015 Marketing Landscape for Mobile Gaming

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The mobile gaming industry is booming this fiscal calendar year. With rapid technology advancements and increased accessibility fueling the popularity of mobile games, marketers will capitalize on the fruitful outlet.

According to Newzoo’s Quarterly Global Games Market Update, mobile gaming was a $25 billion industry in 2014 – a 42% jump from the year prior. The exponential rate of growth isn’t stopping in 2015 either. As high-resolution technologies become more fine-tuned and the culture-wide initiative to make everything mobile-friendly continues, playing games on a mobile device is better than ever before. The emergence of powerful graphic processor units, like the Snapdragon’s GPUs, enable smooth operations and complex visuals mobile games require. With these processors driving the execution and advancement in graphics, mobile gaming is set up to sweep the market in popularity. Predictions forecast a $40 billion industry by 2017.

Current investment in the mobile gaming market shows a promising future which is why 2015 will be a year marketers leverage the opportunities mobile interfaces provide to advance overall advertising strategy. Here are the top ways mobile gaming marketing will change for the greater this year:

• Increased Video Integration: In mobile gaming, all the players are in place – a graphics processor that spits out crystal clear visuals and streams videos without a hitch, connectivity to the internet and WiFi everywhere, and a thoroughly involved audience. User engagement is in prime time, therefore posing the perfect spot for a video advertisement. In 2015, advertising brands will shift from interruptive banner ads to enhanced video integration within mobile game apps.

• Expansion in Type of Advertisers: The “gamer” demographic gaming used to attract has expanded to include just about anyone with a mobile device – four out of five smart phone owners have played a game on their device. There’s something for everyone and advertisers who formerly strayed away from ad placement in mobile gaming will start to consider it as an ideal avenue to take.

• Focus on Granular Targeting: Analytics and cloud computing technology has facilitated the ability to track consumer behavior, instantly. This year, businesses will become extra strategic in how they capitalize on this data. By evaluating viewership and trends across various digital platforms, including mobile games, advertisers can understand what their potential customers are interested in and build advertisements with these findings in mind. 

• Reengagement with Retargeting: Amongst the millions of online advertisers, mobile game publishers are also participating in innovative digital strategies like retargeting. Retargeting in a nutshell is pulling an audience from one digital outlet and following them to their next move, whether it’s to another app within the same app, or from desktop to tablet. Gaming publishers are at the forefront of re-engaging people who have downloaded their apps on a mobile device and consistently remind them to come back to play (e.g., ads encouraging users to buy coins to continue the game). The idea is to re-engage within various mobile platforms, which makes mobile gaming conducive to successful retargeting.

• Socializing, Even More: Social media sharing is a surefire way to take a relatively unknown game to viral popularity. Businesses who decide to advertise within gaming apps know that once the game goes viral, their brand gains visibility by millions. So in 2015, we’ll see heavy integration between social media sharing and mobile games because it’s a win-win situation — advertisers are happy with the viewership, which means more money is poured into the game, thus allowing the game publisher to stay afloat, better yet, soar in abyss of success.

Mobile gaming in 2015 is a mecca for marketers of all walks. The advertising possibilities are endless due to the versatility the platform provides and with the latest technology, such as premium graphic processing units and insightful data analytics, ads are now less interruptive and can seamlessly mesh into the larger mobile gaming experience.