by Jennifer O’Brien

The decision to use advergaming in a mobile marketing campaign is a smart move. Advergaming is “the practice of using video games to advertise a product, organization, or viewpoint.” Many marketers are already taking advantage of this in various ways. It can be done through product placement, advertising in games that are downloaded for free, including free games in products, and so on.

I believe the technology of the ‘smart phone’ has made it possible to use advergaming in mobile marketing. Now we are able to download games on our phones and play them anywhere. From what I’ve noticed, the most obvious form of advergaming through smart phones would be through free apps. If someone downloads a free game from the app store, then there are always advertisements before it loads and within the game. It can be an advertisement for the company who makes the game or for any company whose target audience would play the game. People don’t mind the advertisements because they got the game for free and are more likely to be interested in the product because it is targeted specifically to their interests.

A company can also use advergaming on mobile devices through product placement. They can have their product included as part of the game to spark the customer’s interest in it. They can even have their company inside of a game that has a virtual world. Let’s say that this virtual world has a shopping mall. This virtual shopping mall can have real stores inside of it.

The benefits of advergaming in mobile marketing are immense. These advertisements are different than traditional advertisements on buses and billboards. They are targeted specifically to people who would buy certain products. The consumer has no choice but to pay attention to the ad and they are more likely to show an interest in it. There is sometimes a link for the consumer to click on to go directly to the website and make a purchase. People are exposed to the ads in free apps for a good amount of time and they sometimes interact with the product ensuring that they remember them.