Have you ever been playing a game and thought that one product or brand was a bit too heavily featured in it?
You may have stumbled across an advergame.
But what are advergames? Is mobile advergaming a big business? What are some examples of advergaming?
Quick Links
- What is an advergame?
- Why would you make an advergame?
- What are the characteristics of advergames?
- Is mobile advergaming a big business?
- Examples of advergames
What is an advergame?
Let’s take a look.
An advergame is a portmanteau of the words advert and game, and can be defined as any game that was built for the sole purpose of advertising a product or service.
This can be when the advertising company hires their own game developers to create their advergame in-house, or the advertiser can pay to have their brand heavily featured in an upcoming/planned game.
As well, advergames are usually distributed for free so that they as many people as possible can download and play them, increasing brand awareness in the process.
Why would you make an advergame?
If you’re looking to advertising a product or brand to people who use apps, you have a couple of different options.
There’s display advertising, however that mostly reaches users when they’re reading an article or looking for something else online.
Think of the ads you see when looking at an article on your phone, or the ads you see on Facebook.
Then there’s in-game advertising, which is when you place your display ad solely in ad slots that are within a mobile or tablet game.
If you’ve ever played a mobile game before and seen an ad between levels or when you’re on the pause menu, you’ve seen an in-game ad.
It’s these types of ads that are often renowned for being incredible bad – so much so that some have actually been banned, as they’re just not representative of the game being advertised at all.
This is a step in the right direction, but inevitably you’re still having to fight for the user’s attention, in this case away from the game they have downloaded and are trying to play.
Enter advergames
The solution is an advergame – a seamless blend of your brand’s advertising, in a gamified format that allows the user to engage directly with your advertising without feeling like they are being pulled away from something else.
They can be a fun and interactive way to first introduce people to a product or service, and can be incredibly effective at reaching and engaging younger audiences.
What are the characteristics of advergames?
One of the key characteristics of an advergame is that they are usually designed to be highly addictive and engaging.
Much like hypercasual games, advergames are usually simple in nature, meaning a lower learning curve for players and longer time spent within the game, so that they will be exposed to the brand’s advertising for a longer period of time.
In addition, advergames often feature colorful and enticing graphics, engaging yet simple gameplay, and a wide variety of challenges and rewards that usually occur in small increments, helping to keep players around for longer.
Lastly, advergames tend to incorporate elements of the product or brand that is being promoted wherever possible.
For example, an advergame for a soft drink brand like Coca-Cola or Pepsi might feature the drink as a power-up, giving the player extra energy. Or an advergame produced by a car company might include the company’s vehicles as playable characters.
The purpose here is to help reinforce the brand in the minds of players and make the advertising and brand recall later on more effective.
Is mobile advergaming a big business?
As it stands, no.
Mobile gaming is on the rise, however the demand to play games that are specifically there to advertise a product or brand will never be that high.
Yes you will get the odd success like Chipotle had with The Scarecrow, but it will never be huge business on the scale of the mobile gaming market, which according to Statista was worth just over $131 billion in 2021.
Examples of Advergames
McDonald’s Happy Meal app
One example of a successful advergame is McDonald’s Happy Meal app, which features games and activities that are heavily linked to McDonald’s Happy Meal for kids.
It’s a free app that allows kids to play a variety of mini-games and activities, all tied to the Happy Meals sold at McDonalds.
A big feature of the app is that each time a child purchases a Happy Meal, they receive a code that they can enter into the app to unlock a new virtual toy or character.
This helps to get repeat users on the app, as the kids will keep going back on and playing it whenever their parents take them to McDonalds.
Chipotle’s The Scarecrow
Another example of an advergame is The Scarecrow by Chipotle, which I mentioned earlier.
It was created by Chipotle to promote the company’s pledge to both sustainable and ethical food sourcing, and it tells the story of a dystopian future world in which factory farms have taken over the world’s food supply, and a lone scarecrow must single-handedly fight to save the last remaining fresh food.
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