Mobile Monday

Club Peninsula, Mumbai

26 November 2007

The November session of Mobile Monday (MoMo) Mumbai was around the emerging area of mobile advergaming.

Advergaming is using video games to advertise a product or brand.

Such games, mobile or personal computer-based, are generally free to download and play. Companies use advergaming as part of their brand promotion strategy.

Salil Bhargava, chief executive officer of Jump Games, showed how brand-based mobile games help in brand recall and brand engagement. He presented case studies of some early adopters of the concept in India, including Coca-Cola, Thums Up, Yun Hota Toh Kya Hota movie and Bingo chips.

The number of downloads such games generated was very encouraging and demonstrated the return on investment for brands.

Bhargava also pointed out that advergames need not be complicated blockbuster games, but can be simple to play casual games.

The value chain in advergaming includes the brand, the advertising agency, the game developer, the operator and the end-user.

The brand pays for the development of the mobile game, the ad agency coordinates the project, the game developer charges for thedevelopment, the operator charges rental for hosting the game and the user gets it for free.

The panel discussion brought out the importance of involvement and buy-in from ad agencies for making the concept mainstream and increasing its exposure to a large number of brands.

There were concerns raised that operators may not want to disturb their steady income from paid games by making available free advergames.

Veer Chand Bothra is founder of Mobile Monday Mumbai and blogs at MobilePundit.com. He spearheads mobility business development at Netcore Solutions Pvt. Ltd.