Mobile advertising is the present and the future. Nothing new there. But within mobile, in-app advertising outside of the social media sphere is becoming increasingly valuable.
Mobile games are becoming particularly valuable for brands as a previously under-tapped channel for engaging with their audiences.
Why is this the case?
First off is the recognition that everyone plays mobile games. More brands and agencies are seeing that games aren’t confined to the “teen male” demographic. That stigma has become a thing of the past.
In fact, most mobile game users are women, while the age breakdown is relatively even across cohorts. These aren’t people that identify as “gamers.” They’re just everyday people who like playing mobile games. And they’re a huge segment of the population: 141 million people in the US, translating to 43% of Americans.
Second off, people are happy when they’re playing mobile games. Social media, on the other hand, is becoming an increasingly anxiety-ridden experience. Whether it’s comparing yourself to your friends’ perfect (and often staged) lives on Instagram or seeing depressing/absurd political news on Facebook, social media is often a very stressful experience.
People are 60% more likely to feel stressed when on social media compared to using any other type of app. This doesn’t bode well for marketers who want to convey their brand and brand Purpose to interested people.
It’s no surprise that 50% of mobile users prefer in-game ads over social ads, while only 24% prefer social over in-game ads. Social media is stressful. Mobile games are relaxing, engaging and put us in a happy mood. They often serve as our escape from reality.
Brands are seeing this opportunity. Of those already advertising in mobile games, 60% cite higher user engagement as the main reason for investing in this new vertical. This number will only increase as social media advertising becomes oversaturated and as prices continue to go up.
Would you rather share your brand with people who are grumpy and already flooded with ads in their experience?
Or with people who are happy, enjoying their mobile experience and less inundated with ads?
The growth of Facebook Audience Network and Unity’s partnership with AdMob both point to the growing opportunity for brands to advertise within mobile games. 80% of interstitial ad impressions on mobile games using Facebook Audience Network come from non-gaming advertisers. What this growth indicates is that brands are becoming more aware of the importance of context when it comes to their mobile ad spend. The best time to share a brand message is when we are happy, relaxed, focused and in a good mood. Many factors go into this: the type of content we’re engaging with, the quality of the brand content and the trust of the advertising experience.
The data and market shift provides evidence that we are happier playing games and engaging with other non-social media apps. This new vertical is beginning to bear fruit for brands but it’s still very new to many. It will only become bigger as more brands see this as a complement to their current mobile strategy and as more app publishers find value in delivering more diversified ad content to their users. At Jukko, we’re not only focused on helping brands take advantage of this new vertical, but also in changing the advertising experience within. There’s still so much opportunity to make the experience more enjoyable, Purposeful and valuable to people and the world.
PS: We love both cats, dogs and all other animals equally. It just happened to be the case that we found a great grumpy cat picture and a happy dog picture!
