Event Report - MoMo Mumbai November

December 5th, 2007

The November event of Mobile Monday Mumbai was around the emerging area of mobile advergaming.

Advergaming is the practice of using video games to advertise a product, or brand. Such games, mobile or PC based, are generally free to download and play. Companies use advergaming as part of their brand promotion strategy.

Salil Bhargava, CEO of Jump Games made a case for advergaming showing how brand based mobile games help in brand recall and brand engagement. He presented a few case studies of some early adopters of the concept in India including Coca Cola, Thumbs 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. He 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, Advertising Agency, Game Developer, Operator and the end User. The brand pays for the development of the mobile game, ad agency co-ordinates the project, game developer charges for the development, operator charges rental for hosting the game and user gets it for free.

The panel discussion brought out the importance of involvement and buy-in from the ad agencies for making the concept mainstream and increasing its exposure to a large number of brands. There were concerns raised that the operators may not want to disturb their steady income from paid games by making available free advergames.

Nidhi Taparia from Tata Indicom pointed out that the operator offers not only helps in promoting the advergame but also is a cost-effective medium for distribution of the game.

Anant Rangaswami from Campaign India stressed on the importance of sampling for all stakeholders, especially the ad agencies which will be taking the concept to the brands. He said that unless account managers in agencies experience advergames, they will not be able to relate, leave alone sell, the concept.

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