Incorporating advergames into campaigns offers a great opportunity for brands to connect with one of the most active online user communities.

Every day, the average person encounters around 5,000 advertising messages. In such a crowded landscape, it’s vital for brands to stand out.

Branded entertainment is a type of advertising that has been gaining traction recently. Crafting interactive ads that blend content – including blogs, videos, audio, games, e-books, case studies, podcasts, white papers, and e-newsletters, and other entertainment content is a highly effective approach. And now there’s an even more interactive avenue they can explore – games. An increasing number of prominent brands are incorporating ad games into their marketing strategies.

“Advergames” are specially designed games that promote a service or product, seamlessly embedding advertisements into digital gaming. Utilizing digital games captures the interest of a vast audience, contributing to enhancing a brand’s visibility among people.

Rather than advertising brands through in-game ads, advergames involve building an entire game around a specific brand as a means of advertising. Building a game around a brand helps develop brand personality and create a link between positive emotions felt when playing a game, and the brand that created it.

Advergames have progressed from the earliest days of video games, and now, almost all advergames are mobile games.

Mobile games are:

• Cheaper and easier to build
• Have a much larger user base
• Easier to incorporate other advertising or revenue building opportunities
• More engaging than conventional video- or social media- based campaigns.

Let’s explore the advantages of using advergaming for brands:

• Boosts Branding: Advergames also contribute to effective branding. The game in advergaming is centered around the brand, aligning every aspect with the company’s products and services.
• Player Rewards: Often, brands offer clear incentives to players, such as discounts, free games, prizes, or special deals, encouraging engagement.
• Voluntary Engagement: Advergames provide a fun and unobtrusive way to engage with the audience. Players willingly choose to participate, fully aware that the game is created by a brand.
• Universality: Advergames are versatile and suitable for any industry or market, whether large or small. Customize the game to match your brand’s theme, ensuring creativity and enjoyment for users.
• Enhanced Brand Awareness: Advergames effectively enhance brand awareness among users, often leading to discussions about your brand among friends and family.
• Long-lasting Impact: Unlike conventional ads that fade away after campaigns, advergames persist on users’ devices, continuously reminding them of your entertaining game and brand even after the marketing ends.
• Effective Across User Segments: Advergames reach a broad spectrum of demographics. Contrary to the notion that they appeal only to the youth, appropriate research can help create advergames that cater to diverse age groups.

Creating an effective advergame involves cleverly integrating your brand into the game’s design. Although it’s a straightforward approach, not all companies manage to execute successful advergames due to a lack of creativity and effort

Tips for advertising success in advergaming

Advertising within video games presents a great opportunity for brands, enabling them to reach one of the most engaged user bases online. Here are some valuable insights on achieving success with advergames.

Understand your audience
Gather comprehensive details about the geographic, demographic, and behavioral traits of your target audience. This foundation enables successful advertising, helping you ascertain the kinds of games your audience prefers and a good fit with your brand as well.

Prioritize game experiences over advertising
Players dislike games that feature full-screen banner ads while they’re playing. Avoid disrupting your audience’s gameplay. As a marketer or advertiser, your objective is to identify appropriate moments for displaying ads on screens without causing annoyance during an enjoyable gaming experience.

Don’t force users to leave the game
Another strategy to enhance advergame User Experience (UX) is to ensure that players aren’t pulled away from the game when they tap on your ads. Removing them from the game can be frustrating, particularly if the user clicks on your ad by mistake. There has to be a creative and less frustrating user journey and reward for the player.

Should you build your own advergame?
While creating your own mobile game might seem challenging, advergames offer numerous potential benefits for brands. They can boost sales and customer loyalty in various instances, but the primary aim of all advergames is to establish brand awareness.

The core focus of advergames is to enhance brand awareness. Often, brands opt to develop advergames centered around specific products as part of their initial advertising strategies. In terms of brand awareness, the ultimate aspiration is to make your advergame go viral. While luck plays a role, effective and straightforward game design is crucial. Incorporating social sharing features can also contribute to gaining traction when your game attains a certain level of popularity.

Are you looking to build or run an advergames campaign to promote a particular product or brand? Reach out to us and our team can help design and incorporate advergames into your campaigns to help improve campaign performance.