To overview
Activating a (sports) sponsorship is a crucial part of any sponsorship deal, according to Wave founder Erik van Mourik. In addition to traditional forms of activation, there are also increasingly new and innovative ways in which sponsorships can be activated. One form is gamification.
Gamification is the use of game techniques and elements to, for example, change behavior, create engagement, motivate users, and convey knowledge.
Popularity
More than 70% of people in Europe play one or more mobile games. The idea often prevails that mobile gaming is mainly done by young people, but nothing could be further from the truth. 50% of mobile gamers are over 35 years old. Gaming is by far the most popular category in app stores. Especially the category "hyper casual games" is immensely popular. This type of game is characterized by a simple yet extremely addictive gameplay. Some well-known examples of this type of game are Candy Crush and Fruit Ninja.
Candy Crush
The popularity of mobile gaming offers plenty of opportunities for marketers to connect with 'fans' in a completely new way. The main opportunities are as follows:
Positive brand association
In my opinion, this is the biggest USP that mobile games offer. Instead of pushing the message to the consumer (i.e., irritation), gamification offers the chance to provide a fun experience to the consumer and thus create a positive brand association. This works because gamification appeals to human emotions that are linked to a positive user experience. This creates a positive behavior and user experience with the brand.
2 Mindset
Research shows that people who play a mobile game are two to three times more focused and engaged than people who scroll through their social media timeline. This mindset ensures that your message is significantly better remembered by fans.
3 Relevance
Developing your own mobile game ensures that you are able to create a game that is relevant to your service or product. This way, you tell your brand story in a unique way, rather than a generic activation that could have been claimed by any other brand.
4 Data
Mobile games are extremely suitable for collecting data. Games are often used as a prize draw. This, combined with the fun experience, makes fans much more inclined to share their data with the brand. Opt-in rates are also much higher than the benchmark, at 30-40%.
5 KPI's
Mobile games are excellent at responding to a brand's relevant KPIs, depending on which phase a brand is in. By tweaking the user flow and gameplay, for example, the focus can be shifted from a data-driven KPI to more brand building KPI.
More and more brands are seeing the value of mobile gaming as a marketing tool and sponsor activation. A good example of this is McDonald's, which launched a Freekick game in its app during last year's European football championship, reaching thousands of players.
If you want to know more about the use of a LiveWall team in the development of your next game, be sure to contact us!
Using LiveWall for engagement and gaming? Read more here.
More LiveWall blogs? You can read them here.
