Mobile Advergame Development for Engaging Marketing Campaigns

Mobile Advergame Development offers brands an opportunity to keep customers engaged for minutes instead of seconds, as is usual with most banner ads. Instead of having their scrolling interrupted by an annoying banner, brands can engage customers in a branded game that offers an exciting experience designed around the marketing campaign idea. This is possible since users spend many hours on mobile games daily, and a well-designed game just falls right into place rather than working against that user behavior. An increasing number of marketing teams are now treating custom games as an important marketing tool and not some kind of novelty, particularly in product launches. The purpose of this guide is to look at how advergames are made, their cost, and when a reliable partner counts. Abhiwan Technology offers advergame development solutions to allow the creation of branded gaming experiences based on marketing campaign ideas.

What Is Mobile Advergame Development?

Mobile advergame development can be defined as the process of creating an interactive branded game for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets that is not created for distribution via app stores but to serve promotional purposes of advertising a certain product, marketing campaign, or promoting brand messages. As opposed to passive advertisements, users get engaged with the brand by interacting with the game as long as the game maintains their interest, which usually takes much more time compared to traditional ads. The companies that create such games consider it true Advergame Development rather than adding a logo to some basic template.

Development of mobile advergames resembles the process of developing regular mobile games that include designing a concept, mechanics, graphics, and the gameplay that surrounds some product or message of a certain brand. An advergame development company should make the game short and quick so that people can play it in a few minutes, since most of them have little interest in branded games.

Key Advantages of Mobile Advergames Development

The key reason why companies develop advergames lies in the fact that there is much more value in them than in just entertaining their audience.

More Engagement Time than Average Ads

The user who decides to tap through the advergame spends much more time than the one who is just scrolling down and passing by a typical banner.

Inbuilt Shareability

It is much more probable that people will share a good game than a regular ad, thus helping companies to increase engagement at no cost of additional media budget.

Behavioral Insights

By collaborating with a professional Advergaming development company, companies receive valuable data about what users do in the course of playing the game.

Increased Intent to Buy

Users who play an advergame always demonstrate more intent to buy the product than those who only viewed a typical display ad.

Reskinnability for Future Campaigns

By developing a high-quality framework for the advergame in the process of advergame development, companies get the opportunity to reuse it in future campaigns.

Development process of Mobile Advergames

Development of mobile advergames begins with analysis of the brand, advertising campaign, and its goals, as well as the characteristics of the target audience. The team then selects the concept of the game appropriate for the advertising campaign, which will be simple enough for easy understanding by the user.

Further stages typically involve designing, developing the gameplay, adding graphics and animation, and incorporating the brand into the game. Testing of the game is performed on different platforms in order to detect and solve any performance and usability issues.

Before launching the game, the developers make sure that the game works properly and the branding is present but does not influence the game itself negatively. Proper planning of the development process helps to create an entertaining game that meets the requirements of the marketing campaign.

Development of Mobile Advergames: Facts and Figures

• The in-game advertising industry is expected to be worth approximately $9.41 billion in 2025 and grow to $19.92 billion in 2034 at a CAGR of about 8.43%.
• Dynamic advertisements and advergaming are singled out as the two most rapidly developing segments in the industry.
• Advergaming alone accounts for almost 22% of all in-game ads.
• Mobile gaming already accounts for about 51% of all in-game ads, taking the lead over both PC and console games.
• The gaming industry manages to capture twice as much audience attention as regular social or web ads.
• In-game marketing campaigns are characterized by notably higher purchasing intent compared to conventional ads.

Abhiwan Technology: Designed for Branded Mobile Games

Abhiwan Technology, started in 2018, is an advergame development company, in addition to its general activities in AR, VR, and overall game development. The internal design team, developers, and QA engineers oversee the entire process of developing the project from concept to launch without outsourcing to third parties. The portfolio of the studio features branded campaigns such as the Thums Up Biryani Hunt AR game, illustrating experience in developing advergames from scratch. When deciding whether to develop a reskinned game or a fully customized game, Abhiwan will be able to define the scope according to the budget and campaign duration.

How Much Does Mobile Advergame Development Cost?

Depending on the complexity level of mobile advergames, the prices can vary significantly. Reskinning of a game built on top of the same platform may be done for the price of around $2,500 - $5,000, which will make it perfect for temporary marketing activities or campaigns. A customized game with new graphics, mechanics, animations, and branded elements will cost about $15,000 - $50,000. Multi-level, multi-player games with complex graphics or other additional features can cost more than $50,000. 

The total cost of development will depend on the idea, the number of levels, graphics, animations, platforms, testing process, and development time. In-game leaderboards, account creation system, statistics, multiplayer support, etc. can add to the budget. Companies should also keep in mind the costs associated with maintenance, updating, fixing bugs, and technical support. Consulting with the advergame development company will provide you with an accurate estimate.

What Is an Example of a Successful Advergame?

An example of a successful advergame would be Scarecrow by Chipotle. The advergame features side-scrolling gameplay along with a story of promoting food sourcing and proper farming. This advergame helped the company draw people's attention to the campaign due to the combination of the gameplay and story. Another example is using advergames for the purposes of Deloitte's recruitment campaigns, as the games help interested candidates to interact with the company and find out what they can expect if they get hired. Fast-food chains have also applied this to running games in their campaigns. Such examples demonstrate the idea that simple game mechanics, together with a brand message, create a more understandable experience for users.