There’s no question that Candy Crush Saga is easily one of the most popular games worldwide right now. However, that isn’t stopping King from going all out to introduce it to a new audience – Japan.
The company has begun running commercials on Japanese television featuring actress Mikako Tabe playing the game under a rainfall of candy – and they’re apparently being well received, as the game has jumped into the number one position on Japan’s top 100 mobile downloads as of Wednesday. This is after not even cracking the top 100 before the TV ads aired.
Industry analyst Serkan Toto wrote on the popular campaign. “Advertising mobile games on television doesn’t sound intuitive at this point in time, given the immaturity of the mobile gaming industry, the now less important position of TV as a marketing channel, high production costs for ads, inability to track effectiveness, problems in attributing user acquisition, and, of course, the costs of running ads on TV in the first place,” said Toto. “In Japan, however, mobile content has been advertised on national television for years.”Puzzle & Dragons from GungHo Online Entertainment is another game that has seen exposure in ads…and considering its worldwide popularity, it shouldn’t be a surprise that King chose to follow suit.
Source: VentureBeat
