Game advertising returned to the Super Bowl stage, and we have the details on how marketing scored at least one touchdown.
The massive cultural event known as Super Bowl 50 is over, and while there was clear winner on the field (congrats, Broncos!) there was an even fiercer competition going in amongst the advertisers. For many people, watching Super Bowl advertising is as interesting (or more interesting!) than watching the football action. This year we have Machine Zone placing a cool $5 million advertising buy for its relatively new game Mobile Strike, and The Pokemon Company dropping in a well-regarded ad for the Pokémon 20th anniversary year-long celebration. What’s the marketing impact been for these game companies? Let’s take a closer look.
Last year we saw game advertising jump into the biggest of the big advertising leagues with Super Bowl ads from Supercell (for Clash of Clans), Machine Zone (for Game of War: Fire Age) and Ucool (for Heroes Charge). How have those games fared in the past year? As of today, Clash of Clans and Game of War: Fire Age occupy the #1 and #2 top-grossing slots on App Annie’s iOS charts, respectively, and the same positions in the Google Play store as well. So for them, at least, in the long run advertising in the Super Bowl certainly hasn’t hurt – that’s the same position they held last year. For Ucool’s Heroes Charge, the Super Bowl advertising was more of a short-term boost. The game’s position was up in the 20s for a time, but now the game is at #119 for Android and #80 for iOS on the top-grossing charts. Not bad, but it probably speaks more to the value of a sustained marketing effort over a one-time shot.
The Super Bowl hasn’t turned into a game ad mecca, no doubt because prices still remain high ($5 million for a 30-second spot). Still, Machine Zone returned to the Super Bowl, this time with an ad for its new military strategy mobile game Mobile Strike, which came out last year. The ad, featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger (who has been the promotional face of the game since its launch), shows Schwarzenegger in a variety of shots recalling some of his iconic movie roles, all while mixing in graphics of virtual armies battling. Check it out:
Mobile Strike is currently rocking a #5 position on App Annie’s iOS top-grossing charts, and #6 for the Google Play charts. Clearly, Machine Zone has been successful in establishing the game with a significant audience, and the company must feel that its investment last year in a Super Bowl ad was money well-spent. It’s hard to argue with that sort of position on the top-grossing charts.
The more unusual game marketing play comes from The Pokémon Company, which aired a 30-second spot for its 20th anniversary celebration. The ad also had a 60-second version with The Pokémon Company released prior to the Super Bowl, and you can see it below:
This Super Bowl ad was one of the top viral ads to come out of the Super Bowl, according to Adweek. They rated the ad ‘Pokemon20’ #4 on their Most Viral list with 297,706 shares. Perhaps more importantly, though, The Pokémon Company was very crafty in how they positioned the ad and laid all the marketing groundwork for it, resulting in the ad getting top engagement scores from Engagement Labs, as reported by Adweek. The numbers were compiled based on engagement, impact, and responsiveness, measured by clicks, likes, and comments. Pokemon20 racked up the top eValue score of 84.23, easily besting Walt Disney Pictures’ The Jungle Book at 77.22. This was no doubt aided by the release of the ad prior to the Super Bowl.
It’s interesting to note that Pokemon20 isn’t aimed at one particular product – instead, it’s looking to get fans excited all over again about the brand and the wide variety of products. Indeed, The Pokémon Company has set up a special website to honor the anniversary and showcase some of the products that fans will be able to experience this year. And it’s not just products, but special events being planned, too.
It’s a lengthy list, too. This spring will see Pokémon Tournament coming out for the Wii U, where your pokémon can be controlled directly in battle. Then there’s the mobile game Pokémon Go, Pokémon amiibo coming out soon, digital downloads of Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow for the 3DS. That will be joined by a New Nintendo 3DS Pokémon 20th Anniversary Bundle, available February 27.
That’s not even mentioning the Pokémon trading card game (TCG) which will have a special expansion and plenty of special new booster packs coming out. Or the retail events taking place at GameStop throughout 2016 where fans can download special Pokémon and get unique items. There’s the release of 12 full-length Pokémon feature films for digital download from iTunes, Google Play, and Amazon, as well as the first three available on DVD and Blu-Ray. And, of course, an array of all-new merchandise including apparel, accessories, toys, and souvenirs.
Fans are, of course, being encouraged to share their thoughts via social media. That’s standard – but what isn’t standard, and should be, is the sheer quantity of information the The Pokémon Company is putting out to really supercharge the desire of fans to talk. There’s plenty of product information, an in-depth look at twenty years of product history, news releases about upcoming events, and plenty of videos, pictures, and media for fans to obsess over.
That’s the part that many marketers don’t put sufficient effort into – providing grist for the social media mill. That’s what makes this effort special, and why it makes sense to spend so much money on a Super Bowl ad to kick off the whole marketing effort. That Pokemon20 ad isn’t about selling one product, however important that product might be. There’s a vast array of ways for Pokémon fans to spend their money on the brand this year, and the Super Bowl ad is a high-profile way to reach millions of fans and underscores the impressive nature of the whole campaign.
The downside of creating a Super Bowl ad that only applies in general to a brand is that tracking effectiveness becomes more difficult, if you’re looking to see exactly how many dollars in sales you can directly attribute to that $5 million ad spend. Still, there are plenty of indirect metrics that can and will be collected.
The interesting point is that after last year’s Super Bowl, there was reason to believe we might see even more game ads during the Super Bowl – especially mobile games, with the continuing rise in user acquisition costs. In fact, though, we saw the opposite, with only Machine Zone stepping up to pay the price. Perhaps mobile game publishers are entering a more cautious phase when it comes to singular advertising opportunities like the Super Bowl. Traditional console and PC game advertising on television in general seems to have been reduced, as big publishers like Activision and Electronic Arts prefer to direct their efforts more through social media and other direct connections with customers. Videos, trailers, and commercials are still powerful tools – they just get distributed in a different and probably more cost-effective way via YouTube, Facebook, and other media.
