How do casual game designers find leverage in advertising to corner the casual market? Well when it comes to brand recognition on the casual and mobile markets, the new top dogs are King and Supercell for Candy Crush Saga and Clash of Clans. Both of these titles are incredibly simple as in terms of design and has other developers tying to compete with them either with clones or similar titles. Although, this can come off as a giant mistake and these developers and others have leveraged advertising to make competing against them on their terms impossible.
Take a look at the casual and mobile markets. Top games are not the most complex titles but go for simple gameplay with quick engagement to pull in the casual audience. It’s what Angry Birds, Farmville and the examples above becoming major sellers pulling in millions of dollars. Given the enormous amount of profit that’s earned, it should go without saying that they want to continue with building their brands and awareness. As we’ve talked about before, discover ability is one of the biggest issues facing the mobile and casual market and it’s more important to have your game in the public eye than it is to spend a long time in development making something unique.
Right here is where these companies have differed from traditional game studios that would use their profits to give them leverage in creating new titles and IPs. These studios have found a different avenue toward sustaining their profits and protecting their brand – Advertising.
Look at the iOS store. It’s flooded with new titles that are released almost every day. It’s important to have a brand that people know and recognize outside of stores or Facebook. This is what’s been a strong marketing push by social and mobile games into other forms of advertising.
Throughout the year of 2014, we’ve seen commercials and merchandising of popular casual games. Clash of Clans and Candy Crush Saga have had TV commercials. Angry Birds has been transformed into toys, candy, spin off games, and even their own animated kids’ show. Most recently, Game of War released a commercial featuring Kate Upton that premiered during Thursday Night Football.
By getting their game out in front of the consumer, developers are making sure that people not only know about their titles but become familiar with the brand. This is why King was so adamant that “Saga” was a trademark part of Candy Crush as they wanted people to know the gameplay along with brand. This will prevent people from trying to compete within the same genre. Because consumers now associate the gameplay with the brand, it makes them more willing to keep following the brand rather than try something from an untested source. This is the trick that’s cementing these brands in the consumer’s eyes and why developers need to think about competing in a different space now.
If you’re spending money on advertising, you’re circumventing the problem of discoverability with the iOS store. You’ll find that it leads to a feedback oop of them having enough money to speond on advertising which leads to more sales which leads them to spend more money on advertising. The only chance a developer has is to have the amazing success that started with developers like King and Rovio onto the fast track, but given the problem facing developers trying to stand out, this is harder than it sounds. Anyone who attempts this option, will find themselves competing with the millions of dollars these companies are already spending. Unless you already have big success, there is no way that an Indie developer will be able to compete.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a way to fix this unless the developers run out of marketing funding which is more of a sign of the mobile marketing than anything.