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Fastest fingers first! No, we’re not talking KBC here, but about a new form of entertainment that’s capturing the imagination of millions of Indians. And no, it’s not SMS we’re writing about — but not too far from there. Reams have been written about mobile marketing between these pages, in past issues but we are focusing on what many in the industry promise is the next big thing: branded mobile gaming!
Branded gaming invol-ves developing games that specifically centre on the brand and its properties. It also includes games that are developed with subtle branding in the background. The concept of branded gaming would broadly also include games revolving around movies or celebrity characters. The concept, though new, should definitely catch up in India, given time. Brands targeting the youth cannot afford to ignore this medium, as the youth comprise a large portion of the growing mobile subscriber base in India.
Kunal Ramteke, Chief Marketing Officer, BPL Mobile, says, “The share of value added services would constitute about 15 to 20 per cent of our total revenue, on a nationwide basis. In metros, this may be slightly higher, close to 22 per cent.” Adds Venkat Mallik, CEO, Level Up, "The very nature of the mobile phone ensures it is present with the consumer, at all times making it an attractive proposition for brand marketers."
First engage, then brand
The growth in gaming has been spurred on by the fact that not only are colour handsets and JAVA enabled handsets considerably cheaper than when they were introduced, the costs for GPRS usage have also come down tremendously. To ensure higher levels of sampling, most games currently on offer are simple and do not include too many instructions.
"As is the trend globally, the most popular games are those which are simple to play," says Anurag Khurana, CEO, Paradox Studios, a part of the Reliance group, which is involved in developing games for them and adds, "Brands are only a secondary element in the gaming aspect. If the game itself does not have repeat value, the whole exercise is a waste. We have to keep this in mind while developing branded games to sustain interest among users."
Although they are not in the business of creating content yet, as Rajesh Sawhney, COO, Times Internet Ltd., puts it, that may change in the coming months for Indiatimes' gaming portal. "At Indiatimes, our job involves aggregating some of the finest international games and customising it to the Indian market. But on a realistic level, all this talk about the huge mobile gaming market in India is more of hype. Music downloads are the real revenue generators; the market for game downloads would approximately be about one hundredth of the mobile ringtones market. At Indiatimes, Round one is already in place. Round two will see us working closely with marketers to embed brand messages and logos in our forthcoming games. We are already in the process of developing competencies in the area of branding solutions in mobile gaming. The process should work out in the next two months so you will hear from us soon."
Hype, did Sawhney say? Not to Rajiv Hiranandani, Country Head, Mobile2win, who is laughing all the way to the bank. "The branded gaming space has just taken off in India. The gaming industry in India would be anywhere between Rs 450 to 550 million in terms of gaming revenues, given the fact that there are between 600,000 and 900,000 downloads in a month currently. Since we have been involved with gaming as well as the wireless solutions business, we have had a great rapport with brands. At one point, we decided to bring the two businesses together as we realised that there was a huge potential for marketers to put their brand elements into the gaming aspect."
Such games typically draw upon the brand's existing TVCs by weaving the brand properties into the game.
To read the entire story, grab your copy of Impact Advertising and Weekly magazine issue dated May 9-15, 2005