How To Level Up Your Marketing Games
Today with smartphones in virtually every pocket, marketers are looking for creative ways to engage with consumers on mobile. Smartphone users make up 77% of the American population, while the number of smartphone users increases every year. Flurry has determined that consumers are spending an average of 5 hours a day using a mobile device; and 92% of that screen time is spent within mobile applications.
Get Your Own Mobile App
According to EMarketer, the top 5 categories of mobile time spent are digital audio, social networking, digital video, messaging and video games. Most marketers are utilizing the most obvious platforms to get their messaging in front of the consumer; those being social media and messaging platforms.
By 2019, a significant portion of businesses have found a need for their own mobile application. This includes big name brands such as Walmart, Target, and Bank of America to name a few. Corporate mobile apps tend to be intentionally simple and user friendly, however, not many businesses have fully come to understand how mobile apps can fit into the video game landscape.
Marketing with Mobile Games
When smartphones were first popularized, Flurry determined that consumers were spending over half of their mobile screen time in gaming apps. Why? Because they are fun! This mobile gaming culture has changed the way we view video games, since games are readily available to play on the go.
Consumer facing mobile applications need some type of “hook” to get people interested in downloading the app in the first place. You want to make an application that is engaging and interactive, while still advertising your business. A great way to get people to engage with your app is by establishing an incentive ritual. In this way, a mobile application that keeps track of rewards or points can provide value to the consumer.
Once you’ve got people using your app, it’s time to plug in all of the branding and marketing content that you can. Mobile applications allow for both a visual and audible message. This is where creativity can create a big impact on your brand.
As an example, Walmart has a mobile app that serves as a practical platform for retail business and allows users to transactionally interact with the brand. Walmart developed a second mobile app called “Spark City”– a retail simulation video game where users create a character and play the game as a virtual Walmart employee.
With creativity, any brand can create a video game related to their business. For example, Sparksight made this interactive video game to advertise our annual winter special. The incentive for finishing the game is 15% off of photo/video content.
https://video.helloeko.com/v/AJbqyA
As technology advances and people become more accustomed to interactive media, sales and marketing teams will have to come up with increasingly innovative ways to allow potential customers to interact with their product information.