How to Choose an Ideal Mobile Game for Brand Collaborations

Mobile games offer unique qualities that make them superior to traditional marketing campaigns. Four key benefits include:

• Focused attention
• Low customer acquisition cost (CAC)
• High customer lifetime value (CLV)
• Specific targeting

Let’s look more deeply into each of these.

Focused Attention – Mobile games run one promotion at a time. With a campaign typically lasting 4-6 weeks, brands are seen by every monthly active user consistently and without competing against other brands for attention. This is a huge advantage over social media ad buys, for example.

Low CAC – Gamers are fairly easy to activate because they love their favorite games. With sufficient in-game rewards, players can become new customers for a fraction of the cost. In one case, a bank using PlayMGT’s services activated players to sign up for a credit card and make a purchase; the CAC was only 70% of normal cost.

High CLV – When gamers find what they like, they stick with it. That’s the reason why they play the same game consistently. One QSR brand that worked with PlayMGT found 20% higher CLV from customers gained through their mobile collaboration.

Specific Targeting – Popular mobile games have worldwide appeal, thus giving brands global reach. Similarly, if a brand wants to target a specific region, geolocation can easily bring that message to only the players intended.

Choosing the right mobile game for collaborations isn’t as simple as choosing whatever title is trending #1 in the app store today. Careful consideration and research go into finding the perfect match. Some crucial considerations include:

Shared Demographics – Different games appeal to different people, so the core player base of any game usually has a particular age range and gender. Brands should seek games that appeal to the same demographic as their target audience.

Brand Alignment – Mobile games have their own brand image, which should integrate sensibly. For example, a cute toy brand would align far better with a casual adventure game than a zombie shooter.

Player Base – Several factors go into understanding a game’s player base. The following statistics give a detailed picture of the game’s audience:

• Total Downloads - General popularity over time
• Daily Active Users - How many people play the game every day in a month
• Monthly Active Users - How many people play at least once per month
• Conversion Rate - What percentage of players spend money in the game
• Average Revenue Per Paying User - Monthly spending, often in USD
• Location - How are players distributed in different regions

Brand Awareness – Beyond the players, how well do people know of the game brand? Games with long histories like Cut the Rope or Talking Tom have a wide appeal beyond current players. The Netflix series Jupiter’s Legacy featured Shadow Fight 3, which supports the game’s general popularity.

Track Record – Look for mobile game studios that already have experience collaborating with other brands. A history of successful licensing or co-branding partnerships is a clear sign that the studio understands how to drive results.

With so much untapped potential in the mobile gaming market, why haven’t more brands taken the initiative? The biggest obstacle is the resource commitment needed to do the work in house.

In 2023, the Google Play store had 490,000 mobile games available. Finding an ideal partner, just using the criteria mentioned above, would require an industry expert who could whittle down the list to a manageable number and then research every game that’s left.

Even after compiling a list of prospective game partners, that list will likely include several different studios, each with their own point of contact. Communicating with every studio representative can be time-consuming, and would require detailed project management to keep up with the status on every request.

With all of these factors in aggregate, it’s understandable why so many brands are hesitant to get started.

Highly specialized licensing and marketing agencies, such as Play Management Company (PlayMGT), are a response to the need for streamlining. Led by industry experts, these agencies connect brands with games and offer full service campaign management, from design to execution and reporting.

Mobile-focused licensing agencies…

• keep up-to-date research on trends in gaming, licensing, and brand collaboration.
• only represent popular titles with proven track records of success.
• offer a single point of contact with direct connections to multiple publishers and studios.

Brand managers interested in exploring the opportunities for mobile game integration should contact a licensing agency like PlayMGT. Start by sharing your goals, whether that be increasing sales, expanding into new markets, increasing exposure, or collecting data for retargeting.

You can expect to learn what kind of titles would best align with your brand, and how a custom tailored campaign can achieve the end-results you desire. The mobile market has proven its success and continued value, but is far from saturation. Now is the perfect time to leverage this market to your advantage.