New Game Apps Taking Market By Storm

We may have all been seeing the new commercials for “Game of War” and various other apps that are being displayed on US television (and I assume world wide). This is a large shift in the market space, these apps even garnered a Super Bowl commercial this past February. Having makers of these handheld apps being able to dictate such significant advertising spend and placement is indicative of two things:

1) Mobile and Computer Game Applications are growing at ever increasing rates.

2) Television advertising is shrinking it’s rates due to lack of usage, competition with video streaming and online platforms (netflix, Amazon, etc).

This confluence of events marks a shift in the landscape of online vs. televised advertising. With the advent of mobile devices and iPhones, having essentially taken over the world, these new forms of media are now competing with the old guard of network and cable television. They are pulling viewers and potential consumers away from TV screens. To put it in perspective, think how long you spend each day on your phone? Then think how long you actually spend sitting and watching regular TV w/ commercials (not counting Netflix/etc). The answer is probably so drastically different than it would have been even 10 years ago, and this is happening all across the world.

As such the smart businessmen and marketers are moving over into this sector. There are first person shooter apps, strategy and roleplaying apps, even slots on new platform for those interested in such things. Marketers are seeing the light and now the paradigm shift has begun (hopefully I’m not misusing that term). Television still commands hundreds of millions of viewers, but it is not as monopolistic as it once was. It may not seem surprising to the younger generation, but for older folk to see this type of attention given to smaller gaming apps (and not platform specific games like Playstation or Xbox) is a surprising turn of events. For those that can see the writing on the wall, it is a big indication that change has arrived in the areas of technology, marketing, advertising and audience development.

Having a little gaming app which you use in your spare time now taking up a Superbowl commercial is unprecedented. Before this, the only websites you would see advertising on television were corporate Goliaths like Microsoft, Yahoo, or maybe Google. Now you are starting to see more and more examples of sites eating up relatively cheap advertising dollars.

The same is going for radio, by the way, and has been for the past 30-40 years. The now classic song “Video Killed the Radio Star” launched the TV station MTV into existence, and we are now seeing that supernova start to dim, and the old guard gets impeded and replaced by the younger more innovative new guard. The market playing field has started to drastically shift, like tectonic plates underneath the foundation of established media. One wonders what the next big market move will be? Impossible to predict with any certainty, so only time will tell.

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