In our first article of the series about promoting online games, we learned the following:
- Insights on online mobile gaming landscape in India
- Segregation of online mobile games based on their popular target groups
- Few strategies to target the audience for each online mobile game category
Going forward, in each article, we would pick up an online game genre and discuss the following:
- Audience Profile for the game genre
- Approach for advertising to the target audience
- Best advertising platforms
Rise of Real Money Games in India
The real money game market in India is expected to grow by 50-55% by 2022, from 250-300 million dollars to 1.5-1.7 billion dollars.
These games which include card-based games like Rummy and Poker and Fantasy Sports games and quizzes are collectively known as Games of Skill as these require knowledge, experience, practice and special set of skills to be played.
A majority of the market share belongs to real money based card games like online rummy and online poker.
Following is a graph from a study by Deloitte that shows how the user base for skill games have increased in the past few years.
In this article, we would cover real money based card games like Rummy and Poker. Advertising ideas for Fantasy Sports would be covered in the next article.
Real Money Card Games: Know Your Target Audience
Source: Skill Gaming Survey by Deloitte, Article by Inc42
Real Money Card Games Advertising And Its Barriers
According to a report by Deloitte, there were about 18 major companies in the card games category in FY 2017-18.
This not only signifies the popularity of real money card games but also portrays very high competition in the space.
A piece of recent news by Economic Times says that the customer acquisition cost in the case of rummy and poker games is as high as INR 3000-5000.
There are some factors that are characteristic of real money games that also define the advertising approach for real money card games:
- These apps are not present in the Google Play Store.
- Popular social media platforms like Google and Facebook and many others do not allow advertising for real money games.
In this article, we would discuss approaches that would help advertisers rise above the barriers.
Real Money Card Games Advertising Approach
Following are three factors we would base our choice of advertising platforms for real money card games on:
- Frequency: The key to ensure loyalty for any game is to encourage habit formation. For this, it is important to expose the audience to the advertisements multiple times. Hence, platforms that facilitate repeated exposure to ads should be preferred.
- Geo-Targeting: Real money card games are more popular in southern regions of the country like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, and Kerala.
- Targeting by Demographics: Real money card games are usually preferred by the male in the range of 20-44 years.
- Affinity: While running a brand awareness campaign is a good idea to reach out to maximum potential customers when one has a limited budget or one wants to run a highly targeted campaign, filtering people on basis of their affinity for similar products or habits is a prudent approach.
In the case of digital advertising, a number of advertising platforms allow advertisers to target audiences based on the apps they already have on their devices. (appographic targeting)
Best Platforms for promoting Real Money Card Games
Offline Advertising Platforms
Keeping frequency and city/state targeting in mind, following are some offline advertising platforms that would be best for promoting Real Money Card Games
- Television Advertising: Advertising in regional channels especially news channels (owing to the dominance of the male audience) can be an effective way to reach out to potential customers for real money card games.
- Radio Advertising: Radio advertising is one of the best media for city-level advertising. The only source of entertainment while commuting by car, radio advertising create a big impact on the audience.
- Outdoor Advertising: Outdoor advertising is attractive and grand. It not only creates an impact on the basis of frequency and attention-grabbing creative but also helps brands generate trust and authenticity.
- Transit Advertising: Advertising on buses and auto help brands to reach out to more people and target specific areas within a city.
Look at Our Outdoor Campaign for Hello Ludo in Lucknow.
Online Advertising Platforms
- Video OTT Platforms: According to the report by Deloitte, a number of people join gaming apps for entertainment. What can be a better way to reach out to potential customers than opting to advertise on OTT platforms that offer regional content? Some of the most popular OTT platforms in India which are popular in Southern parts of India and allow language targeting are:
- Audio OTT: Like their video counterparts, audio OTT platforms too are very popular. The only barrier here is not all audio OTTs offer age and gender targeting. The only two platforms that fit these criteria are:
- Daily Hunt: Daily Hunt provides content in 14 languages. Having a stronghold in the regional market, Daily Hunt can help Real Money Card Game brands reach out to potential customers in an effective way.
- Truecaller: Truecaller is one of the most popular apps for smartphones in India. With advanced filters and cohorts, Truecaller can be a strong advertising platform for your gaming app.
- Jio Apps: Jio tops the Indian market with about 31.7% revenue share. Jio Apps are a few of the most frequent apps used in India and like Hotstar, Jio apps too can be used for appographic targeting.
Summarizing what we discussed in the article in a single table:
Read the previous article in the series here.
To know more about promoting real money games or in case you would want to share any feedback, write to us at Help@TheMediaAnt.com.
