In the money
Adspend on mobile games will soar tenfold over the next 5 years, according to a forecast by Juniper research.
The report predicts that by 2015, $894m will be spent on adspend, rising from $87m in 2010. It reckons such a rapid rise will be fuelled by increasing brand interest in mobile as an advertising channel and apps, of which games are the dominant sector.
Full versions of games such as Angry Birds are offered free to consumers, bankrolled by in-game advertising and the report said opportunities in this area have been bolstered by the launch of platforms designed to optimise the deployment of adverts within apps, such as Apple's iAd.
The research firm also discovered that games are being successfully deployed as marketing tools by brands such as Barclaycard and Volkswagen, which are in turn creating new opportunities for developers.
The report's author, Daniel Ashdown, said: "Angry Birds has been a huge hit over the last year on the iPhone since its launch; but arguably its relative impact, in terms of downloads, has been bigger on Getjar and more recently on Android Market, as a result of offering the game free with ads. Users get a great game for free but advertisers get significant product/brand exposure and the same is true of mobile games as marketing tools."
However, the report predicts that while growth in adspend on mobile games will be higher than for end-user revenues, the latter business model will continue to be the primary source of revenue for players in the industry. It reckons that end-user revenues (including pay-per-download and in-game purchases) will still be 10 times higher than adspend in 2015.
