March 16th, 2008

Gaming is new ball game for operators

By Annie Turner - BKI Media

Gaming can be a hugely powerful marketing tool for mobile service providers, but so far it has been used with mixed success. BKI Media believes there is a lot of confused thinking on the subject and here looks at who got it right, who got it wrong and lessons learned.

T-Mobile has been a pioneer of in-game mobile advertising since 2005 and is creative in using gaming as a way of publicising its own new tariffs and promotions.

The first example was during the run-up to and aftermath of the soccer World Cup in 2006. T-Mobile launched The Beautiful Game (a reference to football legend Pelé’s autobiography). T-Mobile’s game showed fans undressing and streaking across the football pitch – another 1970’s craze. The simplicity of the game was remarkable, the in-house advertising creative was original and it attracted a lot of interest in the media. Yet during the world’s biggest football event in the host nation, the uptake and use of the game remained low.

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