I’m not sure what to make of a new report out the other day from Flurry, a firm that tracks applications running under iOS, the iPhone’s operating system. On the one hand, it reminded me of the power of aggregated numbers; on the other hand it contains a few comparisons I think might be sort of specious. But as we do in matters of this sort, let me lay out a few things and you make up your own mind.
This would really be the headline:
Social games and social networking apps on Apple’s operating system are now competing for eyeballs with popular television shows and sports broadcasts – and winning…that audience tops the likes of NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” and is on a par with hit shows such as ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars“
That’s kind of a mind-blower, right? Especially since these numbers are only social games, a subset of the larger gaming base. It’s a great reminder about how often we see little things that don’t leave much of an impression by themselves but they’re a part of a much larger trend that we might be missing. In this case, it’s a marketing message. If you’re spending your ad dollars without considering the reach of these apps you might be missing some audience members entirely and reaching the rest less-efficiently (depending on the CPM’s for TV vs. the apps). Yet another reason that last year’s marketing plan just won’t cut it.
Now for the specious part. TV is still the most intrusive ad medium and the impact of an ad on a 52 inch TV screen has to be higher than a 275 pixel ad in a game. I skip through the ads in the games I play (which of course I do on TV sometimes by changing the channel). Flurry also implies that this gaming activity is coming at the expense of TV viewing and I’m not sure I believe that. In fact, it may be simultaneous since many studies show viewers engage in other activity while watching TV, social gaming among them. Finally, it’s pretty easy to buy DWTS or Sunday Night Football. It’s far more difficult to buy hundreds (thousands?) of social games to achieve the reach to which the study alludes (and the use of mobile ad nets raises a whole other series of issues!).
All of that said, it’s amazing the impact that apps have had. I can’t think of anything else that achieved the same sort of broad reach in so short a time.
Reactions? Self-serving research or an eye-opener?
Consult Keith 