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Mobile games are outspending consoles on national television advertising

Julie Campbell | April 13, 2015

Small publishers are forking over huge amounts of money to make sure their products are seen.

Although the console gaming is known for the massive budgets it has for advertising its products on television, the latest trend has actually been for smaller publishers of mobile games to put together some considerable TV campaigns.

In fact, those smaller game companies are outspending their console counterparts at an incredible rate.

Recent statistics released by iSpot.tv have shown that among the top five video category advertising spenders on television, four are within the mobile games space. Together, those companies spent more than $130 million in the first quarter of this year. The top three were King, Machine Zone, and Supercell and their spending made up 30 percent of the entire video games category ad spend on television.

This spending on advertising for mobile games on TV outpaces that of the established console giants.

TV Advertising - Mobile Games In fact, those smaller mobile gaming companies didn’t just spend more than Nintendo, PlayStation and Xbox, but they also spent a larger amount than the game manufacturers for those consoles, including Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, and 2K.

Speculation in the industry has suggested that the reason for this trend is due to the shifts occurring within the video game industry as a whole. In 2014, console manufacturers had still been holding the lead position in terms of spending within the video game category. The reason was that Microsoft and Sony were trying to give an explosive launch to their new generation devices (Xbox One and PlayStation 4). The combined spending of those two companies made up 36 percent of the entire category. However, during the same period this year, the combined spending of those brands represented only about 10 percent of the category.

While the first quarter of the year is typically a rather slow one when it comes to console game advertising, as they will usually spend the largest amount of money during the fourth quarter when they release their biggest titles, this doesn’t change the fact that publishers of mobile games are spending a larger amount now than they ever have before on television advertising.

Apple Watch can be purchased only by way of reservations

Julie Campbell | April 10, 2015

The Apple Store will not be selling these smartwatches directly to consumers, as many had expected.

An official announcement was recently made that revealed that people who had been hoping to make a direct purchase of the Apple Watch may be disappointed as the company will be using a reservation system instead of sending it out to the retail store shelves.

The smartwatches will not be making their way to the shelves of the Apple Store to be picked up by consumers.

Instead, the only thing that will be possible for consumers to make in-store will be to make reservations for the Apple Watch devices that they want. This will involve a unique reservation system that will open up on April 10. It will make it possible for customers to reserve the model that they want and then pick up the smartwatch device at the Apple Store of their choice once it becomes available on April 24.

The reservations for the Apple Watch need to be made with a representative of the company’s retail stores.

Apple - Apple Watch Making the appointment gives consumers the opportunity to try out the smartwatch for themselves before they make the reservations to actually purchase one. While this may lead to disappointment for those who had hoped to make their purchase within the actual retail stores, the hope is that they will feel more confident in selecting the model that they want when they reserve it online, particularly after trying it out with a store rep.

Apple has made this decision to be able to ensure that they will have enough stock of the models that the customers want, when they begin their shipments. This way, shoppers won’t end up having to face letdowns when the model that they want goes out of stock in the retail stores where they want to buy them.

The Apple Watch reservation system will provide the company with the reaction time that is needed to ensure that it will be able to keep all of the stock dispatch issues sorted out. The pre-orders for the smartwatches will begin in the United States, as well as Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia, Hong Kong, and Japan.