Wanna sell your mobile game in Japan? You better make a TV commercial

Screen shot of a Puzzles & Dragons TV commercial in Japan.

Japanese people watch more TV than anyone else in Asia. In fact, Japan is second only to the US when it comes to average viewing time per person: an eyeball-melting 265 minutes per day. Japan also spends more money on mobile apps – games in particular – than any other country, so it should come as no surprise that some of the most successful games are also the most heavily advertised on TV.

A new report from Mobile Marketing Data Labo (MMDL) shows just how effective TV commercials, and advertising in general, are at convincing Japanese adults to download the latest hit game. MMDL polled 562 men and women over 20 years old who own smartphones about their mobile gaming habits and the influence of advertising on whether or not they purchase a new title.

Unsurprisingly for anyone who happens to reside in Japan, 52.7 percent of respondents said they had seen a TV commercial for Gungho’s smash hit Puzzles and Dragons. In second, 34.5 percent of those polled had seen a commercial for Mixi’s Monster Strike – which dethroned Puzzles and Dragons as the most-downloaded app in Japan earlier this month. J-RPG White Cat Project came in a close third with 30.2 percent having seen it features in a TV spot.

While these ads surely flashed in front of a lot of Japanese faces, just how effective were they at attracting downloads? Just under a quarter (22.4 percent) of respondents said they downloaded a mobile game after viewing a TV ad. TV commercials have been so effective in Japan that western app makers are increasingly adopting the same approach. If our readers in the western world saw an uptick in app ads on their TV sets in 2014, they can probably blame Japan.

It should be noted, however, that TV ads were actually only the second best way to entice Japanese to visit the App Store or Google Play. 35.9 percent of those polled downloaded a game after clicking an ordinary smartphone ad while browsing or playing a free game. Suggestions from friends or co-workers led 15.3 percent to their respective app stores.

The MMDL report had a few other interesting tidbits of information as well:

• The top three game genres in Japan? Puzzle, “simulation,” and farming
• Which games did respondents view as the year’s biggest hits? Puzzles & Dragons (Gungho), Disney’s Tsum Tsum (Line), and Puyo Puyo Quest (Sega)
• 46.1 percent of respondents reported playing smartphone games daily (40.4 percent of men and 52.1 percent of women)
• 72.9 of respondents have between one and four games on their device
• 4.5 percent of respondents have 11 or more games on their device