Honda is banking on mobile games as a hot spot to target consumers with a new campaign that promotes its 2013 Accord.

The Honda mobile game initiative is part of a broader multimedia effort titled ?It Starts With You.? Honda is working with Zynga on this initiative, which marks the first mobile reward-based campaign for the gaming company.

"The target consumer is one with a strong affinity to word and puzzle games," said Julie Shumaker, vice president of global brand sales at Zynga, San Francisco.

"Honda?s deep understanding of their customer is what drew them to two of the largest mobile social word and puzzle games - Words With Friends and Scramble With Friends," she said.

"Reward-based advertising helps to deliver value to brands by engaging, surprising and delighting players."

Word scramble
The Scramble with Friends portion of the campaign kicked off on Oct. 13 and runs through Oct. 31.

Honda is running mobile banner ads along the bottom of the Scramble with Friends app that encourage users to play a game in exchange for game tokens.

When the banner is clicked on, users are asked to find three Honda-related words in a branded puzzle in 30 seconds. The three words are accord, luxury and new.

Users who complete the game automatically receive a token that can redeemed for in-game currency.

In the Words with Friends app, Honda is running interstitial ads that pop up between games with a landing page. When consumers tap on the mobile ads, they are directed to the page on Honda?s mobile site that features the 2013 Accord Sedan.

A picture of the car is prominently promoted at the top of the page. Underneath, users can find a dealer, browse current offers, request a quote, compare models and build and price their own car.

Photos of the 2013 Accord Sedan are also available on the mobile site as well as a gallery that lets users rotate pictures of cars by swiping their finger across the screen.

Honda also ran a 'Word of the day' campaign inside the Words with Friends app from Oct. 6-12. Consumers could play the Honda-related words new, tech and you to receive gameplay tips. Four days into the campaign Zynga claims that more than 220,000 words were played.

Honda inside the Scramble with Friends app

Reward-based advertising
Consumers are slowly becoming less responsive to traditional banner ads.

Therefore, finding new ways to target consumers in apps such as games where they are actively engaged with is crucial.

By playing game content that is associated with Honda, the car company is able to spread its message in a way that is not bombarding.

Instead, the campaign keeps Honda top-of-mind while consumers play the games.

Honda is not the only brand taking advantage of mobile games to target users.

Earlier this year, Universal Pictures used a campaign inside Words with Friends to build up hype for the film ?American Reunion? (see story).

Similarly, Progressive Insurance used the game app for a week-long effort to promote its Snapshot program (see story).

Zynga has struggled to monetize its mobile platforms as users continue to migrate from desktop to mobile screens to play their favorite games. Although the company has run similar desktop reward-based campaigns with brands including Nordstrom and McDonald's, the Honda campaign marks the company's first stab at the model for mobile devices.

"Zynga Mobile continues to bring a variety of genres and games that reflect its players? lifestyles and provides them with the social experience they want ? anytime, on any device, regardless of platform," Ms. Shumaker said.

"This particular campaign leveraged the eight billion minutes each month spent playing Words With Friends and Scramble With Friends and reaches players through the mobile games they love," she said.

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Marketer, New York