Coors Light?s Refresh-Men game sequel makes mobile debut
Coors Light is following the success of its ad-based mini-game Coors Light Refresh-Men with a sequel that brings the fight to mobile users for the first time.
The brawler-style sequel, Coors Light Super Refresh-Men, is reminiscent of popular games from the 1980s, with players tasked with collecting Coors Light as they take on bad guys and bosses. Bringing the game to iOS and Android in addition to popular gaming consoles will enable Coors Light to expand its reach to more casual gamers.
?The platform is the key here, as a brand Coors understands where their users are and know that mobile devices make sense for anyone who wants to take the same Xbox 360 experience on the go,? said Bill Magnuson, chief technology officer and co-founder at Appboy. ?Specifically, there's an opportunity to engage people while they're out in the world, like buying a Coors Light for example.
?There's a moment to unlock an engagement channel, like push notifications, and combine it with location data to connect with that person when they're about to make a purchase,? he said.
80s style
Coors Light has found ad-based mini-games are a good way to engage its target audience. For example, players of the first Coors Light Refresh-Men game spent more than 12 minutes in the game, the longest average time for a game of this nature on the Xbox 360?s Branded Landing Experience.
The 8-bit sequel challenges legal-drinking-age players to save the Rockies and deliver ice-cold refreshing Coors Light. It features new levels, storylines, bad guys, moves and power-ups as well as overly pixelated imagery, bright colors and arcade-style typography.
Players can choose one of four Super Refresh-Men characters to play as.
The original game was released in 2014 on Xbox 360. The sequel will extend to Xbox One in addition to Xbox 360 and mobile devices.
Coors Light claims to be the first brand to create a direct sequel to a previous mini-game execution.
Game on
Coors Light?s commitment to developing a game with strong enough style and content to appeal to serious gamers appears to be paying off.
While a number of brands have launched mini-games on mobile and gaming consoles, most have a relatively short shelf life as creating truly engaging branded content can be resource-intensive.
This summer, Angry Birds 2 players were able to rain Honey Nut Cheerios down on the game?s piggies for a limited time in a mobile in-game integration that leveraged ad-serving technology instead of being hard coded into the platform (see story).
New Balance's sports equipment brand Brine has also seen success with gaming, with its Shoutout arcade-style mobile game having been played nearly 50,000 times in its first six months, prompting the brand to release a follow-up (see story).
?When you consider the monetization opportunities associated with mobile gaming it?s not going anywhere though it will certainly evolve over time,? Mr. Magnuson said. ?We?re already seeing that evolution with paid games being completely replaced, in app purchases generating huge amounts of revenue, and mobile audiences continuing to grow.
?For the brand marketer, however, monetization is not as important as building a user base and gaining the ability to deliver the brand?s message to it over time,? he said. ?One of the things we see at Appboy is the ability to leverage push notifications, email, in-app and web messaging to ensure the lines of communication are always open with the user.?
Final Take
Chantal Tode is senior editor on Mobile Marketer, New York