Nike, McDonald’s jump on China mobile gaming craze to entice young consumers
Global companies McDonald’s and Nike place ads on Tencent’s popular Tiao Yi Tiao mobile game, with 100 million daily users at the start of the year
Multinational companies are experimenting with new ways to grab the attention of China’s consumers and are willing to spend several million yuan to garner attention in the world’s largest market.
The tool that companies such as McDonald’s and Nike have chosen is the simple platform-jumping mobile game – Tiao Yi Tiao or “Jump jump” – on Tencent Holdings’ multipurpose WeChat messaging service, which went viral towards the end of last year.
Players move a hopping block from one platform to another by tapping the smartphone screen, with a point scored for each successful jump.
The platform, also called a box, where the block jumps onto, can be customised with advertisements for 5 million yuan (US$791,000). By comparison, a 15-second, prime time advertisement spot on state-run broadcaster CCTV costs 190,000 yuan.
“Brands now have opportunities to embed advertisements into the game … help their potential customers to know more of the new products,” Tencent said in a statement without disclosing the advertising fee.
A Tencent online customer service staff, however, said that “only well-known brands are accepted to advertise on Tiao Yi Tiao,” adding that the company charges “at least 5 million yuan as advertising fees”.
McDonald’s was the first Western brand to capitalise on it. When the block arrives on McDonald’s box, the company’s slogan – “I’m loving it” – appears. Players get an additional 20 points if they keep the block on the platform for a few seconds, as images of McDonald’s hamburgers and French fries jump out of the box.
“McDonald’s China has been working closely with Tencent and we were thrilled about the
cooperation of being able to ride on the popular mobile game,” the company said in an email response to the South China Morning Post, declining to elaborate.