Gamers Don't Like Ads During Breaks in Mobile Game Play

Mobile advertising is often handicapped by the very devices that it hopes to appear on. Mobile screens tend to be small, mobile ad units have little flexibility, and the ad has to interrupt something else to make its presence known. These problems persist within social apps — and gaming apps in particular.

Mobile advertising agency Mediaspike teamed up with data analysis company Interpret, and surveyed 200 mobile and tablet video game users between 18- and 49-years-old to find out how popular or unpopular mobile game advertising is among consumers.

The survey asked about four categories of advertising:

1. Integration of brand into gameplay
2. Banners visible during gameplay
3. Ads show at breaks in gameplay
4. Ads using in-game notifications

Product placement — or integration of brands into gameplay — was preferred by almost 40 percent of survey participants, and more than 35 percent said they were most likely to interact with that type of advertising....