Unveiling the Intriguing World of Mobile Game Ads: AI, Pokémon, and More
As the festive season approaches, TikTok's mobile game ads have reached a fever pitch, with a mix of AI-generated content, controversial themes, and creative strategies that are both grim and fascinating. From AI slop to Pokémon torture, innuendo, brainrot, giant zombies, and more, these ads are designed to hook and engage users in unique and unconventional ways.
AI-Generated Creatives and Medieval Strategy
Century Games' Kingshot is a prime example of the trend. With at least a dozen different ad hooks, the game's medieval strategy theme is used to generate AI-generated creatives. While some of these creatives are in line with the game's theme, many are more about remixing or leaning on organic trends seen elsewhere on TikTok. For instance, a person on some stairs trying to throw balls into a container is used as a hook, switching to familiar gameplay footage after the hook.
Pokémon Torture and Farming Game
Lilith's Palmon Survival, a farming game with a creature-collecting hook, is being advertised in a way that is anything but wholesome. The creative shows one Pokémon-like creature's tail being sliced off with a circular saw, and then it switches focus to another Palmon, already covered in grazes, who gets stabbed in the eye. This is a stark contrast to the game's actual theme, which is more about farming and creature collection.
Innuendo and Boundaries
Homa's All In Hole pushes boundaries with innuendo. The knowing star of the creative poses the question: 'What's the biggest you can swallow today?' The sound is warped and filtered in odd ways throughout the ad as another little attention-grabber. The ad keeps hammering the mischievous 'fit big things in your hole' theme before cutting to the actual game's satisfying, physics-based gameplay.
Brainrot and Cartoon Characters
X-Clash ads have made a comeback lately, taking the 'save the doge from the bees' creative and adding a brainrot-y twist. The 'doge' has now been replaced by a cartoon character (who we assume is related to meme…?) while a strange version of 'row row row your boat' plays in the background. The game's onboarding before giving way to the actual game: a card battler in which you collect various characters that take a few liberties with copyright law.
Zombie Waves and dated Creatives
Zombie Waves' ad creatives look weirdly dated. They start with the familiar LastWar-inspired blue gates, but then see our hero grab what looks like Thor's hammer and smash down into a crowd of undead, led by what appears to be a zombie bride. There are other huge monsters in the crowd, which explode into coins as the ad ends.
Serene and Diorama-Type Creatives
At the other end of the spectrum, Dark War: Survival and Tiles Survive lean into serene, diorama-type creatives and are soundtracked by slow, calm piano ditties. Dark War: Survive's creatives appear to be AI-generated, as they remix the game's post-apocalyptic setting with that Studio Ghibli aesthetic that was popular among AI evangelists recently. The Tiles Survive creatives, meanwhile, are fairly simple, slowly rotating pixel art dioramas.
The Effectiveness of TikTok Ad Creatives
Both are pretty clever, actually – because TikTok is an endless feed of shouty, attention-grabbing hooks, the contrast when you swipe through to what feels like an oasis of calm is pretty effective. TikTok ad creatives seem to have moved on from the red-and-blue gates of the recent past. Shock tactics still dominate, sure, but DarkWar and Tiles Survive also suggest there are other, calmer ways to get attention on TikTok that don't involve trend-chasing, gore, innuendo, brainrot, or giant zombies.
