posted over at macrumors http://www.macrumors.com/2009/02/06/apples-iphone-tv-ads-boost-individual-app-sales/ if you're lucky enough to get shown on a national TV commercial, you get this boost. this is for Classics. arn
Wow!... Funny what the power of TV will do to people... I bought Classics when it first came out, I think I only paid $1 when it was on sale. A good app if you like older books... When do you think Apple will air the DS effects games?
I haven't seen the Classics ad, but this doesn't surprise me. Getting featured in "What's Hot" & "What We're playing" were each worth about 500-1000 sales per day increase for me. Go Classics, go!
I've been saying this for ages: its really stupid how no developers seem to invest in any marketing for their games/apps (especially the more expensive ones), solely using the very unreliable App Store for recognition. When you see news like this you have to wonder why no big developer like ngmoco, Namco, Konami, EA or Gameloft has tried any external marketing (outside of app store via print/tv/web) of their $9.99 games... Why not put some ads in newspapers, magazines, websites (other than iphone sites) or even on tv in non prime-time slots? I know that's expensive but if you get results like this, you could potentially not need to keep lowering your price every 6 weeks to stay in the top 100 and thus maximize profits over time.
Urrr.... Don't know about the others you mentioned, but ngmoco's Rolando has been just about the most advertised game in the App Store. Do you not remember when all the non-text areas of TouchArcade turned into a Rolando ad for a couple weeks post release? ngmoco has really been doing a stellar job of marketing. As for the TV commercial stats, it was really nice of Classics to post their numbers. The interesting thing is that a TV commercial has LESS of an effect than being featured in the App Store. According to all the numbers I have seen, if you get featured in the What's Hot or What's New sections, you consistently get more than 10x your sales - that was our experience as well. Of course, TV commercials run longer than 1 week, which is all the boost you get with being featured. This shows again that there is really no advertising better than App Store placement.
As nattylux says, ng:moco do advertise titles like Rolando heavily. It's all about reach and being seen by the right people. Being Featured on iTunes reaches the largest number of users simply because the Point of Sale is the first thing you see - a bit like having a whole rack dedicated to one product blocking the doorway in a Game store... not only is it hard to miss, but it also comes across as an endorsement of quality (regardless if it is quality product or not... each to their own, as they say). Additionally, you get seen by the right people at the right time - when they've got shopping on their mind. TV is the next best thing to a captive audience, but it's rediculously expensive. 1000 units of $9.99 for a day's TV exposure isn't going to pay for a TV slot in a hurry. Piggybacking TV news and programmes aimed at your target audience will help, but that's further diluted because not everyone watching will have, or want, an iPhone/iPod Touch. Advertising on the web... the pros and cons (mostly cons) are covered elsewhere in these, and other, forums. It's inconsistent and you can easily pay for more than you get back.
