So far, LINE Game, the in-app gaming platform LINE operator NHN Japan launched last summer has been doing extremely well – most recently with Dragon Flight and Theater Town.
And now it seems that NHN Japan is ready to step on the gas: the mega-popular original app has been advertised on national Japanese TV for months, first with popular TV personality Becky appearing in the spots.
As I mentioned earlier, using TV to mass-acquire users and promote mobile platforms and games isn’t really new in Japan. DeNA and GREE have been doing it for years. TV ads are the main driver behind the rapid growth of Puzzle & Dragons, Japan’s top smartphone game.
What’s interesting now is that while NHN Japan is continuing to promote the original app on TV, the company has now rolled out a new ad that entirely focuses on the LINE Game platform.
More specifically, viewers can see actress Satomi Ishihara playing LINE Pop and Line Bubble, two of the most popular games in the 30-second spot.
Observe how the ad stresses the social component of the two games, which is interesting because both titles are in actuality quite weak with regards to social features (they are essentially one-player games):
http://youtu.be/xB0cAX-IkwM
Here is the new ad that promotes the original app:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlLlubOtWiE
