The world of gaming saw groundbreaking achievements over the past year, helping brands boost product sales, enhance awareness and consideration, and expand reach beyond what traditional channels can achieve. Despite the industry experiencing some of the same consolidation seen throughout the tech space, Zoe Sun, IAB’s Vice President, Experience, commended gaming industry leaders for these remarkable accomplishments as they gathered at this year’s Playfronts to share their latest work, research, and innovations for marketing.
Presenting partners included major AAA publishers like Ubisoft and Activision Blizzard, research partners like YouGov and Fandom, and developers and marketers such as myself from GALE, along with our partners at Moonrock.
As Amanda Rubin, the EVP, Brand Solutions at Enthusiast Gaming, put it, “A rising tide raises all ships,” a sentiment echoed throughout all sessions where presenters candidly shared strategies, results, and challenges they faced over the past year. One particularly resonant insight, shared by multiple speakers, was that while gaming is near the top of the list in terms of commanding consumer attention across multiple generations and demographics, it’s nowhere near the top of the list in terms of marketing budget allocation.
Here are a few ways the industry is aiming to close that gap:
Measurement: To make the case for gaming, there needs to be evidence that it can move business metrics as well as, if not better than, other channels. In many cases, this calls for an apples-to-apples comparison with advertising spaces like social, digital, and TV. However, in other cases, new forms of measurement are required.
In pursuit of comparing gaming to traditional channels, Nina Kammer, SVP and Head of Client Partnerships at Super League Gaming, discussed partnerships with Nielsen and YouGov that enable them to conduct in-game brand lift surveys by inviting players to interact with NPCs (non-playable characters) placed in-game experiences on Roblox. Partnering with established measurement entities like Nielsen lends credibility and offers a huge step towards being able to compare gaming’s effectiveness to activations on other channels.
Our GALE and Moonrock panel discussed the measurement solutions we’ve explored, including work with Nielsen, but also how we’re working to better understand which in-game actions and metrics are responsible for driving that brand lift. The possibilities in gaming are nearly infinite – players can sell food, fight dragons, get cosmetics, and everything in between. We aim to better understand which of these actions are most correlated with business success in the real world.
Another perspective on measurement and comparisons came from Digital Turbine SVP Greg Wester, who asked, “What is the cost of not being in mobile games?” Their research showed that many of the largest marketing campaigns in 2023 under-delivered in reaching heavy mobile gamers, spotlighting the importance of marketing in mobile games to effectively reach that massive audience.
Value: All the case studies showcased emphasized delivering value to players. Whether through rewarded videos or thoughtfully crafted gaming experiences, leading with value in the form of entertainment or actual rewards is a crucial ingredient for success in video game marketing.
Jordan Shlachter, Head of Measurement & Insights at Activision Blizzard, underscored this point by revealing that nearly 60% of gamers say they don’t want interruptions or forced ads. The consensus among speakers was to tailor activations to meet communities where they are with native, value-forward initiatives.
Our panel with Moonrock highlighted some of our most successful gaming work to date – our executions for MilkPEP and Bomb Pop – and with each of these, adding value was at the core of our strategy. As Jordan Baker, COO at Moonrock, said on stage, “We make game experiences by gamers, for gamers.” Take a deeper look at the work we presented HERE.
Immersion: A philosophy that informs all the gaming work we do with Moonrock is that we must focus on immersion over impressions. Encountering a brand within a gaming environment offers a totally different experience than traditional advertising. We need to tell that story alongside more traditional apples-to-apples measurement solutions.
The opt-in nature of gaming, contrasted with more passive content consumption on other platforms, manifests in “unbelievable” results. For example, in a campaign we executed for H&R Block, we saw a frequency of 900 logo exposures per player, and yet even at the “unbelievable” rate, we saw an overwhelmingly positive response from the gamers who were exposed to the logo that often. Experiencing such frequency in a social or digital campaign would not be as well-received.
Other presenters elaborated on the unique ways to approach immersion and immersive experiences. The Chief Strategy Officer at SuperAwesome, Nick Walters, talked about “back bling,” which references in-game gear that sits on an avatar’s back, visible to players in third-person-view games like Fortnite and Grand Theft Auto. The opportunity here is more than a branding one – it offers a chance to provide utility (most gear or in-game artillery are stored on an avatar’s back) and to contribute to digital fashion as players style their characters.
Presenters from Overwolf, shared their unique product offering, which can provide gamers with real-time information such as stats, ideal ways to equip themselves, and gameplay tips in non-intrusive overlays across several gaming platforms. These overlays have also been leveraged for brand challenges, giveaways, and more.
Gaming is a big industry but includes a relatively small world of key players comprising marketing, publishers, third parties, esports, and media partners. Playfronts 2024 celebrated the collective work and passion all those groups have for the space and acknowledged that brands play a key role in the industry’s success.
Despite a challenging year in gaming employment, optimism and excitement about the future of the space were still high. There’s proof that consumers are gaming consistently and on a massive scale. The ongoing task lies in demonstrating that marketing within games effectively drives real-world business outcomes for brands – something we know to be true and can share broadly if we do the work to strategically measure and show it.
