With each passing week, it seems there’s a new technology or platform promising a fresh avenue to connect with consumers. While these innovations have undeniably benefited marketers, over the past several years, we kept hearing a recurring challenge from our clients. With all that was available to them, they were expected to be “innovative” and create “breakthroughs” for their brand. While the desire to accomplish this often vaguely-defined task was there, the multitude of options – coupled with rapidly-changing audience behavior and platform offerings – made it overwhelming to shift through and know where to begin.

That’s why GALE dedicated a group of individuals early last year to cultivating deeper relationships with media and platform partners. Our goal was to integrate so closely with these partners that we could understand and anticipate emerging capabilities in real-time, opening the door for our clients to develop innovative, and sometimes, first-to-market activations that would move the needle on business growth.

We’ve had some incredible moments thus far, but our most impactful partnership to date has been our collaboration with gaming design specialist, Moonrock Labs. It exemplifies the way we aspire to work with all of our partners.

Gaming activations have been at the forefront of many marketers’ minds for some time now, but brands are still struggling to get it right and prove its value. Instead of shying away from the problem, we established a partnership with Moonrock, immersing ourselves in their speciality capabilities, which include developing curated activations within Fortnite, Roblox, Minecraft, and more. With their willingness to share unparalleled knowledge of gaming platforms and those who engage on them, we formulated strategies that enabled clients to not only consider gaming as a marketing channel, but also shifted the conversation away from traditional marketing metrics to prioritize immersion over impressions.

The results of this true collaboration, as they say, speak for themselves.

For our client Bomb Pop, for example, we identified a unique opportunity to create a first-of-its kind activation in Roblox Restaurant Tycoon 2. While others were stuck debating how to measure the impact of gaming activations, we focused first on creating a deeply immersive experience that prioritized entertainment and what those who engage on Roblox would actually enjoy. Putting traditional brand advertising aside, our activation was fully embraced by the gaming community, leading directly to real-world impact. Bomb Pop immediately saw a 28% increase in sales, plus a 22% year-over-year increase throughout the activation.

Working with Moonrock allowed us to introduce Bomb Pop to this continually-evolving platform and ultimately drive breakthrough business results. Many other branded gaming activations, which are often just there to be there or are late to game on trends, cannot say the same.

We continue to engage with technology and platform partners of all kinds to ensure our clients can leverage emerging products, innovative ad formats, and audience data and targeting in a way that allows for effective storytelling. We’ve helped everyone from iconic legacy brands to mission-driven organizations navigate this dynamic space.

For any platform or media partner ready to collaborate and drive breakthrough work, we’re ready.

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