Key takeaways from Digiday’s 2024 Gaming Advertising Forum

Now that gaming has gone from a buzzword to a regular presence in brands’ media mix, marketers are more closely scrutinizing the value and ROI of their investments in this channel — and the platforms are rising to the challenge. Here are some of the biggest takeaways from this week’s Gaming Advertising Forum.

The key numbers

• More so than any other medium, genuine enjoyment of a game drives audiences’ immersion in the format. According to survey data shared by speaker Antonio Miller, a research lead at Activision Blizzard Media, 57 percent of respondents reported that they were happy while playing games, and 67 percent said they were engaged, a significant increase on the numbers reported by users of online video or social media. With this in mind, Miller pointed out that 40 percent of players said that ads timed not to interrupt gameplay were a “must-have.”
• Changes to the esports ecosystem over the past year have paid off. As publishers hand over more responsibility to third-party league operators such as ESL/FACEIT Group, the operators’ events are benefiting greatly from the closer relationship. Ticket revenue for ESL/FACEIT Group’s live events have grown by 20 percent year-over-year, according to EFG chief commercial officer and Gaming Advertising Forum speaker Rodrigo Samwell. 
• The entertainment industry has picked up on the opportunity to advertise to gamers in a big way. This year, there were 15 theatrical film activations on Roblox — and a look into some of the numbers shared by speaker Todd Lichten, Roblox’s head of entertainment partnerships. Film-industry advertisers experienced an 11 percentage point increase in theater intent and a 30-point increase in awareness. “The two most important metrics to a lot of these studios would be awareness and theater intent,” Lichten said.

In-game inventory is best used as part of a broader campaign

When it comes to in-game advertising, many marketers are still hyper-focused on premium console games, rather than the live-service or free-to-play mobile and PC titles that form the bulk of many in-game ad networks’ inventory. But for the publishers of console games, integrating brands into their content in a way that doesn’t turn off gamers can be a difficult needle to thread.

Electronic Arts has learned to take advantage of its in-game inventory by connecting it to the company’s inventory outside of its games. For example, this year’s Ultimate Madden Bowl, a “Madden NFL 25” tournament, was sponsored by USAA. EA gave the brand naming rights to “Madden’s” in-game stadium, allowing it to show up in a way that didn’t interfere with gameplay.

“Brands are much more interested in an ecosystem-wide opportunity, where they get the opportunity of real-life activations, and they can interact with fans and display their products,” said EA senior director of esports and ventures brand Monica Dinsmore during the event. “But the IP, and the access to the game, is really, really important to them.”

Plenty of education is still needed

Several years after the explosion of gaming during the COVID-19 pandemic, brands are more knowledgeable than ever about the advertising opportunities inside games — but the gaming advertising ecosystem is evolving about as fast as marketers can keep up. A persistent theme during this week’s Gaming Advertising Forum was the platforms and inventory holders’ responsibility to help brands better understand how to use their offerings. Advertisers in Roblox, for example, are still figuring out the best ways to take advantage of both immersive brand activations and the platform’s programmatic ads in a way that is mutually beneficial.

“I think the most successful activations right use the entirety of Roblox,” said speaker Nic Hill, the head of interactive at the Roblox developer studio Sawhorse. “I think there’s a bunch of different ways to show up on Roblox; I don’t think there’s any one path that works for all.”

Gaming gets attention

Across the marketing industry, much has been made about the importance of the attention metric in recent years — and gaming is no exception. Data shared by Activision Blizzard Media during the event showed that gaming commands more attention than other media channels such as online video and social media, and that this increased attention results in deeper immersion. Although brands are still figuring out how best to reach the gaming audience, there’s no doubt that it is a relatively leaned-in group that is increasingly willing to be advertised to.

“Gaming is about joy; it’s inherently fun,” Miller said. “So, on that same level, I would encourage brands to have fun with it and execute it in a way that can enable that balance of fun and immersion and brand resonance.”