Gaming is well on its way to becoming a part of brands’ marketing budgets in 2024 — but via customized brand integrations, rather than traditional programmatic formats. As the space matures, both publishers and marketers are looking to develop more seamless ways for brands to plug themselves into these in-game experiences.
Promising signs
Marketers were quick to jump on the opportunity as gaming exploded in popularity during COVID-19 lockdown. Between 2020 and 2022, a wave of intrinsic in-game advertising companies formed with the goal of serving traditional programmatic ad formats, such as banners, within natural in-game locations such as virtual billboards and signs.
“I don’t know that I’m bold enough to say that we have reached an inflection point, but my observation of the broader industry is that we’re getting close,” said Activision Blizzard Media vp of global business research and marketing Jonathan Stringfield. “We are seeing more brands investing in gaming; we are having less of a dialogue around ‘why games.’ We are at a point where, for a large part of the industry, we’re getting over that hill, and we are seeing agencies that have dedicated gaming specialists, or entire teams, or entire organizations.”
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