How Gaming Became an Essential Marketing Space
Nov. 8 2024, Published 3:00 a.m. ET
If you enjoy gaming online like me, then you may have noticed, as I have, how this particular sector of the digital entertainment industry has become an essential marketing space for some of the world’s most successful brands.
Companies quickly realised how powerful this relatively new form of advertising and marketing can be to raise brand awareness, boost leads, conversions, and sales, and help retain existing customers.
My recent research has taught me that the annual revenue generated by advertising on our favourite platforms is expected to double by 2027 as marketers use this effective model to reach a dynamic, broad-ranging, and hugely diverse customer base at scale.
Let’s now dive in and take a closer look at how businesses today use this space to market their products, services or content to reach their target audiences like never before.
How do businesses market their brands in this ever-changing industry to boost revenue?
Digital marketing for businesses in the gaming industry is now more important than ever, and some of the most effective marketing strategies that I have seen the most successful brands use in this space are the following:
Adverts placed within today’s biggest hit titles – if you enjoy playing online, you may have noticed in recent years how companies place a range of adverts, such as product placements, billboards, banners, gifs, and more, in the titles that you play
Using influencers – influencers with huge global followings who take on the role of brand ambassadors can help raise brand awareness and increase that company’s visibility to reach their target audience easily
Building communities – today’s most well-known businesses also use the influencer marketing tool to create and build online communities around their brands
Advergames – companies that produce digital content for this digital entertainment sector now have the ability to produce customised content centred entirely around their brand, products, and services
Gamification and immersive experiences – brands create immersive experiences using techniques such as gamification to raise awareness of their brands and achieve their marketing goals by offering rewards when consumers complete in-game challenges or win online tournaments
Live-streamed events – this particular form of advertising is an effective way to promote the latest products and services and explain what their brand/product/service is all about
Free demos and early access to upcoming releases – this form of marketing can drive huge amounts of interest before a product or service goes live
According to the latest research, people like me who regularly play our favourite titles have nearly 100% focus when playing and are less likely to be distracted and, therefore, pay more attention to the adverts, which is an advertiser’s dream.
In comparison, when people watch adverts via television, they are more likely to be distracted.
What kind of marketing tools are used in the iGaming space?
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Software providers that make online fruit machines or, for example, classic table and card favourites, such as poker, roulette, blackjack, baccarat, and craps, often collaborate with operators on the sites where those games are hosted to make their content more visible.
Their marketing strategies include multiplayer tournaments, on-site bonuses, and other network-wide promotional offers.
One of the most popular bonuses commonly up for grabs on the industry’s safest sites, like those currently featured here on this page, johnslots.com/en/, is the free spins bonus, which is frequently awarded to people like me who join these sites to try out their fruitys.
These same sites also use AI-powered tools to offer more relevant, tailored promotions to ensure we don’t get bored or try to look for somewhere else to play, and they run lucrative rewards programs as a way of saying thank you for your loyalty.
Here is a quick recap of some of the most effective marketing tools used by companies today in this sector:
Influencer marketing
Loyalty programs
Affiliate programs
Referrals
Social media engagement
Playable advert videos
Live events/live streaming
Block banners
Rewarded ads
User acquisition campaigns
Interstitial ads
Sponsorship
UGC (user-generated content)
In recent years, major brands have also seen the importance of using the metaverse to raise brand awareness via live-streamed events (e.g. VR concerts) hosted by today’s biggest singers, bands, musicians, and artists, such as Ariana Grande, Travis Scott, and KoRn, to name a few.
These events can be accessed online using various cutting-edge wearable VR devices, and they are a great way for companies to get their brands noticed and boost sales.
Social media platforms and video-sharing platforms, such as Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok and Instagram, are also now heavily leveraged by companies to promote their latest products and services.
Final thoughts
Over the coming years, we will see even more adverts in the content that we play, but in a less intrusive and more subtle way.
Although they can be annoying, there are several ways that you can turn off those annoying adverts, which I think is fantastic, but it often means you have to pay a little extra in your subscriptions to make them disappear.
I can’t stand adverts, so I’m willing to pay that little extra to see them disappear to enhance my online gaming experience. You might be different and have the ability to tolerate them more than me.