The pandemic has accelerated a trend towards gaming environments becoming social spaces: more than a third people joining game worlds say they do so for social rather than gaming needs.
Gaming is attracting more attention than ever and it is important that advertisers know how to play it right in the in-game space – not interrupting the flow of the game, understanding diverse audiences and so on – but they new face new challenges if many people are there for reasons other than playing. That also ties in with promised arrival of the metaverse, which will change things again.
Marketers have to appreciate that gaming is not a “channel” but a form of entertainment, around which a unique set of consumer behaviours has been built. The key to navigating the space for brands is understanding this considerable variation in behaviours and the motivations behind them.
