“It’s been interesting over the last two years watching a lot of non-gaming brands come into the gaming space. I’d say probably between 60% and 65% haven’t done it correctly. Gamers will call out BS when they see it. Brands need to avoid looking like they want to cash grab. Of course, gaming is a business. Your engagement has to be authentic and sincere and provide long-term ripple effects.”
As keynote speaker at the 北京赛车pk10 Gaming Summit 2022, Stephanie Ijoma explained what brands need to do if they want gaming audiences to accept them into their communities. Founder and CEO of NNESAGA, a platform that caters to black and ethnic-minority gamers, Ijoma is also a long-time gaming enthusiast and has clear advice on how brands should approach gaming audiences.
George Osborn, head of communications at the Association for UK Interactive Entertainment (UKIE), the video gaming trade organisation, moderated the session. Also on the panel were Jonathan Dodd, head of global creative partnerships at EA and Chris Kleinschmidt, head of CTV platform sales at Samsung Ads EU.
“If you have an authentic engagement with a gaming community,” explained Ijoma, “the members of that community are more likely to understand what you are trying to do and respond to your brand. You should also try to reach out to a diverse audience. There’s this idea that there is only one type of audience that plays games. But it’s always been diverse.”
“I can’t count the number of times advertisers have said they want to go after the ‘Mountain Dew’ gaming audience,” agreed Samsung’s Chris Kleinschmidt, referring to the US energy drink that is popular with young game-players. “I am so tired of hearing this. The average age of the UK gamer is 35. But media advertising to gamers hasn’t caught up with that.”
EA’s Jonathan Dodd said that the gaming companies themselves were at least partly responsible for this widespread misconception about who plays games. They funnel advertising and marketing budgets to a small segment of gaming influencers and streamers, usually young white males, and then wonder why their influencer and audience profiles skew young, white and male.
But Dodd also offered a solution. “People need to break out of the mould. The data is always there to show who the types of people are who play video games. That dogma [about who gamers are] still plagues the industry, but it can be difficult to see that unless you go into the data.”
Asked for the key to successfully engaging with broad and diverse gaming audiences, the speakers offered a range of advice. They pointed to the need for long-term engagement, with gamers responding poorly to one-hit campaigns, and the need for authentic engagement with gaming brands, creators and audiences.
Gamers, they explained, were very sensitive to authenticity. If you want to partner with an influencer or a game title, it’s important to find one whose values match those of your brand. Only in this way can you be sure that your campaigns will ring true with your audience.
Kleinschimdt brought it back to attribution: “Using ACR technology, Samsung Ads can identify Samsung Smart TVs that actively engage in gaming. We worked with a leading brand and created a campaign to reach gaming audiences through a number of first screen ad placements and game console placements on Samsung Smart TVs. The game publisher could track whether or not the promoted game was subsequently installed on the targeted consoles… this is a great way to target audiences and increase campaign reach.”
“My tip,” said moderator George Osborn in his closing remarks, “is pick up a controller. Give games a go. That will change the way you perceive game playing. Dig below the surface and you’ll find the truth”. Sage advice — and it rather sounds like the tagline for a game, perhaps the next instalment in the Myst series.