In-Game Advertising: The Next Best Strategy for Advertisers!

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Whenever an ad campaign runs on CTV, gaming console, or any other platform, the major motive of the advertisers is to create a buzz for their brand. The gaming industry witnessed tremendous year-on-year growth of 9% after people were restrained in their homes due to the panic revolving around the Covid-19 crisis in 2020. Going forward with the trend of in-game advertising, VDO.AI partnered with several accomplished mobile-app publishers to achieve incremental revenue for themselves while delivering successful ROI for the advertisers.

As gamers are an interactive, growing, and diverse audience, they can turn out to be the most receptive audiences for the ad campaigns. Therefore, advertisers should certainly consider in-game advertising as an incredible opportunity to maximize their user engagement and revenues by reaching out to more users.

In-Game Advertising | VDO.AI — Image source

Ranging from million-dollar integrated ad campaigns and blockbuster ads, in-game advertising is the best strategy for advertisers to achieve higher ROI. This market is evolving at a breakneck speed. Consequently, the industry is expecting to reach the benchmark of $56 billion by the end of 2024.

Some Benefits of In-Game Advertising

With the landscape of advertising always evolving with technology, the advertisers are always in search of new formats that could drive more user engagements and augmented revenues for their brands. The gaming industry is becoming a full-fledged marketplace to promote brands and products on a larger scale. Hence, advertisers should come forward and consider this as an amazing alternative in their next ad campaign.

Advertisers considering in-game advertising as an enigma or are still on the fence to know its benefits, here are some of the qualities of such advertising.

Increased buyer intent: Ad campaigns in games could lead to higher purchaser intent compared to stand video advertising by 169%.

Engaging: Unlike any other traditional advertising strategy, games provide an option for the users to play the game leading to proactive user engagement. They willingly inadvertently interact with businesses, leading to a marketing win situation. This further allows the advertisers to create brand awareness by displaying their brands when the user is engaged in gameplay.

Data collection: With advertising through games running via online servers, the advertisers can easily accumulate data about the users. The game collects the analytics of the players which the company can use for other marketing strategies and other purposes.

Wide market reach: Obviously, there is no doubt that games are multi-generational. As this industry has a wide market to tap, advertisers can certainly take advantage of the in-game advertising to leverage their brand awareness.

Brand awareness: Not every user is aware of the strategy of in-game advertising and unconsciously responds to them. Advertisers can efficiently use popular games for their brand promotions and attain maximum user engagement. Thus, this strategy of marketing can influence users’ behavior making them turn into consumers as the result of the ad campaign.

Effective Ways to Leverage In-Game Advertising

According to a survey conducted in 2021, about 227 million Americans indulged in video games after the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world in 2020. With gaming entering the mainstream after the pandemic, advertisers must utilize this space to generate good revenues and increase their brand awareness worldwide.

Best ways to leverage In-Game Advertising | VDO.AI — Image source

Gamers are mobile-mad: The revenue contribution from mobile games is somewhere around 51% globally from the overall gaming industry. The space is huge to indulge in in-game advertising as it is a readily-engaged market for the AdTech players. By engaging with popular gaming influencers relevant to your brand, advertisers can leverage brand awareness leading to boosting leads.

Video advertising is the king: The emergence of video advertising has led to the growth of the gaming industry. Video content drives more user engagement and interaction. According to the study from Smart Insights, video content constitutes 82% of the total data traffic.

Cloud computing is the next best alternative: After Amazon acquired Twitch for almost $1 billion in 2014, the cloud computing market flourished. Streaming live content is crucial for any gaming influencer and the thriving cloud services will lead to numerous profitable partnerships and promotions in the coming times.

Popular In-Game Advertising Formats

Advertisers are always in search of formats that drive larger user engagement. And, as gaming is lauded as one of the best advertising platforms with maximum outreach to potential customers, here are the popular advertising in gaming formats used in ad campaigns.

Rewarded video advertisements: A player will be rewarded bonuses after watching the video ad on a full screen without skipping it.
Display banners: Under this in-gaming ad format, there is a dynamic or static ad banner displayed at the top or bottom of the game screens.
Interstitial ads: After a player completes any level in the game, a clickable ad on a full screen will pop up with a call-to-action button.
Playable ads: A playing demo of the game will appear along with another playing game.
Coupon ads: A player will get discounts and exciting vouchers to buy things online.
Offer wall: This type of in-gaming ad format let players install apps and fill out surveys relating to in-game challenges.

Some Popular and Successful In-Game Advertising Campaigns

Obama’s Election Campaign

Obama's Election In-Game Advertising Campaign | VDO.AI — Image source

In 2008, the election campaign of Barack Obama entered the virtual world of computer games. Finally, NBA Live 08, Guitar Hero III, Madden NFL 09, Nascar 09, Burnout Paradise, and Need for Speed Carbon were used to garner as many votes as possible for him. As this ad campaign was successful, the president used it again in 2012 in NFL Madden 13.

NBA 2k22: The City

Virtual Concepts used logos of Puma and Nike in NBA 2K22 considering their massive fandom. Consequently, this ad campaign promoted brand awareness and reputation of Nike and Puma along with exceptional gaming experience.

Delicatessen VR and Adidas

In 2017, Adidas and Ben Rueck, and Delaney Miller collaborated to take VR players on an incredible journey to the top of the Bavella mountains in Corsica to give them a real-life experience.

Fortnite and Jordan

In 2021, Fortnite and Jordan brand again came together to give an amazing in-gaming experience to the players. The players have to compete for Air Jordan XI Cool Gray sneakers and the best players were shortlisted. Later, in the game, an immersive video ad appeared advertising the Jordan brand.

Pete’s Dragon

In 2016: Disney collaborated with RapidFire for the promotion of the movie, Pete’s Dragon. To begin with, the latter used dynamic in-gaming advertisements and geo-targeting to promote the movie among Portuguese users.

PAIN-AXE Jarvis

The creators of the American game, PAIN, partnered with AXE, the popular men’s deodorant brand, to create a contest for players. Jarvis was their brand’s representative and the players used AXE deodorants and earned points while playing the game.

Tony Hawk: Ride and Stride

Tony Hawk: Ride was released for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii in 2019 as an in-game advertising strategy. Eventually, the players could see the ads of Stride, a brand for chewing gums, displayed at different places in the game for brand awareness.

Believe

The Believe ad campaign that ran on Xbox, involved live-action, war veterans, and depicted the final battle. By and large, it set a new benchmark for in-game advertising.

Sony and Kevin Butler

In 2009, Sony made Kevin Butler the face of their “It Does Everything” campaign. It massively appealed to the masses. As a result, the in-game ads lead to an exponential rise in Sony’s PS3 sales.

What In-Game Advertising Finally Holds…

As gaming is skyrocketing, it is a worth-grabbing opportunity for advertisers to enhance it to the best of their abilities. Advertising in gaming can provide an interactive user experience using exciting and fun-filled games that brings more engagement to their brands.

In-Game Advertising Stats for 2021-2025 | VDO.AI — Image source

According to the reports of Platform and Geography – Forecast and Analysis 2021-2025, there are growth opportunities in in-game advertising market for the advertisers, publishers, and game developers. To sum up, tapping this segment to achieve good ROI and increase consumer engagement is something that advertisers shouldn’t miss at any cost.

VDO.AI offers customized in-game advertising solutions to the brands. It utilizes the best innovation and technology on various platforms to attain augmented results in the years ahead. Click here to sign up.