How online gaming is creating more opportunities for brand integration amid Covid-19

The Covid-19 lockdown has drawn renewed attention to an under-appreciated industry — online gaming. At a time when people are locked up inside their houses to help limit the spread of the virus, online gaming in India has seen a spike, with gaming companies witnessing a surge in user engagement. And this traffic is coming from across the country, mostly being organic.

Gaming in general for India has generated a significant increase as more and more users have begun staying home and are looking for ways to pass time. The numbers are especially high in casual games where organic installs jumped 75% since a total lockdown was imposed and there was a dramatic rise in non-organic activity in mid-core games — a staggering 205% increase since March 13, according to AppsFlyer.  

Experts believe that the lockdown will further boost the burgeoning industry.

As consumption increases, brands do have quite an opportunity to reach out to the online gaming community through brand-integration. BuzzInContent finds out how.

Abhishek Joshi

Abhishek Joshi, Head of Marketing, MX Player, believes this community is a powerful and untapped one with a goldmine of creative and marketing opportunities.

Product placements, innovation with players' avatars or merchandise, the ability to stretch their love of a film or show by playing a branded game — there are numerous ways to integrate within a context that the audience already enjoys. It definitely is an exciting trend that is here to stay, he said.

Identifying gaming as an opportunity, MX Player has brought users a new hue of entertainment by adding gaming to its existing offerings and have already started making use of this platform to cross-promote its own library of shows as well, which helps widen the existing base of users.

Ashish Pherwani

As online gaming is predicted to grow at 30-40% annually, Ashish Pherwani, Partner, Media and Entertainment Advisory at Ernst and Young, said monetisation will mainly be through in-app purchases. In-game advertising will also grow, once critical mass is achieved, more through in-game branding.

Gaming is the trailblazer within the mobile industry and it’s considered an incredibly competitive space and shows no signs of slowing down. 

Varun Ganjoo

Talking about the branded content opportunities in this space, Varun Ganjoo, Marketing Director at PokerBaazi.com, said, “With a young population, growing mobile use and penetration, and ever-evolving gaming apps, it's safe to say that the gaming industry is only set to grow in India and the opportunities for branded content are innumerable. With so many different genres in both gaming and content marketing targeted at millennials and Gen-Z, there is immense scope for synergy between the two industries.”

At a time like this, he said all methods of marketing and advertising will be more effective as consumers are actively looking for entertainment solutions. Content consumption will also have increased so the opportunities to reach out to the audience and engage with them are much greater now, through gaming.

Sunit Warraich

Sunit Warraich, CEO, RummyBaazi, said, “At this time, the opportunities have definitely increased as staying at home and playing is both social responsibility and an entertainment option. It's a good opportunity for brands and content creators alike to create high-quality, informative content as consumers will be seeking more ways to improve their game right now." 

Sujata Dwibedy

Sujata Dwibedy, Group Trading Director, Amplifi, said that gaming has already become big, next to the OTTs.

However, she said in-game integration and branding opportunities will grow but since it takes time to implement, it may not increase immediately.

But one should not forget the gamers who are rather considered ‘passionate’ community; integration of any kind of content can be a distraction for them.

So what should a good content specialist keep in mind to have positive views of sponsored/ branded content?

Like any piece of branded content — the goal for any content head is to make sure that the content fits smoothly with the existing theme. It should not make the audience feel as though they are looking at an ad. 

For this, Joshi suggested, “Since gaming is an avenue where micro segmenting is possible, users who are most likely to respond to the brand presence will see it, but users who don’t fit the target demographic or have otherwise indicated that they aren’t interested won’t be bothered by it. This ultra-targeted form of advertising allows the brand to reach consumers who may otherwise never have heard of it.”

He advised brands to create engagement with the content they're creating. 

In other words, games aren’t just a one-off channel, we need to treat the space as an entirely new social platform. 

Ganjoo suggested that to entice players, in-app ads should offer something tangible for them to make use of. Codes, rewards on download/registration and similar incentives will work best as attractive call-to-action. 

Naveen Goyal

According to Naveen Goyal, CEO, Adda52.com, inclusivity is the future of emerging media and brand integration. “Marketers are trained to go niche, but when it comes to gaming, marketing must involve everyone. What’s even more important is that gamers are not distracted by unending feed scrolling and multiple ad blasts. Gaming platforms open the door for brands, publishers and advertisers to tap into a previously ‘unreachable audience’ and marketers must take an inclusive and organic approach to foster trust. The best way of exploring marketing on gaming platforms is to target gamer psychology and find the right fit for their brand,” he said.

As the larger part of the audiences or users for online gaming is millennials or Gen Z, does this also restrict the branded content opportunities to fewer brands only?

Is it suitable for only a limited category of brands?  

Joshi believes that the kind of games that one host on the platform paves the way for an advertiser to find an affinity for his brand and effectively segment his TG. More so, the nature of the game also helps the marketers zone in on where an age group is prevalent.

Because of their age, millennials are able to make both big and small purchasing decisions in their households. At this point in their lives, they can buy a wide range of products, from soap to appliances, to cars. Hence, one can see advertising traction from across categories on games.

Ganjoo said that both content and gaming have so many genres and sub-genres that it is safe to say that every brand can find the perfect fit on digital.

“It's all about being clear about the audience you want to target and making effective use of the channels on which they consume content,” he added.