Twofivesix Senior Strategist Mindy Lee gives a primer on in-game advertising and IP collaborations

Twofivesix: Gaming and Marketing

As an agency that works exclusively in the gaming industry, we always get asked about how companies should connect with an audience who loves games. With an average of 25 video games being released a day, new services being added every year, and 2.2 million streamers on Twitch, the world of gaming is always expanding, making marketing in those spaces often overwhelming.

We scoured the internet to find a good primer on what marketing in gaming looks like, but we couldn’t find one. So we decided to make it ourselves.

Senior Strategist Mindy Lee led the creation of our first report in the Twofivesix Gaming Marketing 101 series, where we give you a lay of the land of what’s possible at the intersection of games and marketing. In this episode, she gives you a brief rundown of the Twofivesix Levels of Play framework along with some industry examples to solidify your understanding of each level. Lee highlights the first level of our model: Play, which represents everything that happens in-game. As she explains, everything from banner ads to Fortnite collaborations falls under this type of marketing activation and advertising.

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Here are highlights from the conversation, lightly edited for clarity.

THE REASONS WHY BRANDS SHOULD CONSIDER ADVERTISING IN VIDEO GAMES

“The first is just the proportion of people who play games is increasing year over year. So it's likely that if you're a brand, that's probably where your audience is going to be found. The second reason is that video games are not like other advertising spaces—TV or the internet—and they require a lot of focus. The audience is not just possibly blowing past your ad. They're actually actively engaged...Some reports estimate that players are in-game for an average of seven to 12 hours a week. As a point of comparison, Americans age 18 to 34 they only watch an average of two and a half hours of TV [a day].”

FOR IP COLLABORATIONS, IT’S ALL ABOUT EXECUTION

“How brands execute and how well comes down to the match between the brand and the game itself. A lot of IP collaborations over the past year have been with Fortnite—they had Nike and the Marshmello concert. Those brands came off pretty well because they played an active part in the game.”

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This episode was hosted by Jamin Warren. Music was provided by Lusine.
Twofivesix is a strategic consultancy that helps brands engage with gamers. Founder and CEO Jamin Warren speaks to experts at the intersection of games and marketing about how video games and other forms of interactive entertainment are more relevant than ever—in culture but also in business. We cover how marketers, agencies, and brands can dive into the world of games.