Comment & Opinion

Brands and games: It takes two to tango

Game developers need to get on board with the trend and focus their efforts on making their games appealing for brands

Brands and games: It takes two to tango

Up until not long ago brand advertisers were somewhat standoffish when it came to in-game advertising.

Some felt concerned about the technical challenges when delivering their creatives within games, some felt uncomfortable with the concept of rewarding ad views, and a few were still apprehensive about the notion of pairing their premium brand with gaming content, thinking it is too niche or small-scaled for their goals.

This is all changing drastically as brand advertisers come to recognise that in order to succeed in mobile, apps, and more specifically, games, are a must have channel within their media plan.

Brand building

With over two billion gamers worldwide, at all ages, games are a hugely scalable channel. Brand advertisers are now taking a fresh look at in-game advertising, seeking to tap into this diverse, highly engaged audience.

Ranking third after social media and entertainment in terms of time-spent on mobile, and with the gaming “mindset” proven to be far more receptive towards ad content than any other media channel - obtaining the undivided screen attention of the “gaming” audience - is worth gold for advertisers.

The growth of programmatic is also bringing in premium brand advertisers, introducing a new and more lucrative class of demand for game developers.

“Game developers need to get on board with the trend and focus their efforts on making their games appealing for brands”, says Shai Sasson, VP Games & Apps at Woobi.

“The opportunity to monetise your game with branded videos is highly valuable for publishers. Premium branded ad creatives add a positive sense of quality to your game. They also provide a better engagement experience for your users, increasing average session length.

Game developers need to get on board with the trend and focus their efforts on making their games appealing for brands.
Shai Sasson

"On top of all that, brand advertisers often pay more per completed view than app developers, yielding both higher eCPM, and LTV”.

With the understanding that brands need a programmatic point of access into the world of games, along with game developers’ need to have the access to premium demand, over the course of the past 18 months Woobi has invested great efforts, resources and talent to bridge that gap, and launched the first programmatic in-game SSP, and an RTB exchange.

“Our video platform is designed to enable the SSP’s and publishers in our network to easily boost their fill and maximise revenue via premium global demand, while we remove the barrier of entry for brand advertisers who are looking for new, sizzling and engaging ways to reach this target audience – at scale," says Sasson.

Shai Sasson, VP Games and Apps at Woobi, which has recently been nominated for “Best Video Distribution Platform” by Digiday, will be speaking at Pocket Gamer Connects London 2017 on January 17th, providing tips on how to get your game “brand ready”.

Sasson continued: “In order to get premium brands to place bids on your inventory, you must provide premium value. There is the game’s look and feel, the formats in which ads are displayed, but on top of that, advertisers are seeking ways to target users on a level deeper than simple demographic composition. Therefore, the quality and the depth of the data you have, will go a long way.

"Another important point is the depth of ad engagement buyers will be able to obtain with your players. The more you invest in prepping your game for brand ads, and in getting to know your users’ stories, the higher the chances you’ll be reaping the benefits in both the short and long term”.

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