Advertising Week Q&A –  Ben Cicchetti, SVP Marketing & Communications, InfoSum

By R. Larsson, Advertising Week

In-game advertising (IGA) is currently one of the biggest – and still underutilized – opportunities for advertisers. According to Dentsu’s 2024 State of Gaming report, eight in ten internet users between the ages of 16 and 64 are gamers. Literally billions of people worldwide are playing games on their console, PC, or mobile every day.

This enormous potential audience is not only highly diverse, but also deeply engaged. Gamers play for long periods of time, with 28% of UK respondents in a Statista survey saying they spend between one and five hours a week gaming – a further 19% spend between six and ten hours.

Advertising within gaming environments is also broadly accepted by gamers, with only three in ten objecting to seeing ads in games. Gaming platforms and publishers have an abundance of first-party data that advertisers can use to enable direct advertising opportunities. They can see whether gamers are playing on PC, console, or mobile, and create segments by age, location, genre, and other demographic data.

The opportunity isn’t just about placing ads in games–it’s about integrating commerce. If advertisers and gaming platforms adopt a model similar to social platforms such as Snap and TikTok, they can go beyond just showing ads, and enable e-commerce within gaming. Indeed, Amazon Anywhere technology has been developed to facilitate advertisers not just to showcase products, but to allow direct purchases within gaming and virtual environments.

Q: What’s the best way for advertisers to measure whether in-game ads are actually worth it compared to traditional digital ads? How will privacy-focused tech shape this?

IGA allows marketers to be smarter about measurement, tying in-game interactions to real-world purchases and return on investment. One of the best ways to measure outcomes is incrementality testing. A simple A/B test where one group of gamers is exposed to an ad and a control group isn’t shown the ad can help marketers identify differences in post-exposure behaviour. Any sales lift between the two groups is proof of how effective the campaign has been.

These insights will enable them to compare the performance of IGA versus other channels.

It’s a question of connecting advertiser data on brand and retailer sales with platform and publisher data on ad exposure, in a way that doesn’t compromise the privacy of individuals.

While most gamers don’t object to seeing ads, brands and platforms must be very careful not to damage the bond of trust they have with players. Not only must ads be non-intrusive, but they should put privacy first; any data collection must be fully consented, and there should be no risk that player data could be leaked, exposed, or misused in any way.

Data collaboration platforms such as clean rooms, in combination with other Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs), can help brands and gaming platforms securely match datasets to measure campaign impact without ever sharing raw data or risking player privacy.

Q: How can gaming media networks (GMNs) fit into existing ad ecosystems, and what makes them better than traditional retail media networks?

Gaming media networks have the potential to emulate the explosive growth of retail media networks. Gaming platforms have rich first-party data that can help advertisers to effectively target their audience not just within specific gaming environments but across platforms, and through off-site activations too, with campaigns reaching players at every touchpoint, including online video, social media, the open web, and CTV.

Marketers can plan and execute effective campaigns both within gaming environments and across other media, connect in-game purchases with brand and retailer sales and media exposure data, then measure the effectiveness of these campaigns and calculate their ROI.

One area in which GMNs may not yet match up to RMNs is maturity; it’s true to say that the power of GMNs is largely untested at scale. However, the opportunity is too big to ignore. Advertisers should factor them into their overall strategy and be prepared to experiment early to gain a first-mover advantage.

Q: What’s the key to creating in-game ads that feel natural and engaging rather than intrusive?

There are two distinct types of in-game advertising. Traditional IGA, where ads pop up periodically, break up the flow of the game – though often earn the player a reward of some kind. These types of ads are intrusive and, in my view, don’t represent the real opportunity for IGA.

Rather than intrusive ads, advertisers and platforms need to create intrinsic ads. These ads are seamlessly integrated into the DNA of the game – virtual billboards or advertising hoardings, like Intersport’s presence in EA Sports FC 25, say, or branded side quests. Customized items or skins are other examples. Ideally, there needs to be an element of interactivity, but the principle should be to not disrupt the game itself. Players should be able to choose to interact with these ad experiences or simply get on with their game.

Again, there’s room for brands to experiment with their approach to IGA to find out what works – and what doesn’t. Like Amazon Anywhere, Fortnite has a sandbox called Creative Mode, where brands can build IGA experiences. The rise of web3 and the metaverse will also give rise to further opportunities for advertisers, so marketers should be watching developments in these areas very closely.