“Games will eventually be indistinguishable from reality,” Tesla and Space X chief Elon Musk famously speculated on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast in 2018, before concluding: “It’s most likely we’re in a simulation…”
For the advertising industry, gaming has become a major route to reach key audiences, and recent moves show the agency sector has woken up to the opportunity.
Publicis Groupe kicked off 2021 by launching Publicis Play, a specialist gaming proposition offering advertisers specialist marketing expertise around video games. That followed Dentsu’s launch of its DGame division in November and Havas Media’s decision to bring Target Entertainment, a specialist shop that includes gaming clients, into its Entertainment arm at the start of this year. Last month, meanwhile, Gravity Road launched a gaming and esports practice in the US.
Gaming has been a beneficiary of the Covid-19 pandemic as millions of people spent 2020 glued to screens at home. The UK video-game industry was worth £4.2bn last year, a 15% year-on-year increase, according to the Entertainment Retailers Association.
While potentially there are both wins and losses for brands entering this space, one key tenet stands out: advertisers must have a clear idea about where they stand on gaming in 2021.
You can read the reasons why in this Campaign Asia-Pacific article, here.
Campaign Asia-Pacific is providing insights and intelligence into the ideas, work and personalities shaping the region’s marketing-communications industry, Campaign Asia-Pacific dives deeper into important subjects and presents the most compelling information that matters to businesses in the fastest-growing and most exciting communications market in the world.
