Essence Report - Gaming in the 2020s: Reach, rewards and the new meditation

2020 was a breakthrough year for gaming, which has entered the general consciousness of consumers and marketers alike. Essence, a global data and measurement-driven media agency which is part of GroupM, has released a new report to help brands understand the full scale of the opportunity and what they can expect to gain from their efforts: Gaming in the 2020s: Reach, rewards and the new meditation.

In recent years, the gaming sector had been steadily growing in note amongst the marketing community but was yet to become a mainstream consideration. It had neither been seriously appraised for its reach potential, nor wholeheartedly embraced as a lever for driving brand connection. Enter a global pandemic — an enforced focus on home entertainment and folks spending more time with their children. One of the many effects was a huge increase in exposure to and exploration of gaming, resulting in a greater understanding of its appeal amid widespread news coverage of family-friendly, stand-out titles such as Animal Crossing.

We see two main reasons for brands to engage, which in turn determine how building gaming touchpoints into the communications plan should be approached:

Incrementality for non-endemic brands — gaming touchpoints should be evaluated in line with any other video, display or out-of-home opportunity.

Building equity in the service of growth — gaming touchpoints can be leveraged in the service of campaigns that are not specifically relevant to the genre, just like all kinds of campaigns can sit happily on the cinema screen, for example.