Mumbai: Heading where the consumer is, IAA Young Professionals (YP) wing of the India Chapter of the International Advertising Association (IAA) presented the second session in the series of Gaming: The Next Big Thing, today 18th February 2021, the first being held in January with Harsh Jain of Dream 11.
Donning his twin responsibilities, both as Vice President – Digital Innovation IAA Global and Vice President – IAA Young Professionals Development, JanakSarda, Managing Director, Deshdoot Media Group, India, opened the session, mentioning how Covid has opened up a new vertical – Gaming as the 4th medium! With screens taking centre stage of our lives the entire last year. The trends, innovations and consumption behaviour on it too has seen an emergence of new media habits. Technology adoption across age groups, languages and cultures taking centerstage. Regional language-based game development in India is on a rise and so is it elsewhere around the world. It’s time we learnt more about these platforms and tech providers.He warmly welcomed the participants from the ten Chapters of the International Advertising Association.
Abhinay Bhasin, Co-Chair, IAA YP India added ‘The increased proliferation of smartphones coupled with better internet connectivity and increased time spent on content consumption during the lockdown period has made the Gaming Industry in India thrive. From a mere 25 in 2010, the number of online development companies in India has risen to over 250 in 2021 focusing on platforms linked to online games and sports entertainment such as Dream11. This led to the curation by the IAA YP India chapter to bring about awareness and highlight the opportunities within advertising and brand-audience engagement through gaming’
Sunil Naryani, Vice President, Commercials & Partnerships, APAC, Dentsu international, expressed awe as to how gaming has evolved from an underground culture to a growing popular culture which is a massive shift and today the world is becoming kind of a ‘gamers paradise’, all powered by technology and the growth of mobile.
Some facts that caught the attention – Almost 3.4 billion gamers in the world today | Average gaming session can last for almost 4 ½ hrs | Approximately 180 billion will be the size of the gaming industry by 2021 out of which 877 million will be spend on e-sports.
Chester NG, Head of Managed Accounts, APAC, Unity Technologies expressed pride in having been in the digital ecosystem for 14 years, moving across various functional platforms. He said “We believe in Unity we have a chance to shape the world. We believe the world is a better place with more creators in it and our technology can change the world. Our products give content creators the tools to experiment, innovate and entertain. Our youngest game developer in Japan is 4 years old and a girl. Proves that our software is very simple and easy to use.’ he exclaimed.
Steve Ford, Vice President-Sales, APAC, Twitch, exclaimed that the gaming ecosystem has grown so big that today we are spoiled for choice. He asserted “Twitch encourages both creators and consumers to come in & share experiences around gameplay. Earlier they used to make a movie and spin out a game, today we make a game and they spin out movies. This is the power we command from gaming.’
Covid Impacts:
- A massive increase in twitch service | Daily active user increase
- Increase in ad watch | Gap between weekday and weekend reduced
On Marketing
‘For brands – If you are not involved already probably this is the best time to engage with gaming community. People come to build community and not snack on the content. Being authentic, thoughtful & understanding about what you want to communicate is important’ – Steve Ford
‘Break the assumption – Equal amount of women are playing games as men. There is a paradigm shift in how people now consume media’ – Chester NG
On Advertising:
Viewability is high for ads in gaming | High level of engagement| Completion rate is high as the ads are opt-in rewarded ads (gamer chooses to see the ad)| Powerful opportunity to leverage the interaction that is happening | Strong systems to ensure brand safety.
Future gazing:
The future for advertising is Immersive gaming – engage people in a mixed reality eg AR for a real-time experience.
Gaming is becoming the hub across which all other cultures revolve. We are not far away from games that will have the almost cinematic type of experience.
Sunil concluded by thanking Unity and Twitch for building and nurturing the gaming community. Gaming is a new way to interact and grow.
