Thursday 16 May 2024

Sponsored by

Welcome to the Advertising Week Europe Sensemaker from Tortoise, making sense of who and what is shaping advertising today.

Long stories short

• Uber announced the launch of in-app video ads to reach Uber riders with commercial messages.
• Research from LinkedIn and WARC showed B2B ads about the customer, not the brand, are three times more likely to increase market share.
• AI will never replace human creativity, said Oliver Stewart, VP enterprise sales at ad tech company Celtra.

Professional cyber sports gamers compete against networked players

Gaming the system

The video games market was worth $249.6 billion in 2023, more than music ($31.2 billion) and movies ($93.4 billion) combined. One in three people are gamers and they spend more time every day gaming than the average Instagram user spends scrolling.

So what? US brands spent $8.6 billion on in-game advertising in 2022 compared to $56.9 billion on social media, $67.2 billion on video and $87.3 billion on TV and streaming, despite games requiring a player’s full attention, releasing feel-good chemicals like dopamine and endorphins and operating in a controlled environment without offensive content. “Brands and agencies misunderstand the opportunities of gaming,” Jean-Baptiste Godinot, VP of games developer Gameloft, told the room.

Come play my game. Research from Lumen and Oracle found that gaming generates more attention than other media – while players are twice as receptive and engaged when playing. Ads that offer in-game rewards and don’t intrude into gameplay are opt-in, full-screen, sound on and clickable, with results measured and certified by third parties.

If you develop it, they will come. Leading games publishers, including Angry Birds publisher Rovio, Talking Tom publisher Outfit7 and Star Wars developer Gameloft, are rolling out COMBO! The Gaming Media Network offers agencies a one-stop shop to reach 1.3 billion gamers. Kids launched in 2023; Pop, targeting casual gamers, launched in April; Core, reaching serious gamers, is on its way.

Keeping it virtually real. “If you enter gaming and e-sports, you need a long-term strategy,” Giulia Zecchini, commercial partnerships strategy director at ESL FACEIT Group, explained. “The gaming audience is very vocal, and they’re not as used to branding. You need to be authentic. Work with agencies and rights-holders to portray your brand in that virtual space.”

Players gonna play. Mobile gamers spend more time gaming on their phone than most people spend in the gym, Melinda Spence, head of advertising insights at Activision Blizzard Media, told the crowd. They skew female, have come to gaming late and 70 per cent of them welcome ads in their games.

Is it a bird? Is it a mouse? No, it’s a game. Transmedia strategies and tie-ins are the future of gaming partnerships. Rovio’s dream of becoming the next Disney didn’t quite work out, Luis de la Camara, VP of marketing at Rovio, admitted. The company has an Angry Birds theme park in Qatar and kids cartoons on Netflix aimed at Gen Alpha. “There’s a lot of brand awareness, Angry Birds is up there with Coke and Nike,” he explained. “However, most of our players are Gen X and Boomers so we’re thinking that a partnership with Martha Stewart might make more sense.”

Chart of the Day

The Nibs

(News in brief)

power players

Amplify Africa

Africa has one of the youngest populations in the world, Chioma Nnadi, head of editorial content, British Vogue, told the conference, and its artists are blowing up worldwide. Western companies should amplify, not copy, this vibrant scene. “Young people all over the world want to emulate the look of artists like Burna Boy and Wizkid. There are streetwear brands like Wafflesncream, skate brand Motherlan and designers like Kenneth Ize,” she explained. “Tyla blew up at the Met Gala, with the most TikToks on her Balmain sand dress. The big shift has been the pride in Nigerian heritage, with Africans not wearing American brands. In London, the crossroads of the diaspora, you can see African brands moving outside the continent.” Nnadi has been championing artists like Slawn and singers like Tyla since taking over at Vogue in October 2023. “Brands need to realise community is vital in Africa,” she said. “Build sustained relationships, not just one and done.”

culture makers

Trust in talent

Brands wanting to work with artists and influencers need to trust the talent, singer-songwriter Wes Nelson told the conference. “Sure you have a brief, but give the artist flexibility to make the content as they want. I know when content is not going to do well. I know there are people in departments who need to get things signed, but trust the creator.” The panel, including musicians Lemar and Cristale, argued that the artist was focussed on authenticity, trust and emotion, and brands shouldn’t think they understand those things better. Cristale described a Nike Air Max DM film she’d shot on an iPhone that felt like her own TikToks. “The response it got on social media was organic,” she recalled. “The minute we get bougie is when it gets long.” Artists are easy to get along with and happy to work with brands, added Lemar. “The only issues have been around lists of limitations… if you have that many limitations, I’m probably the wrong person for you.”

quote of the day

“Everyone wanted their name to be next to the letters AI last year. Now everyone realises there are issues with copyright and data protection and clients are getting nervous.”

Omar Oakes, editor, The Media Leader

We hope you have enjoyed your Tortoise take on Advertising Week Europe. Our newsroom delivers news differently. We try to make sense of the world through our Daily Sensemaker and Boardroom Sensemaker newsletters, podcasts and newsroom events. We take time to find out what is driving news, and why that matters. If you’re a business with ideas to share, or a brand with stories to tell, we’d love to partner with you. Please contact natalie.washington@tortoisemedia.com.

Edited by: Jane Bruton

Contributions from Stephen Armstrong. Graphic by Bex Sander.

Follow

Follow Tortoise on social media on your preferred platform:

Listen

Listen for free in the Tortoise app or wherever you get your podcasts: