[Marketing Week] Bob Koigi: Emerging opportunities in in-game advertising

The recent acquisition of European mobile game developer Savage Games by Sony has pointed to the growing interest by gaming brands to expand presence beyond gaming consoles to mobile devices as they target a revenue boost.

But it also reveals the opportunities presented by in-game advertising that has reached a fever pitch this year and attracted the attention of major publishers.  While ads are new to console and PC gaming, they’ve been embedded in mobile games for years.

US mobile gaming ad revenues will reach $6.26 billion this year and $7.87 billion by 2024. Mobile game spending has also remained strong despite some downturns according to data by eMarketer.

And as brands tap into ad opportunities, global advertising spend is on course to rise by 8.3% – or $67.3bn – to $880.9bn this year, finds World Advertising Research Center, WARC, lifted by a positive first half for holding companies and a boost from cyclical events in the second, most notably the US midterm elections and the men's FIFA World Cup in Qatar this November.

Market growth is then set to ease significantly – to 2.6% – in 2023, as investment is inhibited by cooling economic conditions and third-party cookie blocking online.

Companies continue to invest in new advertising models to increase the revenue and exposure. Publica, a Connected TV (CTV) ad server owned by Integral Ad Science has announced a partnership with ANTHYM Technologies, a coalition of free, ad-supported streaming TV platforms.

As a demand agnostic Connected TV Ad Server, Publica helps global publishers deliver a seamless ad experience via the introduction of Server-Side Ad Insertion (SSAI) while helping them maximize revenue by running a unified-auction between multiple SSPs and Ad Exchanges.

At the same time, Neustar, Inc., a TransUnion company, has announced the availability of Neustar Unified Identity - its suite of identity resolution and data capabilities – in the InfoSum Data Clean Room.

This multi-party identity management and data collaboration solution makes privacy-enhanced audience creation and data enrichment a reality for partners across the brand, agency, and publisher world.

In partnerships, Fiverr International Ltd, the company that is revolutionizing how the world works together, has announced a partnership with Shutterstock to integrate its vast content of licensed assets on its platform.

The integration will provide freelancers who offer digital services on Fiverr instant and easy access to millions of licensed assets for commercial use.

And Triton Digital® the global technology and services player in the digital audio and podcast industry, has announced Organización Radial Olímpica has selected Triton Digital’s suite of audio streaming solutions to deliver high-quality streaming, a better understanding of audiences, and improved monetization of audio inventory.

In the media space, I TV has announced that it is collaborating with leading employers in the North West, in their collective aim to grow and diversify the pool of technology talent in the region.

The coalition of employers is made up of leading businesses operating in the North West including ANS, Arup, Cloud Co Solutions, GCHQ, ITV, Microsoft, PwC, Talk Talk, and the University of Salford. 

And Entravision, a global advertising solutions, media and technology company, has announced a strategic partnership with LATV Networks, a minority-owned and operated media company serving the Latino community as a content hub, talent incubator and cultural advocate.

Elsewhere, Kantar BrandZ’s Top 100 Chinese Brands 2022 has, for the second year in succession, surpassed the monumental $1 trillion mark, reaching $1.24 trillion in overall brand value, in what has been a uniquely challenging year for China, and the rest of the world.

Despite a decline of 20% year-on-year in the overall value of the Top 100 China ranking, Chinese businesses have demonstrated the importance of building and maintaining a resilient brand, particularly when faced with uncertainty and global challenges, such as retail and supply chain disruptions, inflation, rising energy costs and the resurgence of COVID-19 restrictions.

Bob Koigi is an editor at Marketing Report EU

www.marketingreport.eu

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