How mobile gaming connects advertisers to household shoppers

Game developers, martech platforms, and agencies are increasingly trying to convince advertisers that consumers playing mobile games are worth reaching.

Stakeholders, like gaming company Zynga, are positioning ad placements as an opportunity to reach high-value shoppers that turn to ecommerce for a range of household purchases.

“As data centric as the advertising industry is, the people pushing the economy forward and buying the most products are not the ones they’re targeting,” said Gabrielle Heyman, VP global brand sales and partnerships at Zynga.

While the perception is that mobile gaming advertising is a closed ecosystem that promotes other mobile games, there’s a growing moment to push external brand involvement by emphasizing the purchasing power of its audience and the potential for seamless partnerships.

The hidden opportunity

Mobile gaming’s enormous audience has long been a foregone conclusion, but it is a channel in need of robust targeting and measurement. Jorge Prado, co-founder and CEO at mobile game marketing platform Admazing is one of many entrepreneurs preaching that contemporary martech ensures that advertisers’ dollars will be well spent.

“Since the beginning, Admazing has always developed their technology only to look for the right user at the right time, in the right device, regardless of the game,” said Prado at this month’s PlayFronts. “Technology is becoming more and more available to help us drive those impactful impressions, combined with adding new technologies to measure that.”

Partnerships are rapidly emerging. Stephanie Brownlee, director of media activation at OMD USA, recently connected PepsiCo with Admazing for a successful Gatorade mobile game campaign.

“We understand that attention spans are low… the entire media space is really struggling,” said Brownlee at PlayFronts, touting the results they saw leveraging formats like rewarded video. “For someone that is playing a mobile game and is looking to have an extra life, we’re able to essentially build that brand connection in a more personal way.”

While the mobile gaming space is supported by endemic advertising, this dynamic is shifting as gaming publishers roll out more native brand integrations, said Heyman.

“I don’t foresee a time when 100% of the ads in mobile games are brands, but I think it could get to a 50/50 threshold,” said Heyman.

A valuable demographic

Despite the assumption that the gaming industry skews young, Zynga is confident that mobile gaming is fueled by millennial and Gen X women.

• Women make up 47% of US gamers, EMARKETER forecasts, and 69% of women prefer simple mobile games, according to Deloitte’s 2024 media trends survey.
• 41% of mobile gamers are parents, 90% are the primary grocery shoppers in their households, and 88% are the primary retail shoppers, according to a Zynga study.

“Now that I’m in my 50s, I’m probably at the height of my shopping moment, and mobile games are one of the top activities for people my age,” said Heyman. “At the same time, there’s this obsession with youth.”

While marketers often focus on Gen Z to target lifetime shoppers at a young age, this generation lags in brand loyalty—these shoppers are 33.9% more likely to have abandoned at least one brand or business over 12 months, according to a Capital One Shopping survey.

“The majority of RFPs that come in are for Gen Z,” said Marian Thomas, director of partnerships, research and measurement at Zynga. “People forget about you when you’re old, but (older generations) have a lot of money, and advertisers can reach them in unique and creative ways on mobile as well.”

Mobile gamers are also more likely than non-mobile gamers to shop via a mobile app vs. online website, emphasizing an opportunity for in-app experiences that drive results, said Thomas.

“People are always talking about retail media, but no one is talking about this retail media consumer that is comfortable doing things in-app,” she said.

Exchanging ad interruptions for free content

Advertising within mobile games can give brands repetitive exposure to consumers. While gaming apps might have a harder time capturing audience attention than functionality apps like food and drink, they are more likely to maintain audience attention, according to an Aarki report.

• Less than 5% of free game players make in-app purchases, per Z2A Digital, and two-thirds (66%) of US TV viewers now prefer ad-supported streaming over ad-free alternatives, per Hub Research data.

While Zynga looks for brand integrations that are as seamless as possible, consumers have proven their interest in watching ads in exchange for free content.

“Ads are part of the mix when you have a free entertainment experience,” said Heyman. “Consumers like keeping money in their pocketbooks and they see the value exchange. I think we’re giving the same optionality that any streamer is offering right now.”

For Brownlee, the common perception that a brand’s audience is not in the mobile gaming space needs to be debunked.

“There is always someone,” she said. “There are so many users there. It’s understanding the data and going through your consumer trends to understand where that user is so you can deliver the right brand messaging to the right person at the right time.”

This was originally featured in the EMARKETER Daily newsletter. For more marketing insights, statistics, and trends, subscribe here.