For years, gaming sat in the "innovation budget" column: something splashy, something experimental, something to try once. The results are now coming in, and brands are starting to separate the signal from the noise.
That was the question on stage at GamesBeat Insider: Brands & Games, where Overwolf Ads sponsored a panel with Ogilvy and JBL on what gaming delivers that traditional channels cannot.
Featuring:
- Shahar Sorek, Chief Marketing Officer, Overwolf
- Carol Reed, Chief Innovation Officer, Ogilvy Group (WPP)
- Bryce Showalter, Head of Gaming, JBL
- Alex Lee, GamesBeat (moderator)
What the Panel Covered
- Brands moving from adjacency to participation
- Why "gamers" is out and "audience" is in
- Measuring beyond clicks and impressions
- Why gaming seeds culture
- Closing the education gap inside brands
Key Takeaways
Earn your place. Brands cannot talk at a community. The ones that enhance the in-game experience earn affinity, trust and memory.
Context beats demographics. Shahar compared gaming to music: the same person plays different games in different moods, and different brands fit each moment.
Measure the long game. Players should not be clicked out of a match, so action comes weeks later. Bryce judges every campaign on three things: attention, engagement and whether the brand fit in.
Gaming leads culture. The panel pointed to GTA VI as the proof. Carol had never played the series and still came away wanting the game.
Spotlight: JBL x Overwolf Ads
JBL has 80 years of audio heritage, but gaming is a new audience that has to be won. So we built around sound.
- Competitive shooters reward players who hear footsteps behind them
- JBL messaging triggered contextually on those in-game sounds
- Players link JBL to a better game, in the moment it matters
Watch The Leaderboard Insights Podcast with JBL.
About Overwolf Ads
Overwolf is a world-leading gaming platform empowering brands and advertisers to reach over 113 million monthly users across hundreds of the world's biggest titles.
Ranked by Comscore as the #2 Biggest US Gaming Property, winner of ADWEEK's Top Ad Tech Company, Digiday's Best Gaming Ad Tech and The Drum's Best Platform/Tech Partner of the Year, Overwolf is trusted by global brands and agencies such as McDonald’s, Universal Pictures, H&R Block, Netflix, Dodge, Publicis, WPP, Omnicom, Dentsu, Havas and more.
For more information on Overwolf, visit www.overwolf.com/ads.