dentsu has launched its gaming data and insights capabilities, with a series of mixed results for brands looking to tap into the lucrative gaming market.
The data, which fused two enriched sets of specialist gaming data with dentsu’s Consumer Connection System (CCS) research panel data, covered Australia China, India, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Japan.
It found that a staggering 81 per cent of APAC consumers consider themselves to be gamers or game at least once per week. However, while the potential audience is large (around 1.5 billion according to denstu) it might not be completely open to advertising.
Among APAC gamers, 34 per cent highlighted that it is OK for brands not related to esports to sponsor teams or events whilst 38 per cent say that intrusive pop-ups and ads in games are a major source of frustration.
“The explosion of gaming genres and ways to play has led to an always-increasing variety of gaming behaviours. The motivation-based segmentation provides effective way for brands to identify relevant groups of gamers that consistently translate in every market and provide strong creative and behavioural insights for these audiences,” said Jamie McConville, dentsu gaming lead, APAC.
However, dentsu has been able to synthesise its datasets to create “high-fidelity portraits” of gamers. These portraits encompass lifestyle and media attitudes and behaviours, such as shopping routines, passions and hobbies, and media consumption, as well as deep-rooted gaming habits, such as specific genres and games played, in-game purchases, gaming sessions lengths, and motivations.
The Southeast Asian data also contains insights on gamers’ willingness to pay for in-game products vis-à-vis similar products in real life. This opens a new depth of insights directly available for strategy, planning, and activation.
“Gamers are also consumers and vice versa but, for instance, not all MOBA (Multi-player online battle arena) players enjoy watching live sports on TV or shopping online for luxury goods. By supercharging our CCS data platform with proprietary gaming research data in Southeast Asia, we have built fully media-addressable gamer profiles which our clients can access for holistic insights across gaming preferences, media consumption habits and brand affinities, along with the ability to also activate these profiles today in their marketing campaigns for increased effectiveness,” said Sunil Naryani, chief product officer, media, Asia Pacific, dentsu.
Prerna Mehrotra, CEO media, Asia Pacific, dentsu added, “There are an estimated 1.5bn people in Asia Pacific who are gamers today. Of these, over 40% are females and a quarter is Gen Z. 25% of them play to be part of a community, while 8% do it “for the win;” to develop their skills and be praised. Simply trying to group them together as “gamers” isn’t good enough anymore. In the current economic situation, more so than ever, marketers need to demonstrate how every dollar counts when it comes to building their brands. Therefore, it is critical that we ensure that brands are reaching the right audience and targeting effectively for both maximum relevancy and to minimise wasted efforts as they venture into new virtual territory.
“When it comes to gaming, these new fusions are the latest example of how dentsu understands gamers better than anyone else, enabling us to prioritise media which holds attention, and delivers an engaging brand experience.”
You can read dentsu’s report here.
