BW Gaming World
Gaming and esports can help brands connect with hard-to-reach audiences. Advertisers need to know how to play it right in the in-game space, said Vinit Karnik, Head, Sports, Esports and Entertainment, GroupM South Asia on Friday.
While speaking at an online gaming summit, Karnik said, “The online gaming domestic market in India is about 15,000 Crores with about 400 Million gamers, 998 Million subscribers to gaming genre on Youtube, and also 1.6 Million of content uploaded on Youtube.”
According to Karnik, India witnessed a surge in gaming during the COVID-19 pandemic and more female and older audiences are gaming now. He added that it is now easier to advertise to gamers and it’s changing the concept of brand loyalty.
“When advertisers, agencies and games publishers will work in tandem, only we’ll lead to success stories of creating a robust and sustainable business model,” he said.
Karnik also talked about the by which brands can participate in the gaming ecosystem which includes advertising, networks, communities, streaming platforms, team associations, in-game integrations and influencers.
He further said that targeting online gaming audiences need to be aggressive across platforms, to know the whereabouts of the fans to avoid overlap. He also emphasised brand safety and how to utilise learnings.
“Major challenges for brands while investing include the fragmented audience, the unpredictable shelf life of games, lack of cross-industry standards, in-game violence, etc,” he said.
