The worlds of sports and gaming are colliding, offering unprecedented opportunities for brands to connect with highly engaged audiences.
That was the resounding message from Anzu’s recent Gaming Ad Ventures webinar, "Where Sports Meets Screens: Gaming's Next Big Advertising Arena." The webinar, led by Trevor Fellows, a former NBCU veteran, featured insights from industry leaders Magali Huot, SVP, Global Gaming Strategy at Dentsu, and Alex Seyferth, Head of Corporate Partnerships for the Chicago Cubs, alongside Anzu’s Co-Founder and CEO, Itamar Benedy, highlighting how gaming is emerging as a powerful and authentic new frontier for advertising.
Here are some key themes that emerged from the lively conversation:
Alex Seyferth of the Chicago Cubs offered a compelling perspective on how traditional sports organizations are adapting. While Wrigley Field remains steeped in tradition, it's far from a museum. The Cubs have embraced technology, from video boards to AI-powered features, to enhance the in-stadium experience.
In the video below, you can watch a drone flight around the 111-year-old stadium, which fuses old traditions with new technology to deliver the ultimate baseball experience for fans.
More importantly, the Cubs recognize that fandom extends far beyond the physical ballpark. "How do you expand that fanbase?" Seyferth asked, emphasizing the need to engage with fans globally, especially those who may never set foot in Wrigley Field. Gaming, in this context, becomes a vital tool for connecting with these diverse and geographically dispersed audiences, allowing brands to be where the fans are, whether they're attending a game or not.
Gaming as the New Social Frontier: Community Over Cost
Magali Huot of Dentsu emphatically declared that "gaming personas are dead." This provocative statement underscores a crucial shift: gaming is no longer a niche activity for a specific demographic. Instead, it's a mainstream cultural phenomenon, particularly for younger generations who are using gaming platforms as social spaces, primarily to connect with peers. This transforms gaming into a powerful social media platform, creating "low-hanging fruit" opportunities for brands that don't require Super Bowl-sized budgets.
Huot shared an insightful example of Burger King's ingenious campaign within EA Sports FC. Instead of traditional, costly in-game advertising, Burger King leveraged the prevalence of players named "Burger" and "King" to generate earned media, with commentators organically shouting out their brand during goals. This exemplifies how creativity and understanding gaming communities can yield massive impact with minimal financial commitment. The key, as Huot stressed, is to be "culturally fluent" and additive to the player's experience.
Itamar Benedy of Anzu highlighted a significant opportunity in what he termed "premium content" – referring to high-quality, big-screen video games played on PC and console. While historically, in-game advertising in these titles was often hard-coded and difficult to measure, Anzu is spearheading the shift towards programmatic activation with robust measurement and attribution. Benedy drew parallels to the early days of Facebook advertising, where measurability was questioned, but is now a fundamental part of every media plan. He believes gaming is at a similar inflection point.
The webinar emphasized that premium gaming offers an "amazing attention opportunity," drawing parallels to the highly coveted live sports environment but at a potentially more attractive price point. For brands currently investing heavily in sports sponsorships, in-game advertising in sports titles presents a natural extension, allowing them to reach incremental audiences across multiple screens in an authentic manner. The NFL, for instance, has an 18-week season, but the NFL game is active every day of the year, offering continuous engagement opportunities.