Yet, adds Toto, until recently, “gaming has been a widely ignored field by businesses, despite being a $150-billion concern worldwide … The vast majority of companies are either very slow or reluctant when it comes to learning about the games market and what kind of opportunities it can hold for them.” 

GAMING'S EXPANDING DEMOGRAPHIC

It’s a long time ago now since gaming’s early days of the 1980s and 1990s when it was seen as a niche interest, mainly for young males of limited spending power. Not so now, when technology has been radically transformed, along with gaming’s demographic. Many of that original generation of millennial gamers are now middle-aged “über-consumers,” enthusiastic buyers of high-end products, and parents of children even more tech-savvy than themselves. Surveys have shown, too, that an increasing proportion of gamers, perhaps as many as one in three, are now women.

 

But although businesses must find a way to engage with this rapidly expanding market, it may not be enough to do so simply through traditional models of advertising or sponsorship. To build a relationship with gaming, companies also need to find a way to be part of the stories it tells and the sense of community it can create.

 

The stated mission, for example, of Roblox – an innovative digital space where users create, develop, share and sometimes profit from an ever-increasing multitude of their own games – is “to bring the world together through play.” This free-to-play platform, which has in recent years increased its number of users to more than 100 million, comes complete with its own currency (dovetailing with real money) and game-related items created by users, such as models, audio and clothing, that can be advertised and bought as in-app purchases. In a quick reaction to the corona crisis, Roblox has also introduced a set of free Roblox Education initiatives to help students learn remotely, including webinars for teachers and how-to guides for kids to make a game on the site.

THRILLING NEW IDENTITIES IN THE VIRTUAL WORLD

Although many of its competitions are currently on hold during the corona crisis, esports are a further dimension for gaming and businesses. The multi-player leagues and professional tournaments organized by the likes of ESL (the world’s largest esports company) attract hundreds of millions of viewers through online streaming platforms, as well as huge crowds at live events across the globe. 

 

An opportunity for straightforward sponsorship deals, as in Red Bull’s partnership with Riot Games for the latter’s League of Legends tournaments, esports can also involve a more embedded role for brands. In May 2018, DHL announced its partnership with the ESL One series, handling shipping and logistics for tournaments in several continents. As a further element of this arrangement, the DHL-branded vehicle EffiBOT now features as an undaunted in-game courier in the Dota 2 game – a character who has proved so popular that, when DHL’s logo appeared on the big screen at ESL One Birmingham in 2018, the crowd started cheering.  It creates unique moments that bring people together and to connects brand with audience “on an emotional level.”

 

For companies looking to link with gaming, perhaps this shared storytelling and ongoing identification is key. But, whichever way they go about it, businesses now “are essentially guaranteed to tap more aggressively into games and esports,” says Serkan Toto. “The reason is very simple: scale. Gaming as a business has ballooned, and no other media offers this kind of reach.”