Playing for keeps: Why you need a gaming strategy

The power of play

Games are powerful because they are a digital manifestation of the concept of play. As babies, we learn about the world around us through unstructured play. Similarly, the most effective way to learn new content and rewire our brains as adults is through play. Games are effective in both reaching and engaging people because they are based on the concept of play.

Consumer engagement

People spend more time playing games during the week than they do anything else. Young audiences spend three times as much time in gaming environments as they do on social media. For Gen Alpha, the trend is even more pronounced: gaming is the number one media for the first time in the history of any generation. Games, therefore, represent one of the biggest opportunities that companies and brands have for consumer engagement and retention.

Four strategies to get into the gaming space

1. Integrate your product or service with an existing video game

Identify titles that resonate with your target audience. The simplest way to tap into this audience is to place an ad within the game; progressive sub-strategies are to place a product inside it, or integrate the game with an actual service you provide.

2. Build your own game from the ground up

This entails creating an immersive experience from scratch. It is, of course, much more complex, but it has the massive advantage that you get to shape the entire user/customer experience so that it aligns with your brand. You also benefit from the first-party data that customers generate.

3. Leverage Web3 games

This could be done using either of the above strategies, but it is built on blockchain. Because the technology gives people ownership of what they’re doing, it unlocks new opportunities around selling items – especially reseller markets – and offers a wide range of marketing and monetization opportunities.

4. Make the game your product (or part of it)

This is the least obvious strategy, and not many companies are currently doing this. One of the best known is Duolingo. A few years ago, it felt like a learning app. Today, it does not feel like a learning app at all: it looks and feels like one of the best mobile games on the market – it’s more of a game than anything else now.