Video game programmatic

A Digital New Zealand report released in August found that 98 percent of New Zealand homes with children have video games and eight out of ten own multiple gaming devices. The study also showed that across all these devices and across all family members, video games are played an average of 85 minutes per days.

Those 85 minutes of undivided attention present a unique opportunity for advertisers to target consumers.

Earlier this month, we saw Wendy’s advertise its Baconator range on billboards contained within a video game. This is only the start of what will be an interesting journey into this space.

As things stand at the moment, advertisers generally sign deals in advance to have an ad integrated into a video game. So far, it’s proved lucrative for game providers, who benefit from an additional source of revenue but it can be limiting for advertisers. Once an ad is programmed into a game, it can’t be updated. This disconnects the ad from the real world and means the billboards or signage on display throughout a game might not reflect what’s happening in the real world.

Programmatic can, of course, solve that by building ad slots into games and allowing advertisers to place more relevant creative whenever the need arises.

It’s also worth remembering that whenever a game is played online, the player is always logged in—which again offers great targeting potential. The only question is whether game developers will be willing to move beyond those pre-signed deals and open the programmatic gates.