Tapping into the gaming industry

05 January 2010

The gaming industry is witnessing prolific growth, and brands wishing to reach their target audiences in a highly compelling way should take note.

New research by RealGames’ consumer portal Zylom, in conjunction with TNS and Gamesindustry.com, has found that between 63% and 83% of those with internet access, across the six countries surveyed (UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and US), play computer games.

Americans played more than 15 games in the past six months, Dutch and Germans an average 10. Approximately 30% of Americans pay for portal games, compared to 13% in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Cost was seen as the key driver for choosing which games to play. Across all countries the main reason for people playing on specific portals was the offer of “free games”. The reasons “easy–to- use” and a “wide variety of genres and games” were also flagged as being important.

In the UK, 22% of players care most about high-quality games, while the Dutch (12%) care the least; which may explain the differences in willingness to pay for games.

Payment models

The most common form of spending money on portals is through buying online credits. Buying credits was especially popular in France, with 57% of gamers identifying it as their preferred payment method.  

In the US premium subscriptions services are favoured.  In Europe, the Netherlands (34%) favour subscription services the most while the French (13%) have the lowest affinity for the payment model.

Paying for an ‘ad free’ environment is relatively common in the US, with 23% of players claiming to prefer those kinds of sites. However in Europe ‘ad free’ is not that big of a draw, scoring relatively low in the Netherlands (9%), Belgium (8%) and France (9%).

Besides identifying key trends among gamers in Europe the research has also dispelled many of the myths surrounding casual gaming.

Women versus men

Misconceptions about women gamers include that they are that they are low income, predominantly single mothers and that they do not engage in any other online activity. The outcome of the research found a marked difference where the opposite is true. Women gamers are in fact well educated professionals with above average incomes and many are in skilled jobs.

The research also revealed distinct differences between what motivates men and women to play games. For women it’s all about a learning experience, brain training, relaxing, whereas for men it is more about the traditional “shoot-em-up”, challenge-based games.

A key trend of the Today’s Gamers research is the need to talk to men and women in very different ways through gaming. Women are very loyal to their games; probably engaging in only between four and six different games a month. Men get easily bored and move on more quickly. They tend to play up to 26 different games a month. It is therefore possible to track women effectively by targeting other games they play via behavioral understandings.

Advertising’s role

Some games are played by so many people that they in themselves become brands. And just like advertisers work together with big movie brands, it is possible for advertisers to co-operate with games that are popular in their target group.

Advertisers can also benefit from the uniqueness of games. Games can offer a positive feeling which is something a lot of brands would like to relate to. Therefore, getting a brand into the game or offering a game built around a brand with an integrated message can be highly effective when brands are looking to engage with elusive or hard-to reach audiences in a highly targeted manner.

Hein Medema is marketing communications manager for Zylom by RealGames