BusinessCloud: How Bidstack is placing Coronavirus messaging into video games

Bidstack CEO, James Draper spoke to BusinessCloud’s Alistair Hardaker to talk about the uptake of in-game advertising, the impact gaming has had on society and how advertisers’ perception of gaming is starting to change.

Bidstack’s proposition is ingeniously simple – if today’s games are realistic enough to simulate the billboards and pitch-side ads we see in real life, why not sell that space to advertisers?

The London-based firm, which itself began in real-life Out Of Home (OOH) advertising, has pivoted to native in-game ads at a time when many of the most popular games around are aiming to simulate the real world.

When gamers boot up racing game DiRT Rally 2.0 or Football Manager, the ads they see are from real brands who pay for that virtual space.

The national lockdown has since provided an unexpected level of vindication to the idea.

Football Manager, a game which would usually reach an estimated 75,000 concurrent players per month, has seen a rise to more than 180,000 during the pandemic while real stadiums remain empty.

Bidstack founder and CEO James Draper told BusinessCloud that the company has seen a “massive jump” in ad requests via its system since lockdown began.

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