Bidstack CEO, James Draper, wrote a piece for The Drum around why in-game advertising signifies the dawn of a new advertising category. In this article he talks about the opportunity this emerging channel has for the advertising industry and why now is the time for brands to get in the game.
Hardly a week goes by without a headline casting doubt over the future of digital advertising. Whether it’s Google’s announcement about phasing out third-party cookies in Chrome, the ICO’s decision to step up regulatory activity around the use of data in real-time bidding, or the latest YouTube brand safety scandal, the ecosystem continually finds itself under a dark cloud.
But every cloud has a silver lining and these developments are pushing brands to explore alternative forms of digital advertising that can deliver relevant, engaging ads in brand safe environments without a reliance on third-party cookies. Spend on native advertising, for example, is expected to grow 372% over the next five years, exceeding $400 billion globally by 2025, while the worldwide market for contextual targeting is expanding more than 18% each year.
One emerging ad category that fits the brief is native in-game advertising. This relatively new channel uses contextual advertising that is appropriate to the game, delivering an engaging experience without the use of third-party data. As a recent eMarketer report outlines, “in contrast to other ad ecosystems, game publishers place more emphasis on contextual than behavioural data.”
To read the full article, please click here.
