Activision Marketers on Tapping the Passion of Gaming Communities

The the modern gaming playbook is relatively new for advertisers. While gaming was already being adopted by players and seeing subsequent commercial interest, the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated its growth, sector professionals have said. Newzoo has predicted that the number of gamers will reach 2.81 billion gamers next year, earning the global market around $189.3 billion. As such, advertising companies are busy forming partnerships with gaming companies in preparation for a boom in demand for Web 3.0 projects, as brands explore the potential of reaching that audience. Activision Blizzard, the publisher of franchises such as Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Candy Crush and the Tony Hawks series, has not only witnessed that demand, but it is also in the process of being acquired by Microsoft for circa $70 billion. This is a whole new game set to be played out by the ad industry Sjoenell believes that marketers feel like they might have been “late” to adopt a method that engages “the hardest to reach” group, which holds “enormous” spending power and are now testing the waters. “You have to realize that it’s not late, it early—some things are very early when we talk about the metaverse ... while some of it is already here.” It is a dedicated and disparate community, which is more involved in virtual worlds than with brands in the real world and which presents a huge challenge for advertisers to cut through. Machado believes it is now used “almost as a social media channel” where players play with their friends in real-time and react together, without the ability to pause and step away during the action. He explains that the creative side of the sector is like nothing he has worked on in his career. He says it allows brands to “transcend” the ways they have acted before in their marketing, mentioning partnerships with companies such as with Heinz, which produced “Hidden Spots” for Call of Duty where players could hide from others to take a break and eat. “There is so much opportunity for partnerships in terms of changing the way gaming communicates, in terms of how to tap into the community. That’s not just Activision, that’s for all companies. We’re still learning and trying different things—and trying to being part of this wave that's trying to define what this future is going to look like, is really exciting.” Machado adds. Gamer engagement Discussing the various methods that the company uses to engage with its communities and to “pay back the love” they give each game, Machado sidesteps the potential of NFTs, which are reportedly planned for release around Call of Duty. Instead, he highlights that fans still love standard merchandise, such as T shirts and hats, which they proudly wear on a “more down to earth level”. The pair admit that there is a positive and a negative side to working within a space that inspires such loyalty and enthusiasm as they have never experienced before, so much so that the fans themselves are shaping the ideas around the games they love. “They will always have an opinion about anything you do. If you change the design on packaging for a bar of soap, maybe, some people will have an opinion—but that’s more like a brand manager discussion than a real-life discussion. If you go on Discord, if you go on Reddit and you’ve done something on a game that’s not good—they will come after you,” Machado warns. “It’s more like sports with your soccer team—that’s the level of fandom.” Nobody Won Call of Duty in August Because of an Ad Campaign That comparison to sports arises a few times from the pair—and they highlight the competitiveness of players against the friends and community peers, as accessibility through the internet and connection speeds have improved. One trend, which major blue-chip brands are experimenting with is the metaverse, a term that Sjoenell labels “a funny word, which has so many confusing meanings”—pointing out that companies such as Activision have already created so many virtual worlds. “It’s when you connect them it becomes a multiverse … and people are confused about exactly what that is.” He believes, however, that it is an exciting prospect for brands around in-game commerce and the ability to promote and sell products directly to passionate consumers. There is a still a lot of work being done to educate brands in how to effectively integrate marketing ideas within the gaming worlds, however. Machado says they want to work with those that share their creative ambition, while they aim to change the perception of who the gaming audience really is. That is a process that still has some way to go.