GameOn: A Manual For In-Game Marketing

 #1: brand integration in a brand safe environment

In-game advertising has become a valuable part of integrated communications concepts and has a lot of good reasons at its hand: a rapidly increasing usage number, an intensive involvement of the gamers and recipients, high-quality premium offers for brand integration, hard performance indicators and convincing ROIs. #GameOn.

Mobile Gaming – just entertainment for nerds? Far from it! Gaming has long since become one of the most popular entertainment activities and that throughout all genres and playing interests. Whether on the couch, the playground or the subway, whether young or old – games are played everywhere and by (almost) everyone. So it is no wonder that the industry sets new records year after year. In 2018, the revenues generated by computer and video games and the associated hardware on the German market crossed the 4.4 billion threshold for the first time – that is an increase of 9 percent within one year.

Fact is: Germans have developed into a people of gamers, almost one in two plays at least occasionally. That is over 34 million players. 42 percent play video or computer games, 52 percent of men and 48 percent of women and that across all age groups (source: Annual Report of the German Games Industry 2019). The average age of a gamer has risen to above 36 years, while the average in 2014 was only 31 years.

The favourite gaming device nowadays is the smartphone – because the digital entertainment is always at one’s fingertips (85 percent, Bitkom Research). 18.6 million gamers play, race, build or battle on their smartphones plus another 10.9 million additionally on their tablets (source: Association of the German Games Industry, July 2019). And the numbers are constantly growing, as the screen quality of modern smartphones are by now comparable to the graphics on consoles or PCs. As a consequence, games are becoming more and more elaborated both in terms of graphics and regarding content, story, and strategy.

In 2019, games are a major part of our digital everyday lives and are already in third place in the usage ranking after communication services and weather checks but ranked before listening to music or taking pictures (source: Mobile Apps Report 2017).

. Interesting Fun Fact: Compared to gamers on console and PC, mobile gamers are older and more feminine. All in all, the gamers’ age is shifting towards an older target group.

 #2: Connect with gamers and potential clients in a relaxed atmosphere

When Germans play games on their smartphones, it's most often after work when they want to relax. By now mobile gaming is no longer a second screen entertainment phenomenon – as it was in the early years – the players are fully focused on the screen of their mobile device.

One reason why mobile gaming has been capturing the players’ full attention has a lot to do with the quality campaign of the genre. The mobile gaming portfolio includes numerous games with high- quality graphics and exciting storytelling that do not have to fear the comparison with console games – among them 9: Legends, the Dungeon Hunter series or Disney Magic Kingdom.

Kontakt Sabrina Keßler, Head Of Marketing GSA Gameloft, Phone: 0049 174 940 3868, Mail: [email protected] Gameloft Advertising Solutions

In short: Whether board games or mobile games – playing has always made people happy, relaxed AND focused, interested AND engaged.

 #3: Gaming Advertising: Brands in Happy-mode

What do advertisers want for their brand? Two things: quantity and quality. Mobile games as an advertising platform offer both.

. Quantity The quantity is ensured by the intensity and the high frequency of mobile games usage. 96 percent of smartphone users play once a month, 73 percent once a day. Almost all of them stay longer than one minute in the game app, 84 percent more than five minutes. (Source: Google Mobile Apps Report 2017) . Quality This is ensured by the full attention of the players and the good control over the environment. Brand Safety is key. When users play, it is not on the side, but with full focus on the challenge. Swipe away? With modern, high-quality full-screen games, this is no longer an issue, visibility is guaranteed and will be guaranteed in the future.

In addition, brands operate in secure environments. First of all: Games are free from user-generated content. Additionally, several security layers provide an advertising environment with brand safety in the core of it. Gameloft's internal systems, the high quality standards of license partners as well as European public authorities, stakeholders and organizations make sure, that no content goes live that might hurt the clients brand. The last “authority” is the audience – the community is quick and honest when it comes to feedback. Since the summer of 2019, Gameloft has been using IAB app-ads.txt to improve transparency and trackability of campaigns.

Mobile in-game advertising also offers numerous ways for brands’ integration to effectively communicate the core messages to the right target group. Besides all the classic digital formats of advertising, native ads or rich media formats are implemented with a similar high quality to the game’s own environment.

Playable ads and mini-games can be developed and tailored for brands, additionally brands can benefit from an image uplift by appearing in an environment of a prominent licensor such as Disney or Universal Pictures.

However, “guest appearances” within the most popular franchises – such as Asphalt 9: Legends – are also possible, whether as a branded billboard, interstitial or within a sponsored event. There is a wide range of different formats to choose from.

The main advantage: The brand becomes part of the game’s universe and is therefore perceived just as emotionally and intensively.

 #4: Media planning in game mode

Many advertisers do not know that mobile in-game advertising can be planned and steered like any other classical digital advertising and the effects can be tracked and reported with hard performance indicators.

Kontakt Sabrina Keßler, Head Of Marketing GSA Gameloft, Phone: 0049 174 940 3868, Mail: [email protected] Gameloft Advertising Solutions

In-Game ads are:

. also available as programmatic advertising . finely adjustable in their targeting (demography, day and time, device, geo, platform, connection, re-targeting etc.), . measurable according to hard KPIs (downloads, , duration and frequency of use, etc.). . as an Add-on and for additional consumer insights, specific user surveys can be integrated as in-game polls. . a Gameloft in-game survey (Why do our players like our ads?) from 2017 shows, that it works: o 85 percent of the respondents have a positive perception of the mini-game o Good brand recall: 9 out of 10 respondents remember the brand advertised in the mini-game o 66 percent of the users agree – “an ad that offers me an interaction is more likely to make me interested in the advertised product or service.”

According to a survey by the technology company Fyber in the UK market, 77 percent of the largest advertisers want to invest in in-app inventory because they consider it more reliable than mobile web browser advertising. Another argument cited was higher engagement rates. And: The campaign ROIs were increased by 41 percent on average (source: Business of Apps).

As for Germany, large advertisers such as McDonald's, LEGO, Super RTL or Falken Reifen have already added mobile in-game advertising to their communication sets.

 #5: Best case Mc Flurry

Overall campaign’s objectives:

McDonald’s aim is to address a slightly younger target group with its Mc Flurry ice cream specialities. The solution was a specially designed mini game: . Users could choose their own favourite ingredients with simple clicks and virtually mix their own personal Mc Flurry. In addition, they could join a fun game and collect ingredients and points with the ice cream cup - and set their own Mc Flurry record. . What's special: The mini game could not only be played within Gameloft’s games, but also as a playable ad on external platforms.

. If you want to try it out for yourself, click here for the Mc Flurry Game.

Facts for the Mc Flurry campaign - Duration: 6 months - Format: Mini Game + MRAID as Playable Ad on external platforms - Target group: ages 14 - 29 (1st party data)

Kontakt Sabrina Keßler, Head Of Marketing GSA Gameloft, Phone: 0049 174 940 3868, Mail: [email protected] Gameloft Advertising Solutions

The results (of the Mc Flurry campaign) - High ad recall of My McFlurry creatives - Mini games are generally perceived positively (as the result of our white paper study also shows: 66% of users say that interactive ads are more exciting than other forms of advertising). - Demonstrable increase of the intention for purchase

 #6 Conclusion

“In-Game Advertising has long since arrived in a modern and ‘now’ campaign planning. The gaming industry provides all relevant data and tools to control and monitor the campaigns in the most transparent ways and also has the full attention of the audience and target group. Brands have the opportunity to present their content in a coherent and attention grabbing way and to do so with the certainty of being integrated in credible and positive environments.”

Manuela Lube, Managing Director GSA Gameloft

 About Gameloft

Leader in the development and publishing of games, Gameloft® has established itself as one of the top innovators in its field since 2000. Gameloft creates games for all digital platforms, two of which are featured in the “Top 10 iOS Games by All-Time Worldwide Downloads” from App Annie. Gameloft operates its own established franchises such as Asphalt®, Dragon Mania Legends, and Dungeon Hunter and also partners with major rights holders including Disney®, LEGO®, Universal, Illumination Entertainment, ®, Fox Digital Entertainment, Mattel®, Lamborghini® and Ferrari®. Gameloft distributes its games in over 100 countries and employs 4,600 people worldwide. Every month, 98 million unique users can be reached by advertisers in Gameloft games with Gameloft Advertising Solutions, a leading B2B offering dedicated to brands and agencies. Gameloft is a company.

All trademarks referenced above are owned by their respective trademark owners.

Kontakt Sabrina Keßler, Head Of Marketing GSA Gameloft, Phone: 0049 174 940 3868, Mail: [email protected] Gameloft Advertising Solutions