INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
A new study from Versus Systems and the MEMES (Management of Enterprise in Media, Entertainment Sports) Center at UCLA’s Anderson School
of Management examines how gaming and advertising are evolving, and how one influences the other.As Versus Systems CEO Matthew Pierce put
it, the goal was to study, “What is the impact on advertising as interactive media grows, and as more people consume interactive
media”The individual findings — People like rewards! Not everyone who plays games calls themselves a gamer! — may not be that shocking
And because Versus Systems has built a white-label platform for publishers to offer in-game rewards, the study might also seem a bit
self-serving.But again, this was conducted with UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, and both Pierce (who’s a lecturer at the school)
and UCLA MEMES head Jay Tucker pointed to the size of the study, with 88,000 (U.S.-based) participants across a broad range of demographic
groups.Of those respondents, 50 percent said they’ve played a video game (on any platform) in the past week, while 41 percent said
they’ve played a game in the past 24 hours
However, only 13 percent of respondents described themselves as gamers
That “identification gap” is even larger among women, where 56 percent played a game in the past week but only 11 percent identified
themselves as gamers.Why does that matter Well, the MEMES Center and Versus Systems argue in the study press release that “advertisers
that are recognizing the value in advertising in-game may be underestimating how large and how diverse the gaming audience really is
today.”The study also suggests that traditional advertising may be facing more resistance from consumers, with 46 percent of respondents
saying they frequently or always avoid ads by “clicking the X” to close windows or changing channels or closing apps
Only 3.6 percent of respondents said they always watch ads all the way through.When asked what would make them play games more, the most
popular answer was “winning real things that I want when I achieve things in-game” — it was the number one result for 30 percent of
respondents, and among millennials, it did even better
(In comparison, 18 percent put “if the games were less expensive” as their top answer and 11 percent said “my friends playing the same
game(s).”) This attitude even extended to TV, where 77 percent of respondents listed rewards as one of the things (not necessarily the top
reason) that would make them watch more television.Meanwhile, 24 percent of respondents listed “if more games/more shows were made for
people like me” as the number one thing that would convince them to play or watch more.Tucker suggested that these seemingly scattershot
answers are actually connected
On the advertising side, “We’ve got folks who are used to being part of a community all day, every day, whether that’s social media or
massively multiplayer games
We see users are increasingly connected and are not really interested in getting pulled out of an experience
Rewards, if done properly, can reinforce being part of a community … you can amplify that sense of connection.”“The introduction of
choice seems to make a big difference,” Pierce added
“We need new models where we can foster choice, foster community, foster more aspirational relationships between viewers and brands that
ultimately allows content developers to have a relationship with the brands that isn’t so adversarial.”Meanwhile, when it comes to
content and storytelling, Tucker said we’re entering an “age of personalization.” Among other things, that means more diversity, in
what he described as “a generational shift away from stories that assume everybody’s looking at life from the same perspective.”Pierce
and Tucker suggested that they’ll be taking an even closer look at the data in the coming months (“needs further study” was repeated
several times during the interview), particularly by examining responses within smaller demographic groups.
