How Brands Can Leverage Gaming to Positively Engage with Kids and Families

​Over the last year, with the Covid-19 pandemic, people worldwide have turned to games to maintain a sense of normalcy, communication, and social wellness.

In 2020, the video game industry generated more revenue than the global movie industry and North American sports industries combined, with 20 percent sales rising to nearly $180 billion (1).

An accentuated phenomenon uncovered for confined families, where video games increasingly participated in the evolution of kid-parent relationships, meeting their needs for socialization, entertainment and education or cognitive training.

Today, video games have taken an important place in the daily life of families with, on average, 69 minutes of playtime per day for an American and 56 minutes for a French player (2).

Gaming has clearly made a series of positive moments of sharing and fun that brands can leverage to reach the kid and family audience.

The Role of Gaming and the Role of Parents: From Teachers to Partners

In 2020, the world counted more than 2.7 billion video gamers (3). The video game player base takes a more and more important place and role within family entertainment, from young kids to adults.

As kids grow older, the role of video games evolve from edutainment to a major hobby that serves kid’s needs (4):

● Entertainment, by playing alone or with their parents

● Socialisation, by talking and sharing with friends like tips, tricks, best score, news about their favourite game

● Personal branding, by playing on their own and develop their skills

The role of parents is essential in defining the place of video games in their kid’s life, but this role has changed over the years, from that of the teacher, who gives permission to play, to that of the partner one kid play with.

From surveys and metrics of one of Gameloft’s most downloaded games, Dragon Mania Legends, we learned:

● 78 percent of parents watch their children play and give them tips and advice on how to play

● 74 percent of under-thirteen players use their parents' account

● 53 percent of under-thirteen players play exclusively or alternatively with their parents (5)

 This can be explained by the fact that many parents today played video games as kids, which redefined the relationship between parents and video games. Today the average player is 35 years old, born in the 80’s/90’s and grew up with video games.

 Today kids and parents play and partner together to share moments of happiness with a stronger engagement than average players, with:

● 50 percent longer play sessions

● 66 percent under-thirteen players fixating on one specific title (5)

 Video games are today a source of positive shared moments in families and facilitate the opportunity for brands to be the creator of these moments.

Ways to Create Connections with Kids and Families: Gamification & Native Solutions

Video games clearly offer brands impactful moments to reach kids and families, but what are the best ways to join or create these moments? Some approaches:

1. Join the positive sharing moment of gaming to reach players from within the gaming ecosystem

● Sponsor video game content, such as pre-roll video on YouTube/Twitch

● Integrate communities by securing a partnership with influencers and social media actions

● Integrate within games with in-game ad placements

2. Create the positive sharing moment of gaming to engage players from & beyond the gaming ecosystem

● Native content in-game, such as digital events, brand or product placement

● Gamification with gamified ad formats or a stand-alone app using game mechanics for business objectives

With 39% of its global audience, Gameloft offers a robust player base of under-thirteen years old (5), bringing its twenty-year expertise to brands to engage with kids and parents effectively. With a COPPA and GDPR-K compliant game portfolio, Gameloft ensures a safe gaming ecosystem for brands to deliver their message through gamified experiences that resonates with families:

● Gamified advertising formats in popular kids & family games like Disney Magic Kingdoms, My Little Pony or Minion Rush…

● Native integration in the biggest Gameloft & partner franchises like Dragon Mania Legends or My Talking Tom…

● Gamified stand-alone apps designed for family brands such as Applaydu, an edutainment app developed for Ferrero Kinder Surprise

Sources

1 -  IDC data “Market Analysis Perspective Worldwide Gaming and eSports” 2020

2 - Misterspex Study October 2020

3 - Newzoo 2021

4 -Harris Interactive 2019

5 - Gameloft first-party data 2020-2021