Younger generations more responsive to in-game branding: Livewire
According to a new study from global gaming marketing and gametech company Livewire, gaming is the entertainment channel of choice across millennials, Gen Z and Gen Alpha – and the latter two enjoy branded moments nearly 20% more than the former.
The 2024 Next Gen Attention study explores the difference in expectation, habits and gaming consumption across the three generations, through a survey of 1,801 gamers across Australia, the UK and US.
It found that gaming beats traditional and modern entertainment media as the favoured form of entertainment for all three generations, and that Gen Z and Gen Alpha are more welcoming to brands in gaming.
“The next generation are different from any we’ve seen before. Tech-natives raised in gaming, this is a generation that does not primarily consume media via downward-scrolling flat social-media screens,” said Tom Simpson, CEO of Livewire.
“They exist in immersive, interactive, playable digital space. And this means how brands talk and engage with them has to be completely different too – it’s now about items, immersive ads, playability and experiences in expansive digital worlds.
“It’s the fundamental unit of marketing attention that’s being disrupted, not just the core marketing channel,” he said.
Immersive experiences are an increasing expectation for gamers, with interactive moments (65%) and playable experiences (69%) on the rise – through characters, skins, world-builds, interactive billboards, playables and rewarded videos.
Gen Alpha and Gen Z are therefore more accepting of brands in and around their gaming moments, and have 15% more branding purchases than millennials.
Gen Alpha are significantly more likely to purchase after seeing a brand in-game than the older cohorts. The younger generation is the most committed to gaming – with 70% gaming at least 4-5 times a week.
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