Gaming has come a long way, and the past few years have seen it transform from a niche hobby to something almost everyone has access to. Many video games have become platforms in and of themselves, generating revenues that the globe’s leading businesses could only dream of. In addition, hundreds of gaming IPs, such as Zelda, Fallout, and League of Legends, are being expanded across film, TV, literature, and audio. Despite this, advertisers have remained cautious, mainly due to concerns about unfamiliarity with the gaming ecosystem and uncertainty about measurement standards, continuing to invest in traditional channels like linear TV—even as its audience continues to decline.
However, 2025 is the year that all this will change, driven by increased investment in gaming from major brands, advancements in measurement tools, and the growing recognition of gaming as a valuable advertising platform. That’s according to Jack Harvazinski, Anzu’s Head of US Account Management. As part of his role, he and his team spend a lot of time with the globe’s biggest brands and agencies, listening to their challenges and working closely with them to understand how gaming can help them overcome them and what new opportunities it offers over traditional 2D channels.
Moving Past Education
He explained that there’s been an education piece that needs to be done to help advertisers understand how gaming and advertising work together. Once that’s understood, the next step is to look at their goals and understand how gaming can help them achieve them. “The ecosystem can seem vast if you’re a media buyer or planner who doesn’t play games. There are countless entry points that appear costly and resource-intensive.
For many, advertising in games conjures images of titles like Fortnite, Call of Duty, or Grand Theft Auto—big names associated with custom, large-scale activations requiring significant investment. The first hurdle is explaining to them that this is just one of many entry points into gaming and then outlining what intrinsic in-game advertising does, which offers a scalable, turnkey approach similar to the digital media they’re already familiar with. For many, this is welcome news, especially when they learn that all the providers and tools they already use across other channels work.
A screenshot of an intrinsic in-game ad in Dakar Desert Rally from QuikTrip, a year-long campaign Jack oversaw.
Over the past few years, we’ve laid a lot of the groundwork needed to ensure advertisers feel confident investing in gaming and that it’s as easy for them to understand and adjust to as possible,” noted Jack. With direct integrations with all the major DSPs, IAB-compliant formats, industry standardization from the MRC and IAB, creative best practices, enhanced targeting, and advanced reporting, running an intrinsic in-game advertising campaign is now no different from running a campaign on the web or across social media.
He added, “Thanks to this work and the establishment of the medium when we approach brands and agencies now compared to even just 12 months ago. We’re finding that more and more have either tried gaming or already understand the intricacies of the platform and are increasingly interested in what intrinsic in-game advertising can offer them.”
Establishing A New Medium
Much like was the case for video, mobile, and social media, the ad industry often takes a long time to adopt a new solution. However, according to Jack, we’re now seeing gaming beginning to scale faster and faster, driven by increased consumer engagement, advancements in technology, and growing interest from major brands and agencies, many of which have set up their own gaming arms to deal with the amount of interest that gaming is driving from their clients.
“Now that we have laid the groundwork and standards are in place,” he explained, “the focus should continue to shift to educating advertisers on the real value and impact of in-game ads, with standardization reinforcing that value.” He stressed that while accreditations add credibility, they aren’t enough on their own. “Advertisers need to see meaningful results from in-game campaigns; without this, even the most robust standards won’t be enough to convince them to invest.”
Measuring Ad Efficacy and Providing Confidence
According to Jack, another area holding advertisers back was the idea that gaming is not measurable. However, he explains that many brands are surprised when he demonstrates what’s now possible, “One of the key advantages we now have with gaming is that we’ve done the heavy lifting needed to provide advertisers with metrics that not only align with but often exceed traditional media standards. This was a core focus for us because intrinsic in-game ads’ non-clickable nature initially made it difficult to prove their value in a market where clicks were seen as the primary success metric.
Interstitial ads, for instance, were often perceived as more favorable simply because they generated clicks, and many advertisers who have tried gaming in the past have had bad experiences with these types of ads. Just because a player clicks on an ad doesn’t mean it has made an impact,” Jack notes. “Instead, the impact should be measured by how well the ad increases brand awareness, consideration, and overall engagement with the audience.
By collaborating with trusted AdTech measurement vendors and sharing best practices, many of these vendors now offer comprehensive verification and reporting on intrinsic in-game advertising. As a result, advertisers can measure their campaigns in terms of incremental reach, attention, brand lift, and view-through conversions (VTCs). Thanks to this, advertisers can really delve into their ads' success metrics and the impact they’ve had on larger omnichannel campaigns and then take the learnings and replicate their success across future campaigns.
A great recent example of this comes from a campaign Anzu ran with Sony, which has just been shortlisted for a Wires award. Over two months, the campaign reached 250k players from Sony’s target audience, boosting brand metrics across the board, including consideration for the product, which increased by 35 points.
A screenshot of an intrinsic in-game ad in Asphalt 9 from Sony for a campaign promoting their new earbuds designed for gamers.
What Does The Future Hold?
Our brand lift studies and research into gaming habits show that ads that are meaningful, relevant, and non-disruptive to gameplay have a significant positive impact on brand metrics, from awareness to purchase consideration. The idea that advertising needs to complement the user experience continues to gain momentum across the industry.
"I'm really excited about the coming year and the possibilities that intrinsic in-game advertising will have in making 2025 the year of gaming,” Jack predicts that increased investment from major brands, advancements in measurement tools, and the growing recognition of gaming's value are setting the stage for a major shift. “As gaming continues to evolve, it offers unique opportunities to reach audiences in innovative, engaging, and non-disruptive ways. Brands that embrace these opportunities will be at the forefront of a new era in digital marketing, one that values the user experience and delivers meaningful results.”
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