TL;DR
- A panel of experts at the 2024 NAB Show emphasized that video games are now core to the entertainment habits and buying decisions of younger generations.
- Creating brand presence and returning monetization in the video game space requires both virtual and experiential campaigns, the panel agreed.
- Companies that neglect the African American audience do so at their peril, says Ryan Johnson, founder and CEO of Atlanta-based Cxmmunity Media.
Gen Zs and Gen As are spending more time on Roblox and Fortnite than they are on TikTok and YouTube combined.
That stat alone should get legacy media jumping to get in the game.
A panel at the 2024 NAB Show, “Entertainment Evolved: Cultural Shifts and Monetization through Gaming,” explored the extent to which video game trends are transcending cultural touchpoints.
“More than half of Gen Z spend more time in video game culture than actually in games,” said United Esports founder Felix LaHaye. “That means watching Twitch but engaging with music and fashion. The point is that video game culture is overall mainstream youth culture today.”
On Roblox alone there are more than 71 million daily active users, and each of them is spending more than two-and-a-half hours per day on the platform.
“The culture in video games is now the epicenter of youth culture,” said Greg Selkoe, CEO and co-founder of video game lifestyle brand and media company Xset. “Video game culture is culture. It’s everything, it’s driving pop culture.”
Selkoe said there are three billion people worldwide who play video games, and a lot of them are not hardcore eSports fans. They come from different backgrounds and different races, with 45% of them being women.
Video games are populated by more than hardcore gamers. The community has a social media aspect, as well as being a source where people learn about new music and also discover entertainment. In many ways, it’s a social network.
“It is driving their decisions around what consumer brands they like, what product they wanted to buy, what they thought was cool,” Selkoe said.
Video games are basically the biggest form of entertainment in the world now, he said.
“If you‘re a broadcaster, the world is changing. If you go and look at Gen Z, they‘re interested in video games, that’s where the eyeballs are, that’s what moves them. If you‘re not there, you‘re a dinosaur.”
For media companies and brands that means on online (virtual) activations tied to offline (IRL) or experiential activations.
“If you don’t get their attention on their screen, as well as on the game, you’re going to lose out,” Selkoe warned.
Brands should be more actively engaging with creators in the games space, provided their approach and their activation is authentic, he says.
“The Gen Z audience is incredibly intelligent,” LaHaye added. “They understand that any creator space relies on the advertiser. As such, advertisers have to seek to do something that respect their [creator audience] and adds value in return.”
“A lot of brands get turned off from video games because they think it is not going to be brand safe when it actually, it’s perfectly brand safe. You just have to accept that Gen Z don’t communicate the same way that millennials or Gen X do.”
Ryan Johnson, founder and CEO of Atlanta-based Cxmmunity Media, highlighted the marketing and media potential of addressing the African American video game audience.
He said that what motivated him was learning that 83% of African American youth play video games weekly, but the industry itself is only representative of 4% of that demographic.
“So, everything we do is around building programs, media campaigns, live events, virtual events that ultimately help connect underrepresented communities to the spaces around video games and anime,” he explained.
Cxmmunity Media’s content has reached a billion impressions on social media. It has gifted $2 million worth of scholarships to students in the last two years that are part of its video games league.
On Twitch, the world ‘s largest live streaming platform, the most followed (subscribed) creator is a person of color.
“If diverse audiences are not a part of the marketing strategy, you’re missing a huge mark up here.”
Watch the full conversation below.
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