MANILA, PHILIPPINES — With Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity’s historic move of debuting a category wholly meant for Gaming this year, it is clear that the future of advertising is opening up to recognize the body of work emerging in the vibrant intersection between gaming and marketing. Or, as Game On captain Rey Tiempo fondly calls it: the playground of gamingXmarketing.
In light of this, this Game On entry is one that puts recent gamingXmarketing campaigns under the spotlight, with Rey putting on his gamer and advertiser hats on to look at the work from all angles. From beer-holding computers to unexpected collaborations, here are a few campaigns that blend gaming and marketing in one incredibly fun piece of advertising work.
Hey there! So much exciting news happening in gaming lately, I could barely keep up. (Work just keeps getting in the way!) Between the awesome reveals from the newest Nintendo Direct (that new Princess Peach game!) and PlayStation State of Play (new co-op multiplayer Foamstars looks promising tbh), the jaw dropping trailers at the Tokyo Game Show (Capcom’s Dragon’s Dogma 2!), news of the Switch 2 (Zelda at 4k 60fps?!), that massive XBox leak (Microsoft tried to buy Nintendo?!) and loads of new hardware releases (the new iPhone as THE gaming console to watch out for?!) one can definitely say we’re in the golden age of gaming hype – what a time to be a gamer!
And what a time to be a gamer in the marketing world, as well! From the Cannes Lions debuting a category dedicated entirely to Gaming, to brands getting more and more comfortable in metaverse spaces — I imagine it would be a pretty wild, eye opening and especially fun year ahead for gamingXmarketing!
Here are a couple of work we’ve seen and noted. Future award show contenders in the Gaming categories? Let’s find out! As always, our methodology stays the same: we will put on our Gamer hat, then our Advertising hat on.
Let’s a-go!
TH3 G4M1NG FR1DG3
- Brand: Heineken
- Agency: Le Pub Brazil
The Gamer POV:
As someone who have just recently succumbed and submitted to the PC Master Race (have dabbled here and there before, but now totally in it and relishing every moment of it – challenges and all), this work struck me, hard!
It took a grand total of five tries for my custom PC builder to get my own setup stable, because the build I wanted kept on overheating (and crashing the games!). When we finally settled on a build with a stable-enough running temperature… well, I wanted to say “it was smooth sailing from there,” but noooo; PC gaming has its own sets of challenges, and it takes a special kind of patience to make everything functioning.
With that in mind, this work actually resonates in a major way, and does so with the relevant market in mind. Although we have seen a fridge inspired by gaming setups before (the ref that parodies the XBox Series X console!) this one pushes the idea even further by targeting a very specific pain point among PC gamers, and then delivers it with a compelling brand promise on top. Brilliant! This work garnered all the relevant press as well – gaming sites have covered it extensively, even releasing full specs of the custom PC design. And although they are saying that the resulting build may not be the most high end out there, it does still strive to provide a decent PC gaming experience. So all in all, in the gaming side of things, this is a winner.
The Advertising POV:
As of this writing, what we are getting from this campaign so far are some press releases, with a sizzle film that introduces the concept. I will definitely keep an eye out for some more, because it is crucial they show the PC, well… actually working. If they showcase this thing with legit players gaming on some demanding PC games, complete with performance benchmarks – and most of all, keeping their beers ice cold – then this is a winner in the marketing side. I look forward to seeing the case film for this, and most especially the results from both PC gamers and beer lovers. I’d love to see where and how they will activate this. But I think most especially – if the team would focus on the beer consumption as an activity within casual gaming scenarios only (alcohol is known to slow down your reflexes, therefore NOT a very good fit for competitive gaming), then the gaming and brand matchup would prove to be a perfect fit and would make it a perfect gamingXmarketing case.
GilletteLabs
The Gamer POV:
Inspired by their very own April Fool’s joke (the world’s first ever shaving mouse with RGB), this one is the real deal. In the gaming world, puns like these still very much work, and especially if the pun is on-point, relevant, and funny as hell. Gillette razors teaming up with one of the best gaming peripheral brands, Razer – doesn’t get any punnier than this! Are we missing the Chroma RGB though? Maybe wireless connectivity to other Razer products? Maybe customizable grips that, well, improve your shaving AND gameplay??? Will keep a sharp eye on this limited edition release, yes pun intended!
The Advertising POV:
There’s a lot that can be explored when it comes to the relevance of these brands to each other. For now, we are getting some social posts (that’s where I got tagged), some press releases, and some product shots on TikTok. We are still, I imagine, very early into the campaign. But I would like to see especially how they play up the usage through real life gamer stories (a real honest to goodness tech demo, as if a gamer’s real essential peripheral). But see… that’s just one area! This work very much comfortably treads into product innovation territory (a conceptual pun turned reality!) and a whole slew of marketing efforts can be activated to amplify this core idea.
Want your gamingXmarketing work featured on Game On? Drop us an email at gameonshaman@gmail.com!
ABOUT THE CREATORS
Rey Tiempo is part of the team that won the Philippines’ first-ever Cannes Lions in the inaugural Entertainment in Gaming category as well as the country’s first-ever Spikes Asia Grand Prix for a Gaming work. He is currently Head of Experience and Innovation at Digitas. Gamer, musician, comic book enthusiast, and relentless collector, Rey keeps himself immersed in platforms by creating music and gaming content. Currently playing: Street Fighter 6; The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom; Farlight 84
Artwork by Dennis Nierra, Creative Director at BBDO Guerrero. Currently playing: Cyberpunk 2077 DLC: Phantom Liberty and Diablo IV.
