Respawn revolution: Marketers, industry leaders ‘press play' on gaming strategies

Campaign ME

15-04-2025

Gaming – once considered a fun attention-grabbing brand experience experiment – has now become an integral part of the media and marketing mix in the Middle East.
With a young and tech-savvy population, the Middle East is luring brands into virtual arenas by making the case for gaming as a highly immersive, interactive and engaging medium. This medium is creating avenues for seamless storytelling and personalised propositions to a community of individuals who want brands to come to them – rather than the other way around.
Campaign Middle East speaks to marketers – and leaders at agencies supporting them – about the adoption apex; consumer behaviour insights, psychographic data and purchase patterns; and effective ways to measure the impact of integrated gaming strategies.
Unparalleled engagement: Gaming is the new social media
Marketers looking to target lucrative and loyal segments of the market say that gaming is going well beyond proof-of-concept and fringe activities to a core part of their media strategy.
For instance, KFC, a Yum! brand, has leaned into gaming for its Original Fake Games campaign by transforming misleading and fake game advertisements – which clutter social feeds – into real, playable mobile games.
In conversation with Campaign Middle East, Ahmed Arafa, Chief Marketing Officer at Yum!, says, 'With more than 350 million gamers in the Middle East alone, gaming is no longer a fringe activity – it's integrated into the daily lives of diverse communities, from teens to adults. Brands seeking to remain culturally relevant and hoping to reach digital natives where they live must view gaming not only as an additional channel, but also as a core part of their media strategy.'
Similarly, FMCG brand Heinz previously partnered with Activision and NewGen for its Hidden Spots campaign, which centred around gamers finding a hidden spot within a game's map to take a break and have a quick snack. The campaign coincided with the launch of the Call of Duty: Warzone map, Caldera.
Speaking about the strategic thought behind the campaign, Passant El-Ghanem, Marketing Director Middle East and Africa at Kraft Heinz, says, 'We recognised that gamers playing fast-paced, high-stakes titles rarely have a moment to eat, so we created safe hideouts within the game, where they could take a break and enjoy a quick meal in the real world – reinforcing Heinz's relevance in their world. This is a perfect example of how brands can go beyond traditional advertising and add genuine value to gaming experiences.'
El-Ghanem adds, 'Gaming is no longer a subculture; it's a dominant form of entertainment, socialising and commerce. Whether it's through immersive in-game experiences, interactive storytelling or brand integrations, gaming offers a level of engagement that traditional media simply can't replicate.'
Additionally, marketers share that brands trying to build stronger connections with hard-to-reach communities in the Middle East now have robust digital infrastructure that enables engagement through real-time interaction and feedback.
Vikrant Shetty, Head of Content, Publicis Groupe Middle East, says, 'Gaming offers unparalleled engagement. It's a vital media and marketing mix element, reaching audiences previously unreachable via traditional channels. Gaming appeals to diverse demographics, from Gen Z hardcore gamers to millennial casual gamers, making it a strategic channel for brands.'
Ahmed Abdel-Karim Hussein, Executive Vice President of Marketing and Communications – EEMEA at Mastercard takes this a step further to say that gaming not only helps drive engagement, brand affinity and loyalty, but it also presents opportunities to further unlock growth and new commercial streams.
Hussein says, 'As gaming culture becomes more integrated with mainstream media, it's essential for brands to leverage it as part of their marketing strategy to stay relevant and connect with younger, tech-savvy consumers.'
Adoption curve: From whether to when
Marketers also made it clear that the debate is no longer about whether gaming should be a part of the media and marketing mix; it's about when the Middle East brand and marketing industry must adopt it.
'The benefits of reach, engagement and attention make gaming essential to the media and marketing mix, but not everyone is ready yet,' says Mario Soufia, Regional MD of Content and Growth, GroupM MENA. 'Think of influencer marketing a few years ago. We all knew it belonged in the mix, but the market had to go through the learning curve first. I call this the 'adoption apex' curve. Today, we're at its climax, and soon enough, just like influencer marketing, gaming will be an inseparable part of the media and marketing mix.'
But Brent Koning, the Executive Vice President and Global Gaming Lead at dentsu takes this a step further saying that brands not incorporating gaming are already lagging.
'If you're wondering whether gaming should be part of the mix or not, you're already six months behind the curve. Gaming is the new social media, and no one is asking whether social should form part of a media strategy,' Koning says.
He adds, 'Look at a platform such as Roblox and compare it with TikTok. We're seeing three times the number of 18-minute-plus visits and twice the average minutes per visit on Roblox. These numbers are because gaming is increasingly becoming a platform play, not just a siloed, single-experience offering. We're seeing more time spent in-platform, with deeper engagement and new types of opportunities for brands emerging every week.'
Integrating gaming into consumer segmentation
Beyond high-level engagement in immersive environments, gaming also offers marketers access to untapped consumer insights and preferential patterns, which unlock opportunities to optimise and personalise marketing efforts.
Mastercard's Hussein says, 'Data analytics plays a pivotal role in understanding audience engagement and sentiment, which is crucial for optimising gaming marketing campaigns. By analysing audience engagement, interactions and sentiment toward the brand, we can identify which creators and channels resonate most with target audiences.'
He adds, 'This nuanced approach ensures that we select the right platforms and influencers, tailoring our messaging to align with audience preferences. The ability to gauge sentiment helps us craft campaigns that foster deeper connections, driving engagement and improving overall performance.'
Several marketers also agree that – through gaming – they are going beyond traditional demographics of age, gender and location to segment consumers based on behavioural tendencies, psychographic data and purchase intent.
Kraft Heinz's El-Ghanem says, 'Traditional demographics are no longer enough. Integrating gaming into our segmentation is no longer a 'nice to have' – it's a strategic imperative. Gaming provides a critical lens for understanding our consumers on a deeper level. It's not just about age or location; it's about understanding why they engage, how they interact and what motivates them within the gaming space.'
Chris Probert, Marketing Director, Nissan KSA, says, 'Gaming provides us with invaluable psychographic data, helping us understand the motivations and preferences of tech-driven audiences. These insights allow us to craft campaigns that are more relevant and personalised, ensuring we engage with younger consumers in meaningful ways. By embracing gaming, we're able to push boundaries and connect with consumers on a deeper level.'
To take this a step further, Yum!'s Arafa refers to gaming as a powerful identity marker that goes beyond the stereotypical view of a hobby.
He says, 'Gamers come from all age groups, and their gaming motivations such as socialising, competition, stress relief and creative expression can reveal crucial psychographic insights. By understanding how and why people game, brands gain a clearer picture of consumer preferences and pain points.'
Arafa adds, 'Gaming is about more than just playing; it's a space for self-expression, socialising and community building. In other words, gaming provides more than impressions or views – it enables brands to be part of meaningful moments in consumers' lives. Brands that ignore gaming's cultural importance risk missing a critical touchpoint where authentic brand love and loyalty can flourish.'
Agencies supporting these brands have also begun to use real-time data to analyse and understand player behaviours and align campaigns with in-game activities, delivering personalised experiences.
'By identifying peak playtimes, tailoring content for platforms, and optimising creatives mid-campaign, data led decisions ensure that we reach gamers effectively. Additionally, the feedback loop not only enhances performance but also ensures brands provide genuine value to the gaming community,' says Publicis Groupe Middle East's Shetty.
'Even when it's not about gaming – it's about gaming,' dentsu's Koning says. 'Gaming touches every aspect of consumers' lives.'
And he makes a valid point. Over the past 12 months, gaming has been influencing not only every layer of the marketing funnel, but also every form of media and entertainment through adaptations, including in some of the biggest TV series such as Primetime Emmy Awards-winning The Last of Us, Emmy-nominated Fallout, highly acclaimed animated series such Arcane, and God of War, which has been greenlit for two seasons on Amazon.
Explaining how brands can 'make their media dollar go further', Koning adds, 'If you have the right data and directive, you can go layers deeper … For example, we get insights such as 'Not only does he play games, but he loves football. In fact, he loves to play games, watch football and order from Hungerstation four times a week at the same time of day.' That type of detail data is critical to more efficient media.'
What's the ROI?
Recently, the focus on bottom-of-the-funnel tangible success metrics such as conversions, sales and revenue, has increased. Marketers say that the time has come to not only delve into the return on investment (ROI) of gaming, but also take a closer look at how this ROI is measured.
They raise important questions: Are brands using the right KPIs to measure the effectiveness of integrated gaming strategies? Are we measuring ROI only in terms of sales or are we also measuring the effectiveness of gaming strategies on brand-building?
GroupM MENA's Soufia says, 'This isn't just a space for engagement; it's a space where you can drive real sales and extend time spent with your brand – one of the most important, yet unspoken, KPIs.'
Looking inward, Nissan KSA's Probert shares that while lower-funnel metrics such as leads and conversions are critical to his brand's business, gaming strategies have also allowed the brand to forge deeper connections with new audiences. Probert says, 'Viewer engagement, brand affinity and emotional resonance play a pivotal role in building long-term relationships with customers. Although these brand outcomes are more difficult to measure, they are important elements to building strong brands.'
Leaders agree that the new frontier for brands is to elegantly connect cultural moments to commercial outcomes, and they're already seeing it across entertainment offerings such as gaming.
Koning says, 'In this era of algorithmically-controlled experiences, creating true cultural moments allows brands to stand a much higher chance of escaping the sea of sameness. Should brands shy away from seeing commercial outcomes as a KPI in gaming? Absolutely not.'
'Yet, to focus on the conversion alone is to simplify the bigger opportunity here: we must drive better bottom of-funnel performance because of a more strategic investment in developing the intellectual property (IP) that brought the consumer to that point of conversion in the first place. Taking a bigger stake in the IP dramatically turns the odds in your favour at the business-end of the process,' Koning adds.
While conversions, costs per thousand impressions (CPMs) and revenue remain vital, marketers reach a consensus that gaming offers unique value beyond traditional metrics.
Shetty concludes, 'Integrated gaming strategies require broader measurement approaches. Metrics such as time spent, interaction rates and sentiment analysis provide deeper insights into brand impact. To maximise ROI, brands must adopt a more holistic KPI framework that captures both short-term performance and long term brand affinity within gaming ecosystems.'