Following the publication of the Game Advertising Ecosystem Guide in late-December 2014, the IAB Game Advertising Committee met at Twitch HQ in February to discuss the mission and deliverables for the year. In attendance in-person or remote were members from Aarki, ADTECH, Brightroll, Cisco, Connexity, Electronic Arts, EngageClick, Ernst & Young, Facebook, Google, GSN Games, HeyZap, IAB, Intel, MediaBrix, NBCUniversal, PGA Tour, Rhythm NewMedia, Sony Pictures Television, Spot Xchange, StubHub, TapJoy, TreSensa, Turn Inc., Vungle, Watchwith, and Zynga.
In March, for the third year in a row, the Committee’s SXSW panel submission was accepted. We called this session “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Game Advertising” because there’s so much going on in the game advertising space, it sometimes feels that marketers and agencies need a lift to help them get where they should be with game advertising. Each speaker each brought a distinct perspective, but together, painted a compelling and thorough picture of today’s advertising space. The audience was engaged and enjoyed the case studies, including IAB Game Advertising MIXX Award winning entries.
The committee was an official sponsor of DMW’s LA Games Conference in May. Speaking to a largely industry audience, Dominique McAree/EA, Randy Shaffer/Microsoft- Xbox, and Kym Nelson/Twitch, spoke to the need for the industry to reframe the game advertising conversation to attract more (non-young male) brands, highlighting projected revenue growth per eMarketer data.
In October, the Committee was represented at the New York Media Festival in NYC where members discussed some key hurdles that keep many brands out of game advertising. The conversation highlights were captured in a blog post titled Five Ways to Get More Brands in the Game Advertising Game on iab.com.
Lastly, with Jack Koch leaving EA for LinkedIn (good luck, Jack, you are missed!), Ari Brandt, CEO and Co-Founder of MediaBrix joined Kym Nelson of Twitch as co-chair. Over the past few years, Ari has exhibited leadership with the committee, speaking at a number of events and being instrumental in the completion of the IAB Game Advertising Ecosystem Guide. Please join us in congratulating Ari.
Looking forward to 2016, the number one priority is to find ways to promote to agencies the value and scale of gaming as an advertising medium which is driven by engaging content and cross-platform solutions to a wide target audience, 24/7. We will be back at SXSW with a panel titled “How All Brands Can Win With Game Advertising” in March with Nielsen, Facebook and Twitch. More details for the remainder of the year to follow.
For more information about the IAB Games Committee, please contact Susan Borst ([email protected]).
