What does it take to grow your adtech company across new and emerging markets? According to adtech company iion's newly appointed Chief Commercial Officer Yun Yip, investing in PR and marketing is critical if you want to survive in a hyper-competitive environment.
In this recent episode of AZK Meets, AZK Managing Director Azadeh Williams meets up with Yip to discuss the fast-changing gaming ecosystem and why the landscape is ‘ripe’ for brands to engage with their audiences in fresh and innovative ways. They also dived into the importance of investing in PR and marketing as a fast-growing adtech company.
Adapting adtech to the evolving gaming landscape
Today's gaming industry bears little resemblance to the one your parents grew up with. With advancements in technology, gaming has evolved from the days of simple arcade games to immersive, hyper-realistic experiences that are almost indistinguishable from reality. From virtual reality to esports, the industry is massive and highly lucrative, with an estimated value of over AU$570 billion worldwide.
“The actual gaming industry is already exciting, right? But when you begin thinking about combining it with technology and advertising, that's where it gets even more exciting,” Yip says.
Until now, there hasn’t been a technology that could unite all of the various gaming environments into one space. However, iion does this seamlessly from end-to-end from creative through to planning, buying, implementation, measurement and analytics. It adds value to the entire ecosystem, pushing it forward immeasurably.
“When you think about the ability to seamlessly and effectively talk to gamers across all of the different gaming environments, it’s exciting. But the ability to do it with ease as well is a game changer. It’s not only about gaming inventory, supply and the ability to have access to all formats, it’s also about being able to help marketers solve the problem around creative as well,” Yip explains.
“More importantly, the value exchange is also enhanced with all of the customers. Whether you're a publisher, a marketing agency, a media agency or a marketer, iion can add value through its technology to all of these different parts of the gaming ecosystem.
“iion has the ability to reach hard-to-get audiences in a very engaging environment. The ability to do that, talk to them and engage with them in a very authentic and respectful way is something that will genuinely change how people think about gaming advertising.”
Challenging gamer and gaming stereotypes
Today’s gamers probably aren’t who you think they are, Yip points out. “There’s a misperception of who gamers really are. There’s this persistent idea that gamers are teen males playing console-action games. But really, it's you and me as well," Yip tells Williams. In fact, recent research demonstrates that almost half (46%) of Australian gamers identify as female – up from 38% in 2005.
The other misperception, Yip shares, is the unsavoury nature of video games. “This is because there’s a lot of bad press on violent games. Of course, these games are part of the ecosystem, but they represent only a very small percentage,” she explains. “There are also games like Daytona, Tetris, Snake, NFL, etc. More than a third of the world’s population is gamers — that’s over 3 billion people globally. The perception of gaming must be redefined to reflect its true premium nature.”
“There’s also a perception that game advertising is hard to get. iion is proving that it doesn’t have to be,” Yip says. iion’s immersiion platform has been purpose-built for gaming, enabling advertisers and marketers to target inventory down to the ad-unit level. Partners can customise their solutions by selecting only the necessary features due to its modular design.
Press play on PR
When it comes to debunking gaming myths, Yip says PR and marketing are key. “PR and marketing have the ability to amplify use cases and share how to actually apply gaming advertising. It plays a very key part not just in how iion grows but also how the entire gaming ecosystem will transform in the next few years,” she says.
“The more we talk about our success and the more we are able to help people understand best practices, the better it will be. And that’s best achieved through PR and marketing.”
This interview was also featured in Little Black Book Online, one of the world's leading brand, marketing and creative publications.
Authored by Julie Cooper, Senior Content and Communications Specialist at AZK Media.
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