Men and Women Ages 18-25 and 26-35 Spend More Time Playing Video Games than Watching Broadcast TV

A media planneramp8217s role is to reach consumers at the right time in the right place and with the right message The time of day an ad is placed over the years has mattered Media planners place ads during drive time They plan and buy media for prime time Ads in the first quarter of the Super Bowl in the beginning of the game are more expensive than ads at the end of the game Time in media planning mattersReaching people when they are engaged in highquality video content is a valued tactic for a media planner whether that be through broadcast or online video which has certainly shifted over the past several years Limelight reports the average amount of time per week watching broadcast video is lower in all categories than online video hours with the exception of the 4660 and 60 categories This is no surprise to a media planner trying to reach coveted audiences from 1845What may be a surprise is that on average people both men and women spend a significant amount of time playing games Video gamers spend an average of six hours 20 minutes each week playing games according to Limelight Networks State of Online Gaming People who are playing video games are engaged in highquality creative experiences and one can argue they are more engaged than in a leanback experience watching broadcast or online video For argument39s sake letamp8217s keep the comparison of the quality of the engaging content to another dayEven more fascinating is when we compare the State of Online Gaming with Limelight Network State of Online Video 2020 In age brackets 1825 and 2635 the average weekly time spent playing games is higher than the average weekly time spent watching broadcast video and not as far off from the average online video hours watched weekly as one might expectWhat we see from the data is a trend that is significant and here to stay Playing video games is mainstream at scale and as we saw with the shift from online video to broadcast channels here to stay as the younger generationsamp8217 patterns evolve to adulthood behavioursAs we go back to our media planning roots we look at time as a dimension to ensure we are reaching our valued audiences while they are doing the things they love in their own timeKnowing the gaming audience has grown significantly passing much of the valued segments in the broadcast video space how do we reach gamers when they are playing games Whatamp8217s the best use of the gamersamp8217 time to share a brand messageThere are two ways to reach gamers playing games interruptive and intrinsic ingame adsInterruptive ads are the prevailing ad units for the ingame industry which are placements such as interstitials levelups or other ads placed outside of the game Often these ad units can be seen as pausing the game disruptive to the game and tolerated only because the player wants to keep the freetoplay options or at least reduce the price of the game by offsetting it some other way These ads wonamp8217t go away nor should they They are a necessary part of the game development revenue stream Itamp8217s a careful balancing act with the game developer to ensure they donamp8217t alienate the gameramp8217s time by placing too many of these ads in their gamesIntrinsic ads enable brands to reach gamers inside the game play integrating into the creative tapestry of the game design itself These ad units do not interrupt the game during play Instead the game developer is in control of the ad placements to ensure they respect the gameramp8217s time They reach gamers while they are playing the game a valuable and uninterrupted and significant piece of time This a new ad placement type that has not been monetized by game developers until nowThere are only 24 hours in a day As a media planning community we must embrace the fact that gamers 1835 are spending more time playing video games than watching broadcast video We should lean into connecting with the significant audience of gaming in the US alone it is 214 million people Whether we choose to connect to these valuable gamers via ingame advertising using either interruptive or intrinsic ingame ads all of us must play a role to ensure whatever method we use values and respects the gamers timeClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNetamp160

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Men and Women Ages 18-25 and 26-35 Spend More Time Playing Video Games than Watching Broadcast TV

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Cary Tilds

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Men and Women Ages 18-25 and 26-35 Spend More Time Playing Video Games than Watching Broadcast TV

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