Samsung's PlayFronts Pitch: We Got Game for Game Hub Advertising

The Big Message After nine months of operation Samsung39s hub is drawing a steady audience of gamers in a wide variety of demographics and is ready to support advertisers in reaching this audience regularly through ingame opportunities from billboard placement to scenery signage Moreover Samsung is bent on not having ads interrupt or interfere with gameplay quotWe ae a partner with the gaming industryquot noted Avner Ronen Samsung39s Vice President of Product Development Hubs from his company and the rest of the smart TV set and device manufacturers quotwill become the venue for gamers everywherequotHosts Ronen joined by a number of executives from Samsung39s smart TV ad sales businessWhat Worked A wellrounded presentation complete with eyecatching graphics on a videowall in full view of the audience The capper was a fireside chat with Don McLean no relation to the quotAmerican Piequot singer Director of Gaming at ad agency dentsu McLean combined his bullishness for what Samsung and other smart TV vendors are doing with nonconsole video games with a call for the game industry to dismantle common stereotypes that disengage advertisers from using their medium Those stereotypes run from quotonly men play gamesquot to quotonly Generation X people play games consistentlyquot quotThere39s a lot of mythbusting we still have to doquot McLean acknowledgedWhat Also Worked Pulling out every stop possible to educate attendees about the advantages of videogame play via smart TV sets Besides getting first dibs at pitching a capacity crowd of advertiser agency and game developer officials on opening day Samsung served as principle sponsor for the event and on both days maintained a couchcomfy demonstration space steps from the main auditorium Full disclosure I spent a few minutes after the presentation at their exhibit playing their quotHot Wheelsquot game Let39s just acknowledge my turn with quotHot Wheelsquot was nowhere near a high scoring one and leave it at thatWhat Didn39t Work No bumps glitches or missing key information hereData Points Samsung is out to get a share of ad spend on video game ventures that attracted 86 billion dollars last year and is projected to increase 10 percent and reach at least 95 billion in 2023 according to eMarketer Research from IAB sources suggests 46 percent of all people playing video games regularly are women 40 percent are people of color Since last June when Samsung opened its game hub the user base has grown by 20 percent while average game play time per user is up 60 percentNews Between 900 and 1000 games are running on Samsung39s hub supplied by Microsoft39s Xbox operation Nvidia39s GForce Now service Amazon39s Luna game repository and Utomik Another 1000 games from two other suppliers will get hub space before the end of the year Twitch Amazon39s own 247 interactive game venture is playing on Samsung39s smart TVs via the game hub Spotify39s catalog of music and audiovideo podcasts is another Samsung hub featureParting WordsquotWe39re creating a marketplace for advertisers in gaming We39re a conduit to bring buyers and sellers togetherquot David Cohen Interactive Advertising Bureau Chief Executive Officer making remarks prior to Samsung39s presentationquotGaming is the mythology of the digital generation amp8230 the gateway to generations beyond Gen Z Linear TV is dyingquot Zoe Soon Vice President of Interactive Advertising Bureau39s Experience Center just before Samsung executives came on stage for their presentationquotWe understand better than anyone else how people use smart TVs Streaming is the future of gamingquot Cathy Oh Samsung Ads Vice President of Global MarketingquotGaming is the apex of culture The influence is everywhere we look Marketers should approach this space in a thoughtful way and look at ways to bring gamers added valuequot dentsu Gaming Director Don McLeanOur coverage of the 2023 PlayFronts continues hereClick the social buttons to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Samsung's PlayFronts Pitch: We Got Game for Game Hub Advertising

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Simon Applebaum

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Samsung's PlayFronts Pitch: We Got Game for Game Hub Advertising

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