Why smart brands are taking gaming seriously - in conversation with Andrew Woodhead

Gaming has quietly become one of the most powerful and fastest-growing channels globally, and increasingly impossible for mainstream brands to ignore. Here, we speak with Andrew Woodhead, Global Head of Advertiser Success, about why advertiser appetite is accelerating, which industries are leading the charge, and what it will take to help brands shift budgets into these high-attention, highly relevant environments.

Q. How is gaming evolving as a channel for mainstream brands, and why are agencies paying more attention to it now?

Gaming has matured into a mass-reach channel, and agencies are recognising that shift. A few years ago, most mainstream brands saw gaming as a space for young males playing alone on consoles. Now, agencies understand it spans all demographics, not a single archetype. The numbers that once needed explaining - 37 million UK players, a near-even gender split - now speak for themselves. While teens and young adults spend between 10 and 15 hours a week gaming, adults aged 30-50 now also average 5-7 hours a week playing games.

What hasn’t landed yet is how to find specific audiences within that universe. Agencies know they are there, but they need guidance. For example, young female gamers versus older puzzle-game players are very different audiences, and genre matters more than most brands realise. 

This is where gaming specialists are stepping in to help brands identify genres, formats, and environments that best reach their target audience. The appetite is there; now it’s about fine-tuning that knowledge and making gaming activations feel accessible and relevant to marketers.

Q. Which advertiser industries are embracing gaming, and how is that shifting?

The range of industries embracing gaming has expanded. Food, drink and tech have long been natural fits, but we’re seeing a growing demand from other industries including telecoms, auto, retail, government, travel and more. Recently, we worked on a brief for the US government, which shows just how diverse the space has become.

No industry is off limits. Brands that may not have considered gaming in the past are looking to test it, because the scale and audience reach are hard to ignore. Case studies in sectors like beauty and government are challenging assumptions and bringing new budgets into the space.
‍

Q. What do advertisers still get wrong about in-game advertising or gaming-media?

The biggest barrier now is how advertisers think about the quality of gaming advertising. Many still default to legacy definitions of “premium”, such as well-known publishers or glossy lifestyle sites. When they see a list of mobile or casual game titles, they don’t always see the same level of value.

However, some of the most downloaded, most-played games (think Scrabble, Sudoku, 8 Ball Pool, SimCity) are valuable precisely because of their accessibility, how consistently they are played,  and how deeply the audience engages. A Sudoku app, for example, attracts an older demographic who play regularly and predictably, which is what gives it such value  for certain brands. The very fact that mobile gaming is a habitual behaviour, with 40% of UK gamers playing four to five different games weekly, makes it a key medium for advertisers.

We encourage agencies to look past how well known a game is and focus on genre, user behaviour, and audience profile. Knowing who plays, how often, and in what mindset, is what tells you the true value and whether the game is worth advertising in.

Q. How do different gaming ad formats support various stages of the marketing funnel?

Broadly, the upper to mid funnel can be split between in-game formats and around-the-game formats.

• In-game ad formats, display billboards, and video ads that are integrated into the environment, sit at the top of the funnel. This environment puts your brand in front of a large audience in a space where people are fully focused on what they’re doing.

• Around-the-game ad formats, such as rewarded video, playables or interactive interstitials, operate more in the mid-funnel. These enable user responses such as clicks or swipes, and, in some cases, a pathway towards eventual conversions. While we focus on upper- and mid-funnel outcomes, there are instances where high-impact creative delivers downstream benefits. For example, a recent playable campaign for a major fast food brand led to more app installs than its standard display formats - despite installs not being the principal KPI. This illustrates the knock-on effect of high-engagement gaming ads.

In both of these examples, the primary goals are to drive awareness, recall, and measurable attention.

Q. At iion, strategy and creative are housed under one roof. How does this benefit agencies?

One of the industry’s biggest challenges is fragmentation. Agencies often don’t know where to start: do they need separate partners for in-game, rewarded video, playables, creators, or influencers? Many assume gaming means juggling multiple suppliers at once.

We remove that problem by delivering strategy, creative, formats, measurement all under a single umbrella. It's something which sets us apart in the market. Agencies can get into gaming without piecing together a supplier list. They get unified planning, creative, and reporting, which makes things easier to run and sell internally and matters most to teams new to gaming, or for teams still building their in-house expertise.

Q. How will gaming advertising evolve over the next couple of years?

AI will inevitably begin to play a bigger role. The teams that do well will be the ones who use it to tailor creative for different audiences and optimise against real outcomes, without letting it replace the creative thinking that’s essential to keeping audiences engaged.

Beyond that, the bigger challenge is that budgets have not caught up with audience behaviour and where they’re actually spending their time. There are 3.4 billion gamers globally, and time spent in games is up 6% year-on-year, yet gaming still captures less than 5% of global media investment. The attention is there; the spend hasn't followed.

Growth will come from demonstrating reliable outcomes and reducing perceived risk. When agencies know they can buy inventory with clear commitments around attention, they feel more confident shifting investment across from social platforms. 

Better creative technology, particularly attention, lift and measurement tools that give brands standardised proof of gaming's impact against KPIs, will support that journey in 2026. The evidence is already there. A Cint study found that 62% of consumers are likely to seek more information about a product after seeing it in a game, and 50% say they'd consider making a purchase, outcomes that rival any premium digital channel. When agencies can buy inventory with clear, verified commitments around attention, they feel more confident shifting investment across from social platforms.

Advertisers are following their audiences, and the next few years will be about helping them shift budgets into these high-attention, highly relevant environments faster.

Are you ready to explore what gaming can do for your brand? Chat to Andrew and his team today at iion.io/contact