Gaming has evolved from a hobby to a cultural phenomenon and the fastest-growing form of entertainment worldwide.
Its a virtual world where people come together to connect with an engaging community and express themselves through their passion.
UM MENAT’s ‘uplay: play the future’ event kicked off at the Theatre of Digital Art with a focus on how brands and agencies are reshaping the gaming landscape.
The morning was fuelled with actionable insights, creative case studies on staying at the forefront of gaming marketing trends, the latest advancements in gaming technology which gave a glimpse into the future of gaming and more.
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Here are some of the highlights:
Joe Nicolas, CEO of UM MENAT, said: “What is Uplay? It is not a new proposition. It’s not a new department. It’s not a new company. It’s rather a mindset. It’s a commitment that we made for ourselves as an agency and to our planners to always be at the forefront of the gaming community. Always be in the know. Always be curious. Always be excited about the opportunities we’re in.
“At the same time, it’s an open channel. In 2024 with all the key players in the gaming community, we have to always be curious about what’s happening out there and always try to custom-make solutions that we can take to our clients. We take to our brands that would add value to their businesses and marketing plans.
“Most importantly, it’s an invitation to our clients. It’s an invitation to challenge us to come up with gaming solutions. We have a lot of solutions.”
Simone Clark, IPG Media Lab Ambassador at UM Dubai, shared insights into the future of media innovation. and gaming, and how UM can take a glimpse into the future right now. She stated, “IPG Media Lab recognises that it’s not a one-size-fits-all when it comes to discussing innovation.
“We see there’s a lot of beauty when it comes to the synergy that’s created between music and gaming experience. Instead of releasing the Spotify-wrapped gaming data in the app as they normally would, they partnered with the gaming awards in the U.S. to release the details and the information on the top streamed gaming songs across gamer spheres.
“There’s a nice opportunity to recognise the cross-pollination of different industries and how much gaming throws into different fields. When it comes to female gamers, they’re a completely untapped audience as well.
“Neutrogena recognised that the beauty market was fairly saturated already, not only from a supply and a competitor point of view but also in terms of the people that they were speaking to. There were more than enough beauty experts out on the internet chatting about what was best for you, and enough skincare regimens that you wouldn’t even know where to start.
“What they recognised through their research is that there was a completely untapped and dehydrated audience within the female gamersphere. They curated and crafted a campaign in partnership with the likes of female influential streamers and did a couple of podcasts, making sure that it was within the right ad set spaces and domains to reach female gamers.
“The campaign saw staggering results in terms of an engagement rate upwards of 14 per cent, beating most of their benchmark. This indicated that this is an audience that is hungry for us to be able to chat to them, give them products and new states that suit their different lifestyles.”
