This year, high viewership demonstrates the enduring popularity of the events, name image likeness (NIL) rights are allowing athletes to take part in brand deals, and the women’s league continues to make a bigger splash than in years past.
Roblox has been popular with young game players for years. It brings in tens of millions of players every day. As more marketers explore activations on the platform, best practices are starting to take shape.
Partnerships between retail media networks (RMNs) and connected TV (CTV) platforms are giving brands access to better data, more shoppable ad options, and a full-funnel approach that drives results. These collaborations can make targeting smarter, shopping easier, and measurement clearer, helping advertisers prove their effectiveness.
Gaming is up, but marketers must pick their spots: Most casual gamers ignore ads, but players in story-driven and open-world titles are more likely to engage.
Discord expands ad offerings: The company is launching Video Quests for mobile in June 2025, incentivizing ad engagement with in-game rewards as it broadens its advertiser appeal beyond gaming.
The Nintendo Switch 2 is set to launch later this year. Though a firm release date has not been set, it's positioned to sell millions of units and put a whole generation of new Nintendo games in front of worldwide audiences.
Streaming TV keeps growing, but so does the challenge of reaching viewers. With audiences constantly switching between platforms, old TV advertising methods fall short. A more precise, audience-first approach—borrowed from search and social marketing—is helping advertisers keep up.
As customers grab the same grocery staples they have for decades, Walmart is betting that gamifying the experience will challenge those habits. The retailer plans to launch Walmart Unlimited, a three-part miniseries that features the entrepreneurs behind its products. Launched last month on Spatial, the game includes full commerce integration that enables in-app purchases.
Historically, brands used upper-funnel channels like connected TV (CTV) for brand awareness, while relying on lower-funnel tactics such as retail media to drive conversions. But with shoppable CTV ads, brands can do both, leveraging retail media network (RMN) data to target consumers across CTV platforms, connecting the moment of discovery directly to the point of purchase.
Marketers can use this to recognize high growth areas of investment strategies and acknowledge the uncertainty shown in TikTok investments as a potential nudge to diversify their social ad spend.
X is still a destination for news: Our Industry KPI data shows engagement varying dramatically throughout the year
Despite new restrictions and parental tools, the platform couldn’t block off-platform contact attempts, spotlighting its challenges in protecting underage users.
A $750 billion drop in market value reveals investor unease, with tariffs and recession worries putting pressure on consumer spending, marketing budgets, and tech margins.
AI-powered Public Eye game debuts this summer: Wolf Games is betting big on a whodunit that blends storytelling with daily, bite-sized gameplay. It’s a smart concept but lacks the quick-hit allure of other daily games.
Scopely’s $3.5 billion acquisition of Niantic’s games division strengthens its position in mobile gaming. Pokémon Go’s live-service model opens new revenue streams through in-game advertising, branded integrations, and sponsorships.
TikTok has notable US economic impact: Oxford highlighted the app’s influence in the US market in a report that could play a role in its future in the US.
Google offers carbon footprint reports for its ad services: The move emphasizes the need for advertisers to value the environmental impact of campaigns.
Disney’s “content everywhere” strategy, broken down: The company is working to maintain advertising dominance by capitalizing on live events.
Almost three-fourths (74.8%) of Gen Zers will be digital game players by 2027, according to our December 2024 forecast.
On today’s podcast episode, we discuss how some teachers think young people should be approaching GenAI, the differences between younger and older teenagers’ social media usage, and how engagement with digital gaming is changing. Tune in to the episode with Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, Analyst Paola Flores-Marquez, and Vice President of Research Jennifer Pearson. Listen everywhere and watch on YouTube and Spotify.