Brand Lift Studies in Game Advertising

With over 3 billion gamers worldwide and an immersive environment, games are an ideal medium for brands to connect with a highly receptive audience.

However, traditional advertising metrics like click-through rates fail to capture the complete picture of user engagement within this dynamic media channel.

In a world where consumer attention is divided, brand lift studies offer insights into how advertising campaigns influence consumer perceptions and behaviours.

These studies effectively differentiate successful campaigns from ineffective ones by evaluating select brand metrics, such as brand awareness, ad recall, and purchase intent, in real time or shortly after the campaign. 

What is a Brand Lift Study (BLS)?

A brand lift study evaluates the effectiveness of a digital ad campaign across multiple digital platforms, including all IAB gaming environments. 

These studies focus on evaluating the impact of advertising on consumer perceptions and brand preferences.

The BLS methodology often involves dividing the target audience into control and test groups. 

Each group receives surveys before and after the ad campaign to measure the impact of brand lift metrics.

Understanding Key Brand Lift Metrics

Brand lift metrics (BLM) include a range of measures that assess the positive shift in consumer perception and engagement with advertising campaigns. 

Key metrics used in brand lift studies include:

• Brand awareness: How well consumers recognise the brand post-campaign.
• Ad recall: The ability of consumers to remember the advertisement.
• Brand consideration: The likelihood of consumers considering the brand for future purchases.
• Brand favorability: Changes in consumer attitudes towards the brand.
• Purchase intent: Probability of consumers purchasing after ad exposure.

These metrics provide valuable insights essential for shaping future marketing strategies.

Brand Lift Studies (BLS) for Game Advertising Success

The relationship between brand lift metrics and advertising success reflects how advertising campaigns influence consumer perceptions and behaviours toward a brand.

Within the context of game advertising, brand lift studies can provide:

• Understanding of brand perception: By assessing the impact of game advertisements on brand perception, marketers gain valuable insights into how the gaming community views their brand. 
• Benchmark against industry standards: Integrating brand lift studies as a consistent measure of campaign performance allows advertisers to benchmark their campaigns against industry standards and competitors. 
• Budget allocation and management: By analysing brand metrics affected by game advertising in detail, marketers can more efficiently allocate their budgets and increase overall campaign effectiveness.
• Tailoring campaigns to gaming environments: Brand lift studies can assess how well ads are integrated into the gaming experience and how they influence gamers' perceptions. 
• Demonstrating value: These studies prove the effectiveness of game advertising over traditional media, validating the investment in gaming platforms as a viable advertising medium.

Decoding Key Components of BLS Reports

• The question (aligned with the study's objective): This section specifies questions assessing the audience's reaction to the campaign, measuring brand recall and purchase intent.
• Media and audience Insights: This part of the completed report delves into response patterns across different media and demographic segments, engagement rates, and how different audience groups have interacted with the campaign.
• Lift performance: This report measures brand perception and behaviour lift against the campaign's objectives. It determines how effectively the advertising shifted consumer attitudes, illustrating its impact on key brand metrics.
• Lift performance by site graph: Visual representations play a significant role in conveying data insights. This part of the report uses visual graphs to detail the brand lift across various websites or platforms where the campaign ran. It helps advertisers identify the most effective platforms for enhancing brand lift, guiding strategic decisions for future ad placements and platform prioritisation.

Navigating Brand Lift Study Challenges in Game Advertising 

Integrating brand lift studies into digital advertising strategies offers a glimpse into consumer minds.

However, the gaming environment poses unique challenges for brands and advertisers:

• Integrating surveys with the game design: Games are interactive and immersive, and surveys (or ads) that interrupt gameplay can negatively affect the player's experience and the campaign's overall reception.
• Diverse gaming platforms and formats: Attributing brand lift to campaigns across a fragmented landscape (PC, console, mobile) and game genres can prove difficult as each platform and genre may require a different approach, complicating the execution of BLS.
• Technical implementation: Implementing BLS requires complex technical integration with the game's software. It involves displaying ads and tracking interactions and engagement without affecting game performance.

The success of BLS in the gaming industry hinges on respecting the player experience and understanding the nuances of different gaming platforms and genres.

Platforms like iion’s immersiion can provide a simple go-to solution to overcome these challenges.

How immersiion Streamlines Brand Lift Studies in Gaming

The immersion platform offers actionable brand lift insights that help advertisers optimise campaigns in real time.

The platform simplifies the execution of brand lift studies by integrating directly with game advertising campaigns:

• Setup: Easily add BLS to any campaign during its setup on immersiion, ensuring that all aspects of the campaign are aligned from the start.
• Customisation: Input detailed campaign and BLS specifics tailored to your target demographics.
• Real-time insights: Access comprehensive BLS reports alongside other key campaign metrics directly within the platform, allowing for real-time campaign adjustments and optimisation.
• Cross-platform efficiency: The platform’s ability to handle multiple device types and environments under a single platform reduces complexity and enhances the interoperability of data-driven insights.

Integrating detailed analytical tools like iion's immersiion for Brand Lift Studies will become essential in game advertising as media channels converge. 

Elevate Your Campaigns: Integrate Brand Lift Studies into Game Advertising

Launching brand lift studies together with the game advertising campaign allows advertisers to understand the impact of their ads in a highly engaging and interactive environment. 

This is particularly important given gaming's immersive nature, which can significantly influence how players perceive and remember ads.

By understanding and optimising how advertisements impact gamer perceptions and behaviours, brands can ensure their advertising strategies are seen and felt, leading to greater engagement and brand loyalty.

Ready to transform your advertising strategy? 

Start your game advertising adventure with iion's immersiion platform to experience the transformative power of data-driven advertising insights.

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