2023 has been another great year for gaming in APAC, with the industry boasting 1.5 billion gamers and a staggering USD 70 billion market. However, even after housing the highest number of gamers globally, we have noticed that the advertising spends does not align with the audience’s habits.   

With the evolution of AI and the expansion of 3D platforms, brands have redefined how they engage with immersive environments. This is because users are no longer limited by constraints of time and space and frequently utilize these environments as shared social hubs with global reach as articulated in our 2022 reports ‘For the Game’ (APAC) and ‘Dentsu India: For the Game’ (Indian region).  We are also witnessing Web3 technology become a game-changer in loyalty programs. It efficiently tracks gaming activations through consumer responses and is especially relevant in Southeast Asia, which leads to NFT ownership. The emergence of Play-to-Earn and Play-to-Own trends, fuelled by NFTs, further highlights this shifting landscape. 

Based on these observations, we see a great opportunity for brands to create rewarding experiences in these environments that would resonate deeply with gamers. Our ongoing collaboration with KFC in China is a testament to this belief, where we developed a continuous immersive world within the Super QQ Show platform for brands to establish deep connections with Gen Z consumers and explore direct e-commerce opportunities at the same time.  Embracing the disruptive power of Web3 and AI is another crucial step brands can take to reshape the expectations of creators and fans by allowing explosive expansion of story-telling, especially in the development of NPCs back stories and hyper-personalized narratives, as detailed in our report  ‘The Future of Entertainment’. 

In our everlasting commitment to help our clients succeed, we at dentsu continue to partner with the best platforms. As founding partners of the Roblox Global Partner Program, we offer clients early access to product roadmaps and preferential rates for their immersive advertising products. With this new era of immersive digital experiences fast approaching, brands need to start innovating to win.