Previously, we have discussed a lot of alternatives as how companies can be part of the lucrative gaming industry. Be there in the form of in-game advertising, coupon ads, sponsoring gaming competition event and so on. But there’s another interesting immersive experience on the horizon, which is ‘branded game’. In this article, we will try to understand what branded games are, and how they are helpful in boosting content marketing.

When we looked at possible ways for brands to start connecting with the gaming world, some approaches can be more speculative than others, while many may appear to be too futuristic at this point. However, branded games appear to offer exciting new waysfor brands to step in and engage with a captive gaming audience. The opportunity seems just about ‘right’ both for the time being and what it has to offer.

Let’s start from understanding what exactly are ‘branded games’. Branded games are games which contain an advertisement in some way, shape or form, specially crafted by brands for marketing purposes. They serve the purpose of engaging the audiences in a meaningful manner. In today’s world, it is one of the most effective ways to lure in visitors and convert them into potential customers.

Asked how branded games can help increasing your content marketing potential, first is because this type of marketing comes with a high cost-value ratio. Additionally, they allow data analytic to be applied which can help to extract important and interesting insights from the target market. Once, we know more about our audience, we can craft the right messages to fit their interests. Branded games exploit the use of interesting gaming mechanics, helping customers spend more time playing the games and in turn associating with the brand and ultimately lead to higher retention.

Or in other word, branded games exhibit an engaging and fun communication channel which blurs the line between marketing and entertainment. Several used cases showed that an entertainment and personalized gaming experience creates a positive emotional connection between customer and brand.

To picture it clearer, one of easiest ways for brand to be able to have its own game is through “game reskinning”. This refers to a place of replacing the game artwork with a branded element to produce a completely new game. Advertisers are allowed to use key customization services which include adding brand logo, changing background, brand color and theme to fit the brand identity. The relatively high production cost of advertising via traditional channels contributes to the increase in digital ad spending, including game reskinning. This method has become more popular over these past recent years. The budget and time spent on creating the game through reskinning were much less than that for developing a game from scratch.

It is a way for brands to be able to tap into all the talent, energy and resource that the game designers and programmers took to spend building a game from the ground up, without having to hire them yourself. Game reskinning allows brands to gain the benefit from gaming with reduced cost and lower turnaround times.

However, for some advertisers, game reskinning alone might not be a perfect solution especially if they look for something in specific from their branded games. Instead, brands can also choose to create their own hyper-casual game by partnering with professional gaming agency This is also a good alternative and cost effective way to capture audience attention that will allow brands to be involved with game creation from the ideation stage to publishing.

To sum up, there are many ways to promote your brand and create more sales to your company while at the same time engaging with your audiences in a meaningful manner. Branded games are certainly one of the most fun and efficient ways to do that. With this type of advertising, brands can engage more with younger generations and reach a wider group of audiences, not only in the local market but globally. Plus, creating your branded games will also make your brand stand out among competitors in the market.

Let’s apply game design philosophy and make your brand a “game”, throwing in tricks and techniques to keep the audience coming back.

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