🔮 3 things we heard at #CampaignGamingSummit that should change how you're building your media plan in 2026. Last week, Overwolf Ads was at Campaign UK Gaming Summit. The conversations were some of the most direct we've heard the industry have about where gaming actually sits in modern advertising. There were brilliant insights shared throughout the day, including from: 🎮 brent koning, Global Head of Gaming, dentsu 📺 Jamie Lyons, Global Head of Gaming, PHD 💫 Luke A., Gaming Strategy Director, EssenceMediacom UK 🕹️ 🔥Daniel Clayton🔥, Marketing Manager, Gaming, Logitech 🏦 Laura Aspinall, Partnerships Manager, HSBC 🎡 Adrien Guerra Country Manager, Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe ⭐️ Nathan Lindberg 🔜 Campaign Gaming Summit, VP of Brand Partnerships, Overwolf Here's what stayed with us: 🎯 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐛𝐮𝐲. It keeps getting filed there. "Let's try targeting gamers this quarter." That framing is costing brands real reach. Because this isn't about targeting gamers. It's simply about reaching every demographic (parents, Gen Z, millennials, sports fans, luxury buyers) during a high-attention media consumption touchpoint. Playtime = primetime. Treating it as a one-off experiment is a choice to miss the audience. 📊 𝐈𝐧-𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐬 𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐞. Not on social. Not even on CTV. The attention quality, the session lengths, the purchase intent, the brand recall; the numbers keep showing up in ways that are hard to argue with once you've seen a properly executed campaign. The industry is still catching up to what the data is already saying. 🗺️ 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚 𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐲. 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐲. Not a gaming test. A strategy. With the same rigor, the same integration into the broader plan, the same seat at the table when budgets are being set. Social got there because marketers stopped treating it as optional. Gaming is at that inflection point right now. 👾 𝐁𝐨𝐧𝐮𝐬 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐱𝐞𝐜𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐲 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐚𝐭 𝐏𝐚𝐜-𝐌𝐚𝐧. We brought a Pac-Man machine and offered prizes for the highest scores. What we did not anticipate was the level of competitiveness and concentration trying to rank on our leaderboard that emerged throughout the day. Turns out you don't need to be a hardcore "gamer" to get completely absorbed in a game. Funny, that.
Great summary, people sleep on in game!
If your 2026 media plan still treats gaming as a "side quest," you’re basically running into ghosts without a Power Pellet. 🍒👻 Watching our industry's finest go "full sweat" mode on our Pac-Man machine proved the point: everyone is a gamer when there's a leaderboard on the line. Let’s stop "testing" and start playing for the high score! Waka waka. 🕹️🏆