• by Amit Halperin , January 18, 2019

What you probably know as a marketer is that mobile is where it’s at. What you may not know is that apps rule mobile devices. Over 90% of a user’s mobile time is spent inside of apps, of which 50% of those apps are games, according to eMarketer.

Understandably, games therefore represent the largest category of apps available for download, according to research from Google and Ipsos Mori.

While performance marketers have long understood this, brand marketers are yet to jump on board due to the legacy stereotypes surrounding gamers. This has resulted in an unfortunate disconnect between where users are spending their time and where brand advertisers are spending their money.

Here are five myths every digital advertiser should be aware of when planning their mobile campaigns.

Myth 1: Gamers are young, with no disposable income.
Wrong. In fact, one-third of all gamers are over the age of 45, 19% are aged 34-44 and 21% are aged 25-34, according to MediaKix. This means that 65% of gamers are over the age of 25. Moreover, female gamers are older than their male counterparts, with the average age for female gamers being 37, while for males it is 33.

Myth 2: Gamers are male.
Probably the most surprising myth to bust — but female gamers represent 55% of the gaming market worldwide, according to MediaKix. And we know that women hold the purchasing power, with women accounting for 85% of consumer purchases, according to Yankelovich Monitor & Greenfield Online. So dismissing gamers as an entire category is a huge missed opportunity if you want to get your brand in front of your target shopper.

Myth 3: Games are consumed at specific times.
Users are increasingly looking for low-commitment entertainment to be enjoyed in short bursts of time in between or while carrying out other activities. According to a report by EEDAR on Mobile & Tablet Gaming, almost 80% of adults play mobile games at home or while multitasking, and over 50% of them play in the bathroom. Yes, you read that right.

Myth 4: Games are consumed on consoles and computers.
Mobile games already represent more than half of the worldwide gaming revenue, and the improved download speeds of 5G will further increase the quantity and quality of mobile games downloaded. What’s more, time spent in mobile games is 3.6 times greater than the next largest category: entertainment. That means that people spend nearly four times the amount of time playing games like “Candy Crush” than they spend in apps such as Facebook, Instagram, and Netflix combined.

Myth 5: Nobody wants to see in-game ads.
There are ad units, such as rewarded video ads, which are initiated by the user, not the system, and offer users a clear value exchange: Users opt in to watch a video in exchange for receiving in-app rewards like in-app currency or premium content. This has shifted the ad experience from passive to active, and put control back into users’ hands, fostering positive brand associations.

Legacy stereotypes and misconceptions have resulted in a negative connotation of the word gamer.  However the modern-day gamer holds immense purchasing power and no longer falls into a niche category of who, when, and how they play games.

The time has come for advertisers to embrace the notion that everyone, and anyone is a gamer, and to realize they’re missing out on reaching their target audience by neglecting this core marketing channel.