Attendees at the Cannes Lions this week will have noticed the area outside the Palais, where the Snap Ferris wheel once stood, was replaced by an installation set up by Activision Blizzard, the company that acquired mobile gaming giant King and owner of blockbuster titles like Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Overwatch.
The company has focused heavily on rewarded video advertising (mainly via its King subsidiary), a format within video games where a customer is given in-game benefits in return for watching an ad. Whilst the format endured some initial scepticism from advertisers, it is now finally hitting the mainstream, says Greg Carroll, Activision Blizzard Media’s commercial director for EMEA. Carroll says research carried out by Millward Brown, Ipsos MORI and Newzoo has found that rewarded video’s opt-in nature drives brand recall rates of around forty percent, and brands are finally beginning to understand the opportunities in gaming. In this interview Carroll also describes what makes for a successful rewarded video campaign, and which sorts of brands are investing most in in-game advertising. Filmed at the Cannes Lions Festival 2019.
