The increasing expansion of Smart TVs has aroused the interest of advertisers and media strategists in reaching out now too big gaming audiences.

There are currently approximately 2.7 billion gamers worldwide now. The list of mobile gamers, console players, and streamers goes on and on and their numbers are growing as gaming becomes more popular.

This translates into 2.7 billion potential clients for advertising. However, many of those prospective clients are currently out of reach.

It’s an interest that appeals to a wide spectrum of populations. However, reaching these enthusiastic audiences has not always been simple for advertising. Insights from Samsung Ads, on the other hand, show how a shifting streaming environment and Smart TV usage are enabling marketers to come closer to and connect with gamers.

This increase is expected to continue in 2023, as Samsung invests consistently in increasing Smart TV gaming features and pixel pitch for gamers. As an example, during this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, Samsung announced the launching of the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 Gaming Monitor (CES).

Currently, only Samsung provides advertisements on its television sets in India through its advertising subsidiary, Samsung Ads.

Clear and Big Opportunity

While an opportunity to interact with an audience is over on consumption of technology, travel, and eating is evident for advertisers, reaching gamers has proven difficult. In reality, 80% of the time that gamers spent with their TV is spent in digital areas that traditional TV advertising cannot reach. This isn’t always a negative thing; in fact, it’s one of the main reasons gamers are so enthusiastic and engaged when playing, and it boosts the value of advertisements that may be given before and after a gaming session. To summarise, data enables companies to target gamers outside of gameplay and helps marketers to forecast where they will be throughout non-gaming Smart TV interaction.

Advertisers’ Next Big Opportunity: Gaming in Smart TVs

With increasing Smart TV adoption in modern households, brand marketers may vary their advertising techniques and engage ‘hard-to-reach’ demographics like gamers.

VOD services are enjoying long-term expansion, and Samsung TV Plus may play an important role in assembling a multichannel media plan that is optimized for incremental reach. Advertisers may use Samsung Ads’ first-party data to interact with gaming consumers more effectively. Samsung can target families with actively connected game consoles in a new way. This provides maximum reach, which is especially crucial as ad budgets become increasingly constrained.

By Daniel Trevett, Samsung Ads’ head of strategic accounts.

More gaming is possible with next-generation consoles linked to Samsung.

As life went back to normal after the epidemic, the total gaming hours on each Samsung TV declined somewhat (3%). However, total gaming sessions on Samsung TVs keep rising, with 576 million hours during Q1 2022.

Old-generation consoles continue to be the most often associated device with Samsung TVs, representing about 80% of all connected consoles. However, the transition to the next-generation console has indeed been steady.

Over the last two years, sales of next-generation consoles have skyrocketed. This same number of active next-generation devices increased by 2.6x in Q1 2022 compared to the same time in 2021. In Q1 2022, the average amount of time spent playing next-generation consoles per day was 2 hours and 12 minutes, whereas old-generation consoles did not reach 1 hour.

Ads for video-on-demand watched by gamers.

Linear advertising is still a powerful tactic in television advertising. However, gamers, who are sometimes referred to be “early adopters” of new technology developments, prefer streaming content. In Q1 2022, EU5 gamers spent around 195 hours on average in streaming settings on Samsung TVs, 66 hours far beyond non-gamers.

And they are becoming more receptive to advertisements. Viewing advertising on Smart TVs is considered a fair exchange for free programming by 56% of EU5 TV users. This change in behaviour is especially noticeable among gamers. Gamers consume 41% more advertising video-on-demand (AVOD) than non-gamers.

In Q1 2022, Samsung TV Plus gamers liked three categories on the company’s official free ad-supported TV (FAST) service: entertainment, documentaries, and news. With EU5 gamers being 10% more likely to watch Samsung TV Plus on a regular basis than non-gamers, the broadcasting service provides brand marketers with unique opportunity to interact with this group.