UK games industry splashes £107m on marketing this Christmas

The UK games industry is spending a huge 107m on marketing this Q4.

It’s a drop on last year’s 128m, but that figure was skewed by the launch of three new consoles: Xbox One, PS4 and 2DS. The better comparison will be with 2012’s figure of 99m.

The vast majority of this money is being spent on TV ads, which are up almost 50 per cent this year in the games sector. Digital and internet spending is also rising – driven by video and live streaming platforms such as Twitch.

Across the board, print, outdoor, radio and cinema advertising has declined this year, according to media planning firm Generation Media.

That 107m is mostly made up of spend from the usual suspects of Activision, Ubisoft, GAME, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, but there are also new big-spenders this year in the mobile space. Estimates from MCV and Generation Media suggest that the likes of Supercell, King and Gameloft may be spending upwards of 10m combined on advertising this Q4.

Digital continues to take market share from traditional media avenues such as press, radio and outdoor,” said head of AV investment at Generation Media Jonathan Chambers. But TV has enjoyed a resurgence in 2014, demonstrating the largest year-on-year gain of all the media channels.

In spite of wide and varied claims that video on demand services such as Netflix will spell the end for TV viewing, the average adult still consumes three hours and 52 minutes of TV per day and 88 per cent of this is viewed live. This means there are still plenty of viewers to reach in a cost-efficient manner, and many brands have again been making this work to their advantage this year.

Most noticeable has been the rise of mobile games. With over 92 per cent of the UK population seeing an ad from King this year, and Supercell reaching over seven million individuals during one England football game, one would have been hard-pressed to have missed their presence on our screens this year.”

The 107m figure comes from a survey of major games publishers and estimates from marketing agencies.