Hello everyone, welcome to Edition 110!
It’s almost a month until many of you join us at SEG3 London, and here’s a first look at the latest technology and marketing leaders (we’ll announce publicly tomorrow) joining the line-up ⤵️
If you’d like to join us for a live edition of The SEG3 Report, alongside the likes of Disney, NBA, Universal Pictures, Sony Music Entertainment, Epic Games, and more, get your tickets here.
Okay, back to what you came for!
Today, I’m exploring Gameloft’s Attention & Emotion in Play report. We all know the power of being present in-game, but the data delves into why.
Plus Speed Reads of:
Goalitos brings LaLiga to young fans through original sports IP
Dentsu‘s Entertainment for all Senses report
We know in-game activations work, but it’s the why that matters
Most people reading this don't need convincing that gaming should be part of your marketing and media mix. The audience is there, the attention is there, and the cultural weight is undeniable.
So, your strategy has to be more than just showing up, but rather how to show up authentically, and, specifically, what makes the difference between a brand that gets noticed in a gaming environment and one that actually gets remembered. To answer this, we need to know why having an in-game presence can be so effective.
A new white paper from Gameloft for brands, Attention & Emotion in Play, takes a crack at answering that. Using eye-tracking and biometric emotion measurement, it compared in-game advertising against YouTube pre-roll and web display across the same creative. What the science is really telling us
The attention gap between gaming and other digital formats is wider than most people realise. In-game ads held gaze for 92.2% of their viewable duration, compared with 88.4% on YouTube. That sounds close. But the quality of that attention is where the gap opens up: 84.8% of in-game attention was "positive attention”, meaning eyes on the creative itself, versus 71.8% on YouTube. On the web, positive attention collapses to just 9.5%.
On YouTube, a significant share of gaze goes to the skip button and countdown timer. Though the skip button can be your friend, for those who manage to keep that attention, it’s clear that in-game attention still holds more weight.
Because in-game, the player is already focused. The ad lands inside that focus, not in competition with it or as a necessary prelude to suffer through.
The emotion data is the part I find more compelling. Using facial and voice recognition, the study found that in-game exposure generated 24% more emotional engagement than YouTube and 2.2 times more happiness via voice analysis.
Emotional intensity is one of the most reliable predictors of memory encoding. When the brain is emotionally stimulated, it consolidates information more deeply. That's just neuroscience (and totally fascinating).
And the brand impact that followed? +91% brand recall versus average digital media, +35% brand affinity versus YouTube, +29% brand consideration. The underlying creative was consistent across formats, but in-game, it was served as an interactive video rather than a passive 15-second slot.
Despite the small sample size (60 participants), the numbers are striking. And they’re consistent with what other research has shown: as we covered in Edition 106, Dentsu’s report said gaming ads receive 1.6x higher active attention than online video. Microsoft Advertising found that one in three gamers feel more positively about a brand after encountering it in a gaming context.
Tapping into ‘the feels’
Most of the conversation around in-game advertising treats the gamer as a consumer who needs to be reached. But if you're a sports property, an entertainment IP, or a gaming brand yourself, your fans aren't strangers who need to be convinced of something. They're people who are already emotionally invested. They’re seeing your content already in an elevated state, primed to feel something.
The Gameloft data shows that players enter gaming in a "positive emotional climate”: immersed, energised, receptive. That emotional baseline is exactly the state sports fans are in when they're watching their team or entertainment fans are in when they're deep in a world they love.
That's why the Netflix Playground approach we covered in Edition 104 makes so much sense. Games built around Peppa Pig, Sesame Street, Dr. Seuss deepen fandom. The IP is creating interactive emotional touchpoints that hold attention in a way passive content simply can't, and in doing so, making the subscription harder to cancel.
Sports franchises, leagues and entertainment IP holders sit in the same position. When a fan plays a game featuring your league, your characters, or your athletes, you’ve earned a specific kind of attention. And according to this data, that emotionally-anchored attention travels further down the funnel: the report records +79% purchase intent for in-game exposure versus 70% for YouTube.
The practical implication isn't "run more in-game ads," though the numbers suggest that would probably perform. It's something more nuanced that has to be built into your strategy. If 74% of mobile gamers report feeling emotionally involved while playing, and gaming delivers twice the positive attention of the average digital media context, then the most expensive thing you can do is not show up there at all.
Closing thoughts questions
This time, I’m leaving you with food for thought.
If you're a sports property, is your IP playable? (And, by the way, we’re digging into how to do this at SEG3 London on June 18 & 19.) Can a fan engage with your world when there's no live event to watch?
If you're an entertainment IP, are you showing up in the gaming environments your fans already inhabit, or are you waiting for them to come back to your streamer, your app, or the cinema?
If you're a brand trying to earn a place in fan culture rather than just sponsor the perimeter of it, like Visa recently did with their EA Sports deal, it’s critical to start thinking about gaming not just as a media channel to buy into, but also as a way to build fandom with an immersed and engaged audience.
I think these are the critical questions to ask yourself as you think about how to tap into the emotionally ripe environment that gaming gives you.
Speed Reads 📖
WSC Studios has created Goalitos for LaLiga: a short-form animated series for children that weaves real LaLiga moments into character-led stories, distributed across broadcasters, YouTube, and LaLiga's own platforms in English, Spanish, and Arabic.
TL:DR -
The age to capture attention is younger than you think - Goalitos is LaLiga's attempt to be present at that earlier stage to create that fandom
A five-minute animated format that blends fictional characters with real league moments builds familiarity with the sport through storytelling
Why you should care
As we covered in Edition 94, 1 in 3 fans abandon fandoms between the ages of 4-18, and the golden age for discovery is around 8 years old. Goalitos is a direct response to that reality. LaLiga isn't waiting for children to find football; it's meeting them inside the content environments they already inhabit.
The format is the clever part. Five minutes, animated characters with their own storylines, real league moments woven in. Goalies isn’t a football show for kids; it’s a kids' show that happens to be about football. This means it can sit alongside Bluey and Peppa Pig in a child's viewing rotation rather than competing with live sport for attention it hasn't yet earned.
Dentsu's latest North America Consumer Navigator report maps how audiences across live experiences, audio, and audiovisual entertainment actually behave, and what it means for brands trying to reach them.
TL:DR -
More than half of North Americans say what their favourite podcast or radio host says about a brand significantly influences how they feel about it
37% are more likely to purchase a product featured in a show they love, making hosts a very powerful brand lever
Community and competitiveness drive sports event engagement more than proximity.
Microdramas are the next big thing, if you know how to integrate into them, and the window on it won’t last forever
Why you should care
The audio finding is the one I'd put on a slide. Podcast and radio hosts have built something most brands spend years trying to manufacture: daily presence, genuine trust, and perceived authenticity. (And as I wrote about last week, millennials in particular love a podcast.) Over half of listeners say host opinion significantly shapes their brand perception, and nearly 4 in 10 say a feature in a favourite show makes them more likely to buy.
This only works when the integration feels earned. Consumers are highly sensitive to ads that feel built around the brand rather than the audience. The strongest signal for a successful audio integration is a genuine connection between the brand and the show's community, either thematically or geographically.
Community and competitiveness outrank proximity as drivers of brand engagement at sports tournaments. The practical implication is that targeting fans geographically makes less sense than targeting fans by depth of fandom. The perks that unlock their wallets most reliably are early access, exclusive merch, and discounts, in that order.
Micro-dramas are the format worth watching closely. Still nascent in North America (46% of respondents hadn't even heard of them) but growing fast, skewing heavily young, and generating session times that belie what the short-episode format would suggest. More importantly for brands, viewers are markedly receptive to integrations within the format: more likely to like, follow, research, and purchase brands they encounter there than in almost any other context (sounds similar to the podcast findings, no?). The window to move early and establish category presence is still open, but it won't stay that way.
In other news
FIFA introduces FIFA Rewards: read more
Universal invites audiences on a digital odyssey for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey via Discord: read more
LA Chargers Halo schedule release 2026: read more
Brazil Soccer and Gamefam launch national team event in FIFA Super Soccer on Roblox, sparking fandom ahead of FIFA World Cup 2026: read more
MLS launches four original series to showcase player and club storytelling ahead of 2026 FIFA World Cup: read more
Anzu brings intrinsic in-game ads to AAA Football hit UFL: read more
Overwatch is officially coming to Fortnite: read more
ESL FACEIT Group and Automobili Lamborghini announce long-term partnership for DreamHack gaming festivals: read more
Athvance Capital Portfolio Company ve2ventures acquires Content Stadium: read more
Eurovision Song Contest is back on Roblox: read more
The Netflix Effect: read more
Spin Master and Supercell launch global toy line uniting all three of Supercell's legendary game franchises: read more
Pokemon trails to launch at National Trust sites: read more
Bruin Capital backs Matchroom Sport in landmark deal to accelerate global expansion: read more
McLaren Racing announces partnership with Global: read more
Kadokawa Group is accelerating its global expansion with merchandise and events “media mix” strategies: read more
How Chinese short dramas became AI content machines: read more
FOX Sports funds fandom research initiative at Harvard Kennedy School: read more
PGA Tour ‘relaxes’ social media policy to help players build followings and attract new audiences: read more
Patricio Valladares fuses analog and interactive in new FMV horror video game: read more
Can you trademark yourself? Inside Matthew McConaughey’s novel legal strategy to fight AI theft: read more
Maizen’s YouTube gaming characters JJ & Mikey expand into TV series, books and toys in new Pocket.watch franchise deal: read more
Former Tekken boss Katsuhiro Harada launches new gaming studio with rival SNK following Bandai Namco exit: read more
Aston Martin goes all in on Hollywood-izing F1: read more
Working on anything cool, or have a press release you would like us to cover? Send it in for the chance for it to be covered in next week’s edition!
That’s all for now, everyone - thanks again for reading the latest edition of The SEG3 Report. If you found it of interest, please do consider sharing with a colleague or friend who’d enjoy it too!