Entertainment has always been the biggest vehicle through which brands have strived to reach this target audience. And within that, TV has, until recently, ruled supreme, providing a mass audience and a wide range of targeted content – whether that be sport, soaps, drama, kids entertainment etc.

TV has always provided huge audiences that are emotionally engaged with that content. And in turn that content has grown to develop a symbiotic relationship with the brands that ultimately support it. Commercial breaks are the perfect opportunity within programmes to build cliff-hanger moments that keep people glued to their screens, and these same moments allow brands to leap in when their target audience is in a receptive state.

However, in the past few years things have started to change. The TV screen is no longer the sole family focal point, as audiences have swarmed online in their millions. This growth is being fuelled further by the explosion of tablets and mobile devices.

And what’s the content they are consuming the most? The answer here is simple: digital video. Currently video accounts for over half of all internet traffic and, according to Cisco Systems, this is expected to rise to between 80% to 90% by 2017.

Brands have not been slow on the uptake here, and are now looking at ways to capture the attention of this illusive and much sought-after audience. This is evidenced through the increase in the amount of money now being spent on digital video advertising, predominantly at the expense of TV budgets. Of course, TV is still huge but the balance is shifting.

Yet, while our perceptions of entertainment are changing and budgets shifting, brands are still struggling with where to run their digital video ad content in order to best target this broad and engaged audience. YouTube is a great example of where video ads work well, but there is not enough long-form content. Advertisers and agencies are also seeking out other perceived “premium” sites such as established news and magazine titles, but again these sites offer shorter dwell time and an audience that is often not in the right frame of mind to receive (or act on) advertising messages.  

Other areas like social media also fail to match up, as they don’t offer the “lean-in” factor or the duration per session. On top of that many people see ads on social networks as being intrusive. It’s their “me time” and they don’t want brands shouting over their private conversations.

This is where gaming comes into its own. In many ways it exists in a parallel universe to TV; the content is diverse and it’s targeted to different types of audiences. Not only that, but the data analysis that can be run behind the scenes on people playing online games, means audience profiling can be refined to a degree that TV could only dream of. This leads to more relevant ads being presented to players and ultimately a more rewarding experience delivered for all parties.

Timing wise gaming sites are also perfect for video advertising, with players’ dwell times averaging over 30 minutes a session – easily long enough to slot in a couple of video ads. Furthermore, gaming offers huge audiences – for example, Spil Games sees around 180 million active monthly users across its platforms.

And players are equally as emotionally engaged with these games as they are with TV shows, often repeatedly playing the same ones. Gaming also offers a “lean in” experience rather than a “sit back” experience, which means not only are gamers in a happy relaxed mode, but they are also actively influencing the outcome of what they are doing – something TV does not do. Plus, of course, they have natural “cliff-hanger” moments within gameplay for the ads to run; either between games or between levels.

Yet, here brands have been almost inexplicably slow on the uptake. The upside to this, however, is that gaining cut through is comparatively straightforward. In a recent gaming conference in London, Nadya Powell, UK managing director of social communications MRY and a staunch advocate of gaming as a media channel, summed up the current position and opportunity, “Gaming is a huge part of people’s online activities; it is the most popular activity on tablets and second most popular on smartphones, and it offers huge reach and engagement,” she said. “Yet the budgets assigned to gaming by brands is less than 1% of total digital spend. The numbers just don't add up.” 

While your target audience is doing a lot of things, one of the things they are doing most is playing games online and on their mobile devices. So, this festive season, rather than worrying about whether your TV ads are hitting their mark, why not make a difference to your campaign by targeting your audience where you know they’ll be listening and watching?

But remember online gaming is not just for Christmas…

For a comprehenisve insight in the online gaming sector, download the Spil Games 2013 State of Online Gaming report.