The Rise of Brand-Led Gaming for Social Change

13 years ago we started SM with the simple idea of using games to put users at the centre of learning and marketing experiences… easy to say and hard to do.

Today we’re all here to share ideas on how games can help us make practical steps towards accelerating delivery on the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals - a shopping list of the world’s challenges and a crisis that requires us all to over-react.

We’ve found that the role of big brands in this conversation as a key stakeholder is often understated, or sometimes, overlooked. 

We’ve spent a great deal of our time trying to understand how partnerships between the gaming industry and corporates can drive change towards a better world and this session is about why that matters and what that could look like in practice.

Why do brands care about gaming and why should they?

For most of us, this is pretty obvious. 

Gaming has become an integral part of the media landscape, with estimates that by next year, the number of gamers in the world is going to reach 3.6 billion. It’s already bigger than the TV and Music industries together, and brands certainly pay a lot of attention to those sectors.

Gaming is not a niche. The audience of every brand is gaming in some form or another already, and brands are keen to tap into this massive, engaged audience.

So how are they showing up?

The convergence between big brands and the world of gaming is a spectrum that could look something like this.

On the far left we have in-game advertising where brands have tried to tap into gaming audiences through intrusive ads that interrupt or distract us from our entertainment. 

This type of relationship between brands and the gaming industry has been well established, with advertising serving as a key revenue generation and monetization model for a lot of the games industry for some time (particularly in the pure entertainment space). 

Whilst this may be attractive to game developers, for brands, this approach to gaming largely represents a repeat of the same - a repeat of advertising that inserts itself into our lives in order to disrupt us from our entertainment, with limited gain for the brand (beyond maybe some fleeting brand awareness) and certainly no gain for the user experience.

The fact that opting out of the ads is the first thing that we do on our entertainment platforms like Netflix, Spotify and YouTube should send a powerful message to brands and marketers about how we really feel about this kind of advertising.

And early advergames didn’t do us any favours either. Tacked onto the end of an advertising campaign, they were often just spin-and-win mechanisms to give us discounts or another lite form of gamification. 

But there is another approach which is about showing up in a game that actually puts the user at the very heart of the marketing experience and that gets people to lean in and engage rather than sit back. 

This is what’s on the far right side of this spectrum where integration rather than interruption is prioritised.

This is where we are seeing a growing convergence between these two worlds - where businesses have started to invest in partnerships with game developers and studios to create bespoke games that actually help brands talk with their customers rather than at them. 

This is where we’re seeing brands really embrace the opportunities in the gaming space 

• to help cut through the noise; 
• to really connect with their customers, 
• and to tell their stories.

Unlike other advertising platforms like social media where brands find themselves in a fight for eyeballs, likes and comments in pursuit of what they call ‘engagement’, branded gaming experiences are delivering brands minutes and even hours of deep engagement time with their customers. That’s largely unheard of in the world of marketing. 

And by opting for marketing that doesn’t interrupt our entertainment, but actually using games to transform their marketing to be part of the entertainment, customers are engaging with brands voluntarily in exchange for fun. 

That dynamic is also mostly unheard of in the world of marketing up until now and this subtle shift in power should not be under-estimated. 

In some ways there are parallels for what we saw in the early days of social media where brands were trying to figure out how to be part of some-one else’s conversation. Now it really is a 2-way street, a dialogue, and customers are literally inviting brands into their space, so best we treat them with due respect.

Sure, brands have built games over the years.

But what we’re seeing now is a real shift towards brands incorporating gaming into their core marketing and communication strategies as part of the modern marketing mix.

So many brands are creating apps and more recently web-based gaming experiences that plug into their larger digital ecosystems. 

Or they are making games in persistent virtual worlds on platforms like Minecraft, Roblox and Fortnite - all with the aim of better constructing experiences: 

• that really resonate with their customers, 

• that capture their attention, 
• that builds communities, 
• that rewards their engagement in a meaningful way, and 
• that performs much better than traditional marketing tools.

Many brands (or their agencies) are still using games to push product and price in a new flashy format. And of course there is a place for that. But this space also presents a huge opportunity for brands to talk about something more than just their next special offer. 

There is a real opportunity here for brands to use their influence in order to drive real change in the world in light of the reality of our very real global crisis.

And why that matters is that brands and big businesses, like every one of us here, are not exempt from our global crisis which is what the UN’s 17 SDGs largely describe.

In fact, they have a huge role to play in shifting the dial towards creating a better future for current and future generations, which is why they are increasingly being held to a higher standard.

Pressure to act and reform big businesses has led to the implementation of increased ESG standards, DEI initiatives and other commitments being made to ensure that businesses going forward act in a way that’s more sustainable, more ethical and more in line with the change that we need to see in the world. 

We will be judged harshly by future generations by what we do, or don’t do in the coming years, and even months.

Which is why, beyond policy changes to enforce these interventions, customers are demanding it.

A recent poll found that 80 percent of young Americans are likely to base their purchase decisions on a brand’s mission or purpose. While 74 percent would boycott brands for crossing an ethical line and going against their personal values.

That’s because we want the brands we buy from and the businesses we support stand in solidarity with us in our fight for change, and to stand for something meaningful.

Because what’s important to me, must be important to you if you want my trust, my purchase and my loyalty.

And the research shows that purpose led brands tend to outperform those driven by purely short term goals. 

So, many brands are putting their money where their mouths are and are responding to the call to do better, to be better and to put purpose at the heart of their brand.

So, way beyond the gaming lens, what we’re really talking about here is the reality that - What’s good for the world is good for customers and is also good for business.

These are just a few examples that come to mind when we think of the brands that are leading the way here.

Where brands are embracing purpose linked to their core positioning and corporate social responsibility initiatives and are using their reach to address some real challenges their customers face.

• Patagonia with their steadfast commitment to sustainability and environmental causes in the fight against climate change. 
• Lego with their unrelenting support of children, learning and the importance of play. 
• Dove with their Self-Esteem Project and their efforts devoted to challenging problematic and toxic beauty standards for women today and for generations to come.
• Google with their many philanthropic endeavours and their serious commitment to making the internet a safer place for children.

These brands and organisations are taking action in different ways in line with their commitments to drive positive change in the world, so the question is what role can games play?

In other words, how might the interconnected worlds of gaming and marketing meaningfully engage with the world of learning and social impact.

Which would take us from this…

To this.

Historically, these 3 sectors have not connected or integrated nearly as much as you’d think they would or should.

But this Venn diagram sets up a framework for an effective relationship:

• where gaming and entertainment serves as the medium, 
• where promoting learning and social impact is the intention, 
• and where big brands act as the driving force.

And we suggest that one definition of impact games, games for good or games for change, sits at the very centre of this conversation.

We’ve found that this is a useful model: 

• To give a different perspective on the opportunity to think differently about what’s really possible. 
• To borrow the best from each sector to help tackle some of the issues that these siloed sectors face on their own.
• And to ultimately co-ordinate a massive and effective response to the SDG challenges that we face.

Let’s start with the overlap that everyone in this room in particular should all know well. 

This intersection describes: 

• The traditional role of ‘Serious Games’
• The work of NGO initiatives, academic institutions, and government funding support.
• Where the cognitive science behind habit formation and behaviour change through gaming interventions has been studied and validated by research and data.

The work of this space has understood the healthy tension between how explicit the learning should be vs how much fun there should be in games and how we can effectively harness the power of game design and both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to drive learning and social impact. 

This space has highlighted that slapping PBL onto internal learning systems is really not a great example of how games can change the world if we’re being honest.

Rather, it’s brought us brilliant games, some of which will be recognized by this evening’s award programme - like Give As We Grow which teaches us about the values of philanthropic giving or The Plastic Pipeline by The Wilson Centre - all about saving the ocean from plastics and pollution, or the brilliant GBL work of Filament Games and their recently launched learning games in Roblox, and a classic and personal favourite of mine, Monument Valley where the impact is really experiential.

But this space also faces some challenges. 

We haven’t really figured out new business models beyond a few exceptions. 

Ensuring that the take to market of these games adequately reach their intended audiences at scale can be extremely difficult in order to maximise the real-world impact.

And commercialisation remains a key challenge for many games in this space.

Because often, grant funding from governments and other organisations can only get us so far.

And that take to market challenge and sustainability challenge to ensure that users find the game, and play the game is something that THIS

(THIS) convergence can help with.

Brands and big corporates have incredibly advanced take to market capabilities and the reach to influence billions of people. 

They also have the budgets and the very sophisticated tools to drive awareness of the things that they create which is hugely valuable.

Brands also have an intimate understanding of the Cost to Acquire Customers  and the LTV of their customers and are recognizing the communities that they can build and sustain through games.

But brands have been doing a lot of shouting at their customers for many decades and are still working on really understanding: 

• how to engage in a dialogue with their customers. 
• Engage with them in a way that values their users' time and attention now that, through games, they’ve actually got the minutes to talk to them rather than the 1.6 seconds of time they generally have on social media. 

So a lot of them are still figuring out what to talk to their customers about and how to engage with them about something meaningful, something unique and something with a higher purpose that will actually benefit their customers and benefit their long-term brand equity.

And that’s where this relationship is key.

When brands first learn about the power of M&E and behaviour change, they are shocked.

Brands and big corporates have a HUGE amount of industry knowledge trapped within their businesses that they could leverage to drive the behaviours they want to see from their customers.

Probably half of the many games we’ve made at Sea Monster are with financial institutions. 

No one wakes up wanting to learn to budget.
But people often wish that someone could help them learn to manage their finances better. 

Often, playing RPGs has taught players more about saving money than the commercials and learning material produced by banks (and certainly more than some text books)! 

So banks should be asking themselves, how can they do a better job of teaching financial education using games! Get that right, and they will both have customers with better financial habits, and appreciation from their customers for actually offering them something useful in exchange for their time.

Like most brands, banks are about earning trust over time, rather than flogging us a credit card we sometimes don’t need. 

As we like to say “Calm Down”, talk about the essence of what your brand stands for and you will earn my loyalty over time.

In the case of financial education games, they can actually make the need for financial services bigger, rather than other marketing initiatives where they are just fighting over existing market share.

And the same is true in other sectors.

• We want to see more fashion brands using games that explore the impact of fast fashion and showing us how they’re working towards a more sustainable and ethical model. 
• We want supermarkets making games where we learn about food security, where our food comes from and about nutrition.
• And where are the news networks sponsoring games in the fight against disinformation and the need for media literacy skills? 
• Or, digital games funded by sports teams which advocate for team work, healthy lifestyles and community. Yet which are currently dominated by ads funded by Betting.

That’s how brands can drive change at scale - for their businesses and ultimately, for the world.

Same message, same voluntary mindset, same science.

And of course, we wouldn’t be believing in this so strongly if we weren’t already seeing this in action:

The burrito business, Chipotle has been at the forefront of gaming for many years.

[They’ve done some incredible work in Roblox and have also recently established a formal partnership agreement with TEKKEN 8 to offer players in-game currency by purchasing food from the restaurant.]

They are a brand that absolutely recognises the value of games to promote their business and build their community and they can be credited for producing one of the earlier examples of a game linked to a greater brand purpose and brand values. 

Chipotle’s Scarecrow game was released in 2013 in support of its non-GMO stance and to help promote awareness for the dangers of industrialised food production and its healthy alternatives.

In line with the brand’s higher purpose, this game taps into two critical SDGs - SDGs 2 and 12 which speak to the crisis of how we are going to feed everyone on our planet in a sustainable, ethical and sustainable way, now and in the future. 

Within days of release, this game was downloaded more than 300,000 times and saw 100s of thousands of further downloads thereafter which is a testament to the influence of the brand and its message.

This is just one example of how any brand can find a purpose that matters and act on that. 

Some say baked beans are 3 for 2 this Friday at Walmart, I say your farm-to-fork journey is worth sharing.

Nestle is another organisation that is demonstrating what’s possible when big brands embrace the opportunity presented by gaming to do something meaningful for their brand and their community.

Nestle’s FARMTOPIA experience in Minecraft was launched in 2022, centred about creating a new space for the brand to interact, collaborate and engage with their customers, based around its regenerative agriculture initiatives. The game raises awareness for sustainable agricultural practices, agroforestry and soil protection in an educational and fun way. Taking it a few steps further than Chipotle, the in-game experience of FARMTOPIA was also tied to real-world actions and commitments from the brand whereby players’ engagement in the game supported farmers working on the ground in regenerative agriculture projects funded by Nestlé in France. 

[Through the month-long second season of FARMTOPIA focused on coffee production, players spent more than 2 months and 10 days in accumulated hours on the FARMTOPIA server, generating points in the game that led to the plantation of 20 000 coffee trees in Medellin]. 

Not only did Nestle authentically create an experience that speaks to their commitment to more sustainable farming practices in order to tackle SDG 2 and SDG 15, they also used gaming as a way through which to give their community agency to act directly alongside them to make a difference in the world by actively involving their customers and their communities in their sustainable development journey. 

That’s powerful.

And here’s an example that we created.

Working with a large South African bank and PWC, we took the board through a process to really understand what the metaverse can teach them about their customers of the future, their employee value proposition and how they can create persistent communities.

Geared towards a young South African audience, we built a tycoon game in Roblox all about entrepreneurship and business management centred around local food and local cultural practices.

The experience saw an unprecedented positive response and in terms of impact, reach and engagement, was the most successful digital initiative in the bank’s 100+ year history. 

And perhaps more importantly, kids love it with an 89% approval rate. And parents love it because they’re glad that a game their kids are spending time on, rewards savvy financial behaviour and teaches real world skills in an environment that is accessible and relevant to these young audiences.

Like all of you here, we like to believe that deep seriousness and deep playfulness are not opposites and that games have the potential to play a meaningful role in making a real impact in our world today, tomorrow and for many years to come.

And we think that brands and big for-profit organisations can help us achieve this.

If you double tap on any mission statement of pretty much any brand, it will speak to an SDG. This is no longer a side-lined CSR effort or a PR stunt opportunity. We’re seeing brands pay more than just lip-service to what it is they say they stand for and they are taking action. 

And they’re using games. NOT as another disposable ‘marketing’ expense, but rather as a way to connect with their audiences, build trust and mobilise their communities around the change that needs to happen.

So there’s an opportunity here that really speaks to the core of SDG 17 - the call for partnerships that will actively deliver on achieving change. 

Our working hypothesis is this: collaboration between brands, game developers, and other stakeholders is crucial because

• It encourage siloed sectors to deepen their alignment
• It means that knowledge is shared far and wide
• And ultimately, it means that both impact and reach can be maximised when we work towards a common goal