More clues17 Dec 2022 16:14
How much room is there for the in-game ad market to grow?
All brand activations in gaming currently make up less than 1% of the global ad mix. For intrinsic in-game, there was maybe $20 million in total top-line revenue this year. The year before that, maybe $4 million or $5 million. This coming year, it will be closer to $100 million.
In-game is sexy, but there’s a lot more space to grow other formats, including in-menu or rewarded video. Sony and Microsoft are leaning in. Once you get onto consoles and a 70-inch screen in someone’s living room, you can charge a lot more.
Do you think Sony and Microsoft would be more inclined to build their own SSPs or work with third parties?
They’ll work with third parties.
Has Bidstack tried working with them?
We went to Microsoft a year and a half ago and said, “We want middleware approval.” We went through all the hoops and thought we got it done back in 2018 or 2019. Eventually, they put a pause on it, because once you turn on the pipes, you allow so much of your user data to go out to DSPs.
But Microsoft’s acquisition of Xandr is interesting, because we’ve got a good relationship with Xandr. They’re running tests with third parties, and we’re one of them.