Gaming

Paco Rabanne & Bidstack Emerge Victorious With VR Invictus Campaign Featuring Tim Howard

Published

2 years ago

November 23, 2021

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Paco Rabanne, the leading fashion house and fragrance brand, have partnered with Starcom Worldwide and Bidstack to launch a branded virtual reality challenge. The campaign features Tim Howard and the world’s leading VR platform for elite athletes, Rezzil, to promote Paco Rabanne’s iconic fragrance, Invictus.

As a fragrance, Invictus embodies power, heroism and a drive to win and the campaign provides a unique challenge that allows players to test their athletic ability and become the in-game hero. By partnering with Bidstack, and Tim Howard, an athlete that embodies those characteristics, Paco Rabanne has created a unique activation that converges the real world with the virtual world, bringing their brand to life for gamers.

The activation will see a branded ‘Reaction Wall’ challenge added to Rezzil’s Player 22 VR game. Players will have the opportunity to test their athletic merit and improve their throwing technique, vision, reaction speeds and heading ability in-game surrounded by virtual Invictus branding that blends in seamlessly with the training environment. Players can also win a signed jersey from Tim Howard and their own bottle of the fragrance by sharing their results on social media with the hashtag #InvictusInGameChallenge.

Bidstack, the leading in-game advertising technology platform, worked with human experience company Starcom Worldwide to develop the concept for the ‘Scent of Victory’ campaign. Player 22, which is available for VR gamers using Quest, Quest 2 and Oculus Touch devices, offered an entirely new touchpoint for Paco Rabanne. The partnership with Tim Howard helped to combine the concepts of a legendary champion from a real-life sporting context and converged that with the game’s virtual world creating an authentic and interactive experience for gamers.

It is the first time a fragrance has created a playable sporting challenge in a VR environment, which encapsulates the innovative approach Paco Rabanne is taking to reaching their target audience for the 2021 holiday and gift-giving season.

Of the campaign, Tim Howard said “I’m really excited to be a part of this partnership. I’m always looking for ways to encourage people to strive to be the best that they can be, in everything they do. Invictus, a fragrance for men, is designed for people who will take on any challenge and strive to be victorious. As a former athlete, that is a motto that I have lived by throughout my life and career.

Platforms like Rezzil that utilise technology for real-life conditioning and training through gamification are the future. It’s great to see companies like Paco Rabanne, Starcom and Bidstack help lead the charge in making this a reality and I’d like to thank them for inviting me to be a part of this project.”

Adam Fisher, Head of US Sales at Bidstack added “Paco Rabanne continues to be a fantastic partner of ours. We love collaborating with them and exploring new and innovative ways to reach consumers through gaming.

For a brand like Invictus that represents determination, athletic merit and a winning mentality, we felt that our partner Rezzil was a great fit. Their VR platform helps individuals improve their physical and cognitive abilities through a wide range of sports and the icing on the cake in this activation was getting the opportunity to collaborate with Tim Howard.

Tim is a hero and legend in the world of soccer and encapsulates everything that Invictus is about.”

Andy Etches, Founder and Director at Rezzil said “We’ve loved working with Paco Rabanne on this in-game activation for Invictus with Bidstack and Starcom Worldwide. As a platform designed to train elite athletes it was fantastic to be able to work with Tim and put his skills to the test with our in-game challenge.

Creating branded experiences like this within the metaverse offers a glimpse of the future potential for brands. Our aim is to deliver world class training games that improve fitness and reaction times whilst also delivering a great user experience. With this campaign we’re proud to have been able to deliver on our core product offering in a way that respects and enhances the player experience.”

About Bidstack

Bidstack is the leading in-game advertising and video game monetisation platform. Their sophisticated technology allows brands to serve advertisements into natural spaces within video games whilst protecting the gaming experience.

These branded experiences can vary from trackside banners and cityscape billboards to pitchside LED boards, skins or any other contextually relevant spaces within the metaverse.

The company has more than 80 staff across five international locations and is a public company listed on the London Stock Exchange.

About Starcom Worldwide

Starcom is the Human Experience Company. A world-renowned media communications agency, we harness the power of media, technology and data to create experiences people love and actions brands need.

With more than 7,000 employees worldwide, Starcom partners with the world’s leading marketers and new establishment brands, including Bank of America, Best Buy, Coca-Cola, Kellogg Company, KraftHeinz, Novartis, P&G, Samsung, Visa and more.

Starcom is part of Publicis Media within Publicis Groupe [Euronext Paris FR0000130577, CAC40], one of the world’s leading communications groups.

Gaming

Flexion Enters into Partnership with Jam City

Published

1 week ago

May 9, 2024

Niji Narayan

flexion-enters-into-partnership-with-jam-city

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Flexion, the games marketing company, has partnered with Jam City, a leading mobile entertainment company behind some of the world’s highest-grossing and most enduring mobile games, to bring a selection of the publisher’s best-in-class games to the Alternative App Stores: Amazon Appstore, Huawei App Gallery, Aptoide, ONE store, Samsung Galaxy Store, DT Hub and Xiaomi GetApps.

“We are always looking for new opportunities to build our network of global players, and Flexion is a proven partner that will help introduce our award-winning titles to new audiences in the alternative stores,” Curtis Barnes, Senior Director of Publishing Operations for Jam City, said.

“We’re all about helping developers like Jam City reach the full potential of their games. We’re delighted they have chosen us to add revenue and audiences for their games on the alternative app stores,” Jens Lauritzson, CEO of Flexion, said.

The post Flexion Enters into Partnership with Jam City appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

Gaming

Mobile Games Index: Analysis of 95M Game Interactions Reveals Shifting Engagement Trends, Available Now

Published

1 week ago

May 7, 2024

George Miller

mobile-games-index:-analysis-of-95m-game-interactions-reveals-shifting-engagement-trends,-available-now

Reading Time: 2 minutes

The anticipated fourth edition of the annual Mobile Games Index, powered by adjoe and Statista, is now available.

The latest report offers a clear look into the current state of the mobile gaming sector, analyzing the past 12 months of the first-party data from 95 million app interactions across 27 million users. The MGI 2024 reveals what people choose to play on their mobile devices, filling the gap in industry knowledge and enabling game developers and user acquisition specialists to benchmark their products and ultimately target the right audiences with the right content.

Moving forward, it is up to the industry decision-makers to analyze the findings and promptly adapt to the newly-emerged engagement trends from MGI 2024, effectively engaging desired audiences.

A Peek at Shifting Engagement Trends to Capitalize on

Based on predictions from Statista, the overarching trend in the market is its robust growth with a forecasted expansion from $166.1 billion in 2024 to $227 billion by 2028.

Remarkably, Card games are expected to grow the most dramatically at 13.8% a year, nearly doubling their global revenue by 2028. Judging from the engagement charts of MGI 2024, the main driver of growth in this category is Solitaire games. The audience is showing a clear preference for Solitaire – these games hold 7 out of 10 positions in the top list of card games worldwide by time spent with titles from MobilityWare, Gimica, Scopely, and Playvalve, among others.

What allows the market to show revenue growth is the positive changes in global daily time spent. After the dip in engagement highlighted by the last year’s Index, adjoe confirms that average daily sessions have rebounded to 21.5 minutes from 17.3 minutes reported last year, marking a 22% increase.

The most engaged demographic of mobile gamers globally is the 40-49 age group, which has experienced a remarkable 33% increase in daily gaming time, now at 23 minutes daily. The strategies targeted at older demographics over the past 12 months can be deemed successful. However, this has led to a loss of focus on engaging Gen-Z, which has shown only modest growth in time spent.

The MGI also reveals that women are outpacing men in daily gaming time across most genres – as reported for the 4th edition in a row. This consistent and high performance makes the female audience a continuously safer bet when it comes to user targeting.

Another continued trend is the dominance of top publishers such as Supercell, Garena, King, and Playrix, while there’s still space to occupy for smaller publishers. For instance, ForgeGames tops the engagement charts with their game Special Forces Group 2 – capturing over 43 minutes of average daily engagement.

The insights continue in the MGI 2024, going granular to segment and visualize global mobile game engagement data from adjoe by genre, region, and demographic. At the same time, Statista’s extensive market research provides a macro-view of the current and future industry, offering figures for global downloads and revenues with forecasts extending to 2028.

Mobile Games Index 2024 Is Available in Open Access

The MGI 2024 goes deep below the surface of market data and creates a comprehensive snapshot of the mobile gaming industry today. Inside are

For developers and marketers, this report is the green light to benchmark performance against industry leaders and align their products with the rising expectations of mobile gamers. This comprehensive tool is now available for free to inform decision-making and help optimize strategies for short- and long-term actions.

The post Mobile Games Index: Analysis of 95M Game Interactions Reveals Shifting Engagement Trends, Available Now appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

Gaming

The German Games Industry Association congratulates all winners of the German Computer Game Awards 2024

Published

4 weeks ago

April 22, 2024

George Miller

the-german-games-industry-association-congratulates-all-winners-of-the-german-computer-game-awards-2024

Reading Time: 3 minutes

• “EVERSPACE 2” by ROCKFISH Games is ‘Best German Game’ 2024
• Pixel Maniacs from Nuremberg wins in the ‘Studio of the Year’ category
• ‘Best International Game’ is Baldur’s Gate 3
• ‘Player of the Year’ is Maurice Weber

High-quality games, great entertainment and many well-known personalities from the games industry and the cultural, societal and political spheres – the German Computer Game Awards 2024 (DCP), presented this evening in Munich, featured all that and more. Numerous guests celebrated the best games from Germany and the creative minds behind them in person at Eisbach Studios in Munich. The award show, which was hosted by Katrin Bauerfeind and Uke Bosse, was additionally followed by hundreds of thousands of viewers via live stream. A total of 800,000 euros was awarded in cash prizes. “EVERSPACE 2” by ROCKFISH Games was chosen ‘Best German Game’. The ‘Studio of the Year’ award went to Pixel Maniacs from Nuremberg, which has made a name for itself with successful games like the party racing game “Can’t Drive This”, its multifaceted involvement in the game industry and its promotion of young talent, as well as with its innovations in the area of marketing. The ‘Special Jury Prize’ was awarded to the project “Gaming ohne Grenzen” (Gaming without Borders), an initiative that enables young people with disabilities to participate actively in game culture – for example, by assessing in inclusive game testing groups the accessibility of various games as well as the ability of certain technologies to help overcome barriers in video games. In voting by the community and the jury, Maurice Weber was selected ‘Player of the Year’. The games editor and Twitch streamer regularly analyses current developments in the games industry and takes a critical look at them, while at the same time formulating a clear stance for more diversity and against extremism in games and society.

The German Computer Game Awards, which honour the year’s best German-produced games, are hosted by the German Federal Government, represented by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, and game – The German Games Industry Association.

‘Congratulations to all winners of the German Computer Game Awards 2024!’ says Felix Falk, Managing Director of game. ‘Even in these very challenging times for many German firms in the industry, German games companies have created high-quality and successful games that have deservedly been honoured on the big stage of the DCP. Around half of these outstanding games were developed with the support of federal game funding. This once again demonstrates the potential that we can leverage when the underlying policy framework for game development in Germany provides for truly predictable and internationally competitive conditions – conditions that allow games from Germany to shine even more brightly all over the world and achieve even greater success on the national as well as international stage. We must make this our goal!’

Overview of all winners:
Best International Game (not endowed)

Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios)

Best German Game (endowed with 100,000 euros)

EVERSPACE 2 (ROCKFISH Games)

The other nominees will each receive 30,000:

Atlas Fallen (Deck 13 Interactive/Focus Entertainment)
Fall of Porcupine (Critical Rabbit/Assemble Entertainment)

Best Family Game (endowed with 40,000 euros)

Spells & Secrets (Alchemist Interactive/rokaplay)

Newcomer Award – Best Debut (endowed with 60,000 euros)

Ad Infinitum (Hekate/NACON)

The other nominees will receive 25,000 euros each:

Fall of Porcupine (Critical Rabbit/Assemble Entertainment)
Lose CTRL (Play From Your Heart)

Newcomer Award – Best Prototype (endowed with 50,000 euros)

Misgiven (Symmetry Break Studio)

The other nominees will receive 25,000 euros each:

Bloodletter (Katharina “Mikey” Müller, David Cafisso, Marvin Braun, Alica Schneider/Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin)
EcoGnomix (Lars Hinnerk Grevsmühl, Lars Eble, Bahy Nguyen, Marcel Zurawka, Alec Shae)
Footgun: Underground (Eduard Dobermann, Theo Lohmüller, Georg Nimke, Robert Pistea, Lukas Salewsky)
REPLICORE (Sarah Inés Roeder, Rody Nawezi, Leonhard Gläser, Maximilian Götz/ HAW Hamburg)

Best Innovation and Technology (endowed with 40,000 euros)

Marble Maze (Fox-Assembly)

Best Serious Game (endowed with 40,000 euros)

Friedrich Ebert – Der Weg zur Demokratie (Playing History/Stiftung Reichspräsident-Friedrich-Ebert-Gedenkstätte)

Best Audio Design (endowed with 40,000 euros)

Ad Infinitum (Hekate/NACON)

Best Game Design (endowed with 40,000 euros)

Lose CTRL (Play From Your Heart)

Best Graphic Design (endowed with 40,000 euros)

The Bear – A Story from the World of Gra (Mucks! Games)

Best Mobile Game (endowed with 40,000 euros)

Cat Rescue Story (Tivola Games)