Local ad technology firm Eskimi Kenya has set its sights on the country’s fast-growing gaming space which is valued at Kshs 3.2 billion, to deliver an innovative presence for brands as company managers angle for growth into next year.
Speaking during a Masterclass for Chief Marketing Officers in Nairobi, Vita Garifulina, Eskimi’s Business Development Director explained that as the economy continues to recover post the Covid 19 pandemic, more organizations are searching for new ways and platforms to engage with their consumers.
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Preferences for mobile game usage in Kenya continue to increase where the average user is currently estimated to spend between 7 and 26 minutes per day. These, she noted, are generally more favoured because of their community-building approach.
“Gaming platforms are closely following the social media channels as the fastest growing spaces where more Kenyans are spending their time and the search for eyeballs has led us to develop new creative ways of placing advertisements and products within the games,”
she said.
She added that total national revenue for game developers mostly comes from advertisements and product placements, with in-game advertising the dominant source of revenue predicted to climb 20% in 2023. The online gaming segment alone currently has a market volume of Kshs 1.4 billion.
She noted that the local industry expects to register an annual growth rate of 8.51%, resulting in a projected market volume of Kshs 4.8 billion and amounting to 17.8 million users by 2027.
Kenya’s gaming user penetration is currently at 21.1% and is expected to hit 28.4% by 2027. Most organizations, said Ms Gararifulina, are cautious about how they spend their money as they go into the next year and ad technology needs to play a stronger role in promoting their ease of business due to its ability to localize the gaming ad content, understand customers’ pain points and adjust to the anticipated lower marketing budgets.
Looking ahead to 2023, Eskimi has observed that marketers expect a general reduction in their budgets, due to higher inflation, even as many of them remain optimistic. Available data from the firm shows that almost one-quarter of marketers expect their marketing budget to be reduced in 2023.
However, with emerging innovations in meeting customers at their points of interaction, most still expect to meet or exceed their goals with the majority more optimistic about the performance of their teams than they were one year ago.
Ms. Garifulina explained that already, at 57% more than half of advertising budgets are already being allocated to digital platforms.
