Advertisers shift to games as more Kenyans embrace gaming

The mobile gaming industry in Kenya is expected to more than double their income and grow exponentially as a higher number of advertisers shift to spending on advertising in games. Speaking during a masterclass for chief  marketing officers in Kenya, Eskimi Kenya Chief Executive Officer Vytas Pauktstys explained that available data showed Kenyans were spending more time playing more games than consuming other media.

“We have established that on average Kenyans spend an hour per day playing a game on their phone or tablet”, he said.

As a result, there is a remarkable shift taking place where more companies are allocating more of their advertising budgets to mobile and online games.

The emergence of technologies that  allow brands to gamify their creative works is also is also a major contributor to this shift, added Pauktstys.

He noted that there is a rise in demand for data from marketing and finance executives to determine the return on investment in their advertising spend and as games offer a rich source of such engagement information, they will attract more brands. While today 15 % of digital advertising spend is on gaming, the firm expects this to rise to 40 per cent in a couple of years.

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The anticipation,  he said, is riding on the tremendous rise in digital media consumption witnessed locally and globally during the Covid pandemic.

According to Pauktstys, the battle for eyeballs is between connected televisions, computers and mobile devices. This is underpinned by data on screen use, showing nearly 70 per cent is done mobile devices and computers as television reduces.

” It is the reality of the metaverse that is taking shape and where we expect more interactions to take place as entertainment evolves”, he added, noting however that in Kenya, home internet connectivity in major urban areas may cause a marginal rise in media consumption on televisions.

Games, he pointed out, are a growing form of entertainment, particularly for young people, but also a fast-rising population of professional gaming community, both locally and globally. Kenya, he noted, is poised to grow faster than other countries.