The gaming market is set in a highly dynamic and growing ecosystem. Thailand in particular, houses the second fastest growing gaming market in the ASEAN region, with a total value of more than 33,000 million baht. Recently, with 40 million gamers active in Thailand, also including Generations X, Y, to Z, it climbed to the world's third rank, after the Philippines and Indonesia. As for Esports, it also achieves continuous growth with a total market value of up to 38,000 million baht and over 4 million Esports athletes in Thailand. This ongoing trend shapes one of the strongest communities that host professional leagues, gathering professional athletes, voice actors, and pro game streamers. With all the results combined, gaming has become the core of modern marketing as it effortlessly bridges brands to modern consumers.
Mr. Paruj Daorai, Co-chief Executive Officer, Publicis Groupe Thailand, said: "We've reached an era at which "Play" or gaming is the future of consumer communications that cannot be disregarded. We know that a lot of brands out there in Thailand are exploring and trying to build a meaningful relationship with modern consumers whose culture is gaming. As the best full-funnel commerce partner for brands, we take this upon ourselves to assist them in identifying their position in the gaming world. By that, we today launched Publicis Play, a new business that will prove the Power of One, which will tick all the boxes throughout consumer journeys and at every touchpoint. Adhering to this strategy, we aim at paving ways to settle brands in their right position within the gaming universe, to truly engage affection, attention, and participation within the community. Play Economy is valuable and vital in driving brands towards the future and to catch up with generational changes. I believe that Publicis Play will be a gateway to unique opportunities, and it will optimize marketing activations for greater efficiency and integrated results.
Miss Lalit Kanavivatchai, Chief Executive Officer, Digital and Media Strategy Planning Department, Publicis Groupe Thailand stated: "Brand communications in the Play Economy can be executed in a variety of forms, and, many times, they're interactive, which certainly enable and build strong relationships with people in the gaming community, resulting in brand preferences, awareness, or even loyalty. Publicis Groupe has explored the world of gamers using both quantitative and qualitative research and found that gamers can be classified into 6 groups based on their craving for competition and numbers of players involved each round. On average, every group spends approximately 3 hours on games per day. We, as an expert, need to deeply familiarize ourselves with all components within this ecosystem to identify strategic solutions that facilitate our penetration to the target consumers as much as possible.
- Group 1 Pass-the time-Gamer: Gamers who feel like playing just to kill time. Games they prefer are usually short and continuity does not matter.
- Group 2 Fun Gamers: Gamers who prefer easy games over those that require much skills, as they play it just for fun.
- Group 3 Story Gamers: Gamers who prefer exploring stories narrated through games, where some elements in such a virtual world can somehow represent their individuality; for example, favorite characters, popular items, beautiful skins, etc.
- Group 4 Training Gamers: Gamers who play as a team and crave for winning.
- Group 5 Competitive Gamers: Highly passionate, solo and team gamers who expect outcomes, entertainment, and victories.
- Group 6 Socializing Gamers: Gamers who like watching game streaming and socialize with friends from the gaming community.
Mr. Vibhu Harnvarakiat, Executive of Publicis Play, added: "At present, gamers view games as something that combines social networks and entertainment together. Our main job is to address opportunities for brands to seamlessly activate commercial mechanisms in games in a way preferential to gamers and others in the commune. In terms of management, we also offer end-to-end solutions starting from 1. The fan-first strategy which is about defining opportunity for brand to play; 2. Player-first experience, where brand can be integrated in the game and build immersive experience in 3D virtual world; and 3. Materialize the real value exchange between players and brands. Moreover, we can offer new solutions to integrate communications with Web2 and Web3, all of which are measurable in part of business outputs.
Last year, Publicis Play had been rolled out in several countries within SEA and we have worked with global brands to produce successful campaigns, e.g., Singapore Wanderland on Roblox for Singapore Tourism, with up to 5.8 million active players, being the record-breaking popular game in the tourism field.
"Publicis Play is one of the new businesses from Publicis Groupe which has been gradually presented to clients to strengthen our position as the Best Full-funnel Commerce Partner for Brands. These businesses will be the major propeller in driving the entire group to success." Mr. Paruj concluded.
Source: MSL Group
