Overwolf’s Nathan Lindberg wants to make gaming easier for advertisers

Gaming is gigantic among consumers, but advertisers still need to catch up.

Take, for instance, a recent Dentsu report that estimates there are over 3 billion gamers around the world, yet finds the space accounts for less than 5% of ad spend.

Nathan Lindberg, head of U.S. brand partnerships at gaming company Overwolf, recently joined The Current Editor-in-Chief Stephanie Paterik to discuss how the gaming community can help bridge that gap.

“I think we in the gaming industry need to make it easier for [advertisers] to buy, not only in the way that we transact but also in the way that we report data and information,” Lindberg says.

Lindberg also touches on the overall state of the gaming industry and creating cross-generational opportunities in the sector.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

[Gaming is] a huge space. Advertising has yet to totally catch up. How would you describe the state of gaming? What does it look like right now from both the user perspective and the advertiser perspective?

We had a really good run during COVID. Everyone was playing. We saw a lot of participation, a lot of investment in the space. We’re seeing that refocus. We’re seeing platforms like Roblox and Fortnite taking control of the marketplace. Gaming is moving from narrative linear-based content into a world of social channels and this idea of hanging out with your friends while playing games. We’re seeing a change in habits and consumption.

On top of that, all of that innovation aside, people on average are spending more time playing games. The audience is growing; the enthusiasm continues to grow. If you talk to young people, they want careers in gaming. They want to be on Twitch. They want to be making video games. … But for game publishers, in particular, it’s a tough market. We’re seeing a lot of AAAs do really well, and we’re seeing a lot of indies come out of nowhere and do really well. But that middle is getting a bit squeezed right now. So, we’re trying to figure out how brands and advertisers can play a more collaborative role in that ecosystem. And we’re hoping that that’s a place where Overwolf can be a value-add.

What would surprise advertisers most about the gaming audience?

Not only are gamers women, but gamers are parents. They have families and great jobs. They’re people with a lot of financial wealth. We’re seeing a lot of folks leaning in now, when they look at the data and the data tells them a story, and they get past the mindset or the preconceived notion of who they were friends with in middle school or who was the gamer in high school. [Advertisers] look at the data now and they realize that gaming is a ubiquitous part of people’s daily lives. That is the biggest aspect of this from my perspective: getting past preconceived notions to realize that these are people who are very valuable for advertisers.

It seems like a generational change. When I was growing up, my parents were not playing Nintendo with me. But now, my son just got a Switch and wants me to race him in Mario Kart. Can you talk about the multigenerational aspect that we maybe didn’t see in the earlier days [of gaming]?

It comes down to that exact point. If you talk to someone who’s a lifelong baseball fan, they could be 130 years old. A lifelong basketball fan could be 80 or 90 years old. These are industries that have been around for multiple generations. If you’re a lifelong gamer, maybe you’re in your 40s or 50s. There haven’t been that many generations that have grown up with gaming as a part of their experience. So, it is harder for folks in the C-suite to say, “OK, I get it.” Maybe they didn’t see a console until they were in high school or college or even out of college. That idea of growing up and playing games and the ability to take a beloved character like Mario and play Mario with your kids is actually a great way for cross-generational opportunities to exist, and that’s the beauty of video games.

I want to talk about the next phase of gaming. A lot of times, consumers shift to new types of platforms in media ahead of advertisers. About 5% of ad spend goes to gaming right now. What do you think needs to happen for marketers to catch up?

I think we in the gaming industry need to make it easier for [advertisers] to buy, not only in the way that we transact but also in the way that we report data and information. That can be a difficult conversation. If I’m a large media agency or holdco, and I want to buy media through CPM or CPC, I need to be able to transact that way. If I can’t do that, you’re already creating barriers for me to be comfortable with this …

I think there’s a lot of work that we need to do in the industry to be able to accept advertising the way it needs to be but [also] try to figure out the right way for advertising to play a collaborative role as opposed to an interruptive role in a gamer’s experience. We’re seeing it with rewarded video; we’re seeing it with apps like Overwolf, where you’re getting content and ads together on the screen. You’re finding ways to have a better relationship but still deliver value back to the advertiser. That is where gaming needs to get to in order to truly be a vehicle that advertisers can trust to use on a consistent basis, not just for an innovation budget.