How to Use Games to Build Relationships with Your Customers

Organizations are still learning how to think about games as media for marketing. Games aren’t typically covered in marketing classes in business schools, and they are often still seen as fundamentally different from other media. Modern-day games offer companies varied opportunities to connect with new and hard-to-reach customers, drive brand awareness and loyalty, and acquire and retain new customers. Beyond the more immediate marketing goals of brand building and customer acquisition and retention, games can help companies build important capabilities.

As gaming becomes increasingly entrenched in mainstream culture, it presents a unique opportunity for brands to rethink how they engage with consumers. There are more than three billion digital gamers worldwide. And games are no longer just entertainment — they are complex media ecosystems where consumers spend significant time, engage deeply, and form emotional connections. As such, forward-thinking brands are starting to leverage games as powerful tools for integrated marketing strategies.