At this year’s IAB Playfronts, many of gaming’s most innovative companies took the stage to unveil their latest technologies or share insights into the trends driving consumer behavior before a crowd of major advertisers and agency partners. Playfronts has been a powerful driver pushing brands to wholeheartedly embrace gaming as part of their marketing and media strategies for the fourth year in a row. More than ever, this year felt like a turning point for the industry, where gaming no longer needs to justify its place on the marketing plan. Instead, the question moves from “why?” to “how?” While some of the industry’s biggest players took the stage, there were also a few missed opportunities.

Making it all playable…

Both Discord and Samsung Ads brought new, playable formats to the stage for their ad products. Playables have been around almost since the launch of mobile games, but were never broadly adopted by advertisers. They may have been a bit ahead of their time, as they were developed before mobile programmatic buying allowed them to scale efficiently. Even so,  their interactivity and fun dynamics led to strong results for advertisers. With the widespread adoption of gaming and ongoing technological advancements, playability has returned to the forefront of gaming solutions.

…without intruding on gameplay.

One central recurring theme was the emphasis on ad experiences that don’t take away from gameplay. Activision Blizzard presented research showing player preference towards rewarded and non-interruptive formats. Similarly, the newer playable formats and custom executions highlighted by Livewire and Super League, all hinged on being additive to the game experience, not interruptive.

There’s more to gaming than AAA

One missed opportunity for the Playfronts is the lack of spotlight on opportunities beyond big platform games and AAA studios. The biggest games in the world by download often come from global studios without direct agency and brand sales teams. They rely most heavily on advertising dollars and have the pulse on what’s changing the fastest regarding player behavior. Similarly, given the limited time available at the Playfronts, it’s hard to hear from actual startups in the in-game advertising space who might be pushing new formats forward. With a few exceptions, most of the presentations came from large enterprise players.

There’s room for more brand voices

Although a few gaming leads joined panels on stage, there’s a missed opportunity. For gaming to really break through, we need to hear the best practices from the brand marketers who have embraced the channel and turn them into advocates for their peers to do the same. At the same time, it would also be worthwhile to hear the other side; let’s talk to some brand marketers who have been resistant or non-committal to gaming, and let them tell us what they need to be converted. We must stop “preaching to the choir” and embrace the challenging conversations.

And finally…where was Applovin?

The company that everyone’s talking about didn’t show up to the party. Controversy aside, it would have been great to hear directly from Applovin about bringing e-commerce into gaming and how that can unlock tremendous value for advertisers.