South Africa, Oct. 2 -- A branded game. A virtual world. A major activation designed to give people somewhere new to go.

There is nothing wrong with that approach. But it creates an obvious challenge. Once you've built the destination, you still need to convince people to show up. Meanwhile, the audience is already inside gaming.

According to Statista, 82.1% of internet users aged 16 to 64 globally played video games on some device in Q2 2025. Among 16- to 24-year-olds, penetration reached 91.5% among women and 93% among men.

Michael Anav, CEO and co-founder of ReachPlayers, believes there is another way for marketers to approach the brief. "We don't start a social campaign by building a new social network. So why should a gaming brief...