Fortnite and Roblox are red hot, too hot. XR is relevant but lagging

I’ll make my Ad Week summary quick:

Everyone is talking about Fortnite. It’s the next frontier of socials, just consider it another channel at this point. It’s no longer cutting-edge, it’s becoming the standard for marketing pitches and media packages.

If you aren’t paying attention or acknowledging that, you’re officially behind.

As a broader commentary on the service provider side of gaming, especially given Supernova’s position as a premiere gaming agency alongside our sister company Chartis, there’s a ton of smokey opportunism / BS activations with zero players masked by big budgets and sexy PR campaigns.

This Twitch map totally flopped and had like 10 people in it. But they presented on it anyway.

You can’t take a Fortune 500 brand and launch a Fortnite map with some offshore dev shop and expect a million people to show up just because you’re Pepsi (nothing against Pepsi, just using them as a hypothetical).

Think about it. If I’m a 12 year old gamer, why do I care if it’s Pepsi world or Coca-cola world? I’m just there to play a game.

So how do brands launch successful Fortnite campaigns? By working with top creators. That’s sort of our competitive advantage. We have over 70% of the Fortnite creator network at our disposal boasting over 10B impressions every month. Ten. Billion. B.

That’s why advertisers are going crazy and why Beth in Comms finally realizes her son's bad gaming habit is an opportunity.

Sure, gaming’s push to mainstream advertising feels a bit like the “good ole days” are numbered. But it’s a net good thing for those who can roll-out new services beyond just map-building and turn gaming into a dynamic media channel at the level of the film industry.

There is endless opportunity to activate old IP, drive new product launches, build on popular shows, and offer more original content to a young and fast-growing audience. That’s powerful stuff.

A final note on gaming: publishers are switching from a pay-x-for-this-map model to cost-per-view. Expect companies to keep evolving and adapting in real time as the market matures.

XR? Alluded to by Snap and Meta, but didn’t feel the hype or excitement from last year. It’s still relevant; it’s still a heavily invested market segment. But we’re in a development period, and gaming is dominating headlines and stages.