Why “Around-the-Game” Creative Is Becoming Central to Mobile Gaming Strategy

In a recent conversation about gaming campaigns, Brent Koning, Global Head of Gaming at dentsu said one line which really stuck with us: the Super Mario x OREO spot is “one of the best gaming campaigns” even though it never actually lives inside a game. It borrows Mario’s music, rhythm, and visual language, then runs where gamers already spend time. 

The message is simple but important: you don’t need a custom level or skin for a campaign to be “for gamers”, you need a creative that feels native to gaming, and smart distribution around the game. That line mirrors how Prado already thinks about mobile gaming: the win is not only being in a game, but showing up in the right gaming context across a network of mobile games and apps.

Gaming Is Now an Attention Layer

That instinct from the video lines up neatly with the data. According to Newzoo’s Global Gamer Study, 80% of consumers play video games and 85% engage with games in some form, including watching gaming content or participating in communities. Gaming is no longer a single channel on a media plan; it’s an attention layer that cuts across play, viewing, and social.

On mobile, that layer is especially dense. Players jump in and out of short game sessions, creator clips, and feeds all day without ever fully leaving a “gaming” mindset. For Prado and the brands we work with, this is exactly the layer our SDK and mobile gaming marketplace are built to surface: curated, brand-suitable mobile environments where gaming attention actually lives, not just one-off placements in a single title.

Why “Around-the-Game” Creative Works on Mobile

In that reality, “around-the-game” creative is not a downgrade, it’s often the most realistic way to show up where gaming attention actually lives, at scale. Contextual research backs this up. Biometric work from Integral Ad Science and Neuro-Insight found that ads in suitable, contextually matched environments can increase memorability by up to 40% and drive stronger neural engagement. Studies summarized that the most contextually relevant ads generate around 43% more neural engagement and over 2× better ad recall than mismatched placements.

Kantar’s Media Reactions and Context Lab work tells a similar story from a planning perspective: campaigns are around seven times more impactful among receptive audiences, which makes the choice of environment as important as the creative itself. For mobile gaming, the takeaway for brands and advertisers is clear: if the creative speaks gaming and the environment is genuinely gaming-aligned, a campaign can “read” as a gaming campaign even when the ad unit isn’t hard-coded inside a level.

This is where Prado’s pipes matter for brands and agencies. By connecting brands to mobile games and gaming-centric apps via SDK integrations and programmatic demand, we give “around-the-game” ideas the right stage: rewarded video in a mid-core title, interstitials in casual games, or other high-attention mobile moments that fit how people actually play.

How Prado Connects Creative and Context

Prado treats mobile gaming as a system of attention for brands, not a single slot on a plan. Behind the scenes, Prado works with mobile gaming publishers to integrate our SDK and create high-quality, privacy-first supply: environments where we understand the context (genre, play session type, gameplay moments) and can protect the player experience, so that brands and demand partners can activate gaming-fluent creative across that supply: campaigns that feel at home in gaming culture, whether they’re performance-driven, brand-led, or somewhere in between.Instead of asking advertisers to build heavy custom integrations for every title, Prado lets them plug into a scaled mobile gaming marketplace and bring “for gamers, around the game” concepts to life.. The Mario x OREO example shows what’s possible creatively; Prado’s role is to make that kind of thinking scalable, measurable, and privacy-first for brands across mobile gaming, through SDK integrations, curated supply, and long-term partnerships that treat gaming as a context, not just a checkbox.