Dive Brief: 

• Mobile gamers are active retail shoppers, with 45% reporting they spend $200 or more per month on retail items and 31% spending more than $500 per month on groceries, per a new report from game developer Zynga, along with Disqo and TL;DR Insights.
• The report, based on a survey of over 2,000 adults, found that mobile gamers are overwhelmingly the primary grocery and retail shoppers in their households and are more likely to shop online, use digital payments and engage with ads compared to non-gamers.
• Mobile gamers are particularly receptive to platform advertising. Nearly half (49%) said they became aware of a new product through an in-game ad, and 43% said an in-game ad led them to research a new product. More than a quarter (27%) said an in-game ad led them to purchase a new product. 

Dive Insight:

If you’re a retailer or sell goods through a retail channel, Zynga’s findings reinforce that mobile gaming may be a place to connect with consumers. The game developer's latest research also helps support recent mobile-focused gaming activations from brands ranging like Purina and Chipotle.

Among the tactics that would entice gamers to interact even more with in-game ads were more relevant ads, cited by 43% of respondents, attractive discounts or offers (42%) and shorter ad lengths (41%). Better personalization and more entertaining ads were not as interesting to mobile gamers, cited by 22% and 21%, respectively.

Unsurprisingly, mobile gamers are more comfortable using digital payment systems and online portals for their retail behaviors, per the research. For example, 34% of mobile gamers pay for purchases using digital payments, compared with 22% of non-mobile gamers. Mobile gamers also showed a preference for online shopping in nearly every retail category, excluding footwear, over non-mobile gamers and generally preferred apps to traditional websites, except in cases of furniture and discount stores.

Mobile gamers are also family-oriented: 41% of them are parents and 50% are in households of more than three people. They are also more likely to be enrolled in retail loyalty and subscription programs like Amazon Prime, Walmart+, Costco and Sam’s Club. Mobile gamers are also more likely to use coupons in both grocery and retail outlets and belong to loyalty rewards programs.

Given their family orientations and propensity for deal-seeking, it should come as no surprise that mobile gamers find seasonal shopping promotions motivational. Compared to non-gamers, mobile gamers are particularly motivated during the traditional Christmas and Hanukkah periods, Valentine’s Day and Halloween. Nearly three-quarters (71%) begin their holiday shopping a month or more early and 43% spend more than $500 during the holiday season.

Among Zynga gamers, many of the stats skewed even more favorably for retailers and advertisers. For instance, 34% of Zynga gamers are more likely to spend $500 a month on groceries and 34% are likely to spend $200 a month on general retail. Zynga gamers also index higher for belonging to loyalty programs, deal-seeking and digital-payment use. When it comes to advertising, 60% of Zynga gamers became aware of a new product, 55% researched a new product and 38% purchased a new product through in-game advertising.