82% of Young Gamers Will Welcome Your Brand - If You Reward Them Instead of Selling to Them
Updated: 1 day ago
Havas's Prosumer report, reported 21 October 2026, finds 82% of young German consumers say brands can add value in gaming, versus 61% of others.
A door that is open, conditionally
Gaming has a reputation as hostile territory for brands, a space where players resent intrusion. A Havas Prosumer report, reported on 21 October 2026, complicates that assumption. It finds that 82% of young German consumers say brands on gaming platforms can add value, against 61% of other respondents.
That is a strikingly open door, but it swings on a specific hinge. The openness is conditional on brands adding genuine value and, in the report's framing, rewarding performance rather than offering merchandise. Young gamers are not rejecting brands; they are rejecting the wrong kind of brand presence.
The distinction is the whole story. A branded skin or a logo splashed across a loading screen is the merchandise model, decoration a player tolerates at best. Rewarding skill or effort inside the experience is a different proposition, one that aligns the brand with the thing the player actually came for.
The twenty-one-point gap between the two groups, 82% of young consumers versus 61% of everyone else, is itself a strategic clue. It tells you that openness to brands in gaming is strongly generational, and that the audience most receptive to the right kind of presence is precisely the one brands most want to reach and most often struggle to. The door is widest where the stakes are highest.
Reward, don't decorate
The reward-versus-merchandise divide is the most actionable insight here, and it inverts the instinct of most brand managers. The default move is to put the logo on something, a jersey, an item, a cosmetic. The data says that is the weaker play.
What young gamers respond to is a brand that enhances the game, recognising achievement, unlocking something earned, making the experience better rather than merely more branded. The brand becomes part of the reward loop instead of an interruption to it.
This reframes gaming from a media placement into an experience design problem. The question is not where do we put the logo but what do we give the player that they would genuinely value, and how do we tie that to effort rather than attention.
That is a harder brief than buying impressions, and it requires different partners. Rewarding performance means working with game developers and platforms on mechanics, not just buying inventory from a media seller. Brands that treat gaming as another display channel will keep producing the decoration players tolerate; brands that treat it as co-designing a reward will earn the welcome the data describes. The effort is the point, because the players can tell the difference instantly.
The rules are tightening, so build it right
There is a cautionary layer. The same respondents expect tighter rules around gaming commerce, citing loot boxes, in-game purchases and the EU Digital Fairness Act. The audience that welcomes value-adding brands is also wary of exploitative monetisation, and it anticipates regulation closing in.
For marketers, that is a reason to build the value-first, reward-based model now rather than chase the mechanics regulators are circling. A strategy grounded in genuinely rewarding players is not only more effective; it is more durable as the regulatory environment hardens.
The transferable lesson reaches well beyond gaming and well beyond Germany. The generation that will dominate consumer spending wants brands to add value on the audience's terms, not to buy attention on the brand's terms. Reward the behaviour you want, design for the experience, and assume the rules will get stricter, not looser.
Quick FAQ
What did the Havas Prosumer report find?
That 82% of young German consumers say brands on gaming platforms can add value, versus 61% of other respondents, but only if brands add genuine value and reward performance rather than offer merchandise.
What does rewarding performance mean?
It means enhancing the game by recognising skill or effort, rather than decorating it with logos or branded merchandise. The brand becomes part of the reward loop instead of an interruption.
Why does regulation matter here?
Young gamers expect tighter rules around loot boxes, in-game purchases and the EU Digital Fairness Act. Building a value-first, reward-based model now is more durable than relying on mechanics regulators are circling.
The instinct in gaming is to put the logo on something. The data says that is the weak play. Eighty-two percent of young gamers will welcome a brand that rewards their effort and enhances the game, and resent one that just decorates it. Stop buying attention on your terms and start adding value on theirs. — Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing
Young gamers will welcome your brand if you reward their effort and enhance the experience, not if you simply decorate the game with your logo.
Does your gaming strategy add value on the player's terms, or just buy attention on yours?
If you would like to know more about this topic, please contact us on danieln@merxmarketing.co.uk
Sources: Horizont, W&V, Meedia
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Written by Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing Ltd and Marketing Minute
