Rey Tiempo, chief creative officer, Minotaur, Manila, explained how brands can use ‘creativity in gaming’ at the London International Awards’ ‘Creative Liaisons’ programme 2025.

Tiempo stated how the word ‘gamers’ is being used with a connotation around ‘serious gamers’, but this includes people who take to mobile phones to play the ‘occasional game’ too.

He explained how his agency, Minotaur, looks to connect brands with gaming communities.

After showing a clip of a game between GamerBee and MCZ Daigo Umehara, he spoke about how the latter turned the game around in the dying moments, and compared it to advertising.

“People can relate to this - a moment when one is about to lose and turn things around. He focuses on continuous improvement and self-improvement. As one gets better, the wins come. So, I say don’t concentrate on winning at Cannes, LIA, or at any other place. Just focus on getting better and one will win the awards on the way,” he stated.

Competitiveness

Narrating a story about how he won an Xbox at the Cannes Lions International Creativity in 2012 in a raffle, to winning a Lion itself in 2023, in the inaugural gaming category, he stated how that was a ‘full circle moment’.

“It was all because of people who believed in my passion and competitiveness,” he revealed before showing the piece of work that won the Lion.

“This piece of work has helped take me to so many different places (in terms of award wins). It shows that if one has passion and works towards it, one will reach places,” he said.

Among the places Tiempo was at was South by Southwest (SXSW), where one line caught his attention: Social media marketing is dead, long live gaming.

Median age of gamers

Tiempo revealed that the biggest myth when it comes to gaming is the age of gamers.

“Clients still think that they need to get into gaming to reach out to Gen Z. However, the median age of gamers is 35,” he said.

He revealed some stats regarding gamers:

• 18-30 years old: Core gaming audience (competitive and esports driven)
• 31-40 years old: Casual to serious gamers (mobile RPGs, strategy games)
• 41+ years old: Growing demographic (puzzle, social games, mobile)
• Female gamers: 40-45% of all players (rising YoY)

He added that the hottest competition in marketing comes from the gaming category because it’s ‘largely uncharted territory’.

He explained, “The canvas is huge, and anything that one does in the category will be done for the first time. The single most important factor for brands to be successful in gaming is to connect with the communities.”

Cheat code

According to Tiempo, the cheat code for the gaming marketing community is the coming together of authentic gamer insights with gamer-centric strategy and gaming-endemic creativity.

He added that the biggest game changer for him was finding a worthy ally on the client side, who was also interested in gamking.

“I found one gamer in Nestle, and took the person with me to speak at Adfest. We spoke about our work in gaming at the fest. It brought together the cooking community with the gaming community,” he said.

“So many ideas are getting killed by people who don’t understand gaming. Most players are young. In the industry, they don’t have the titles to make approvals. Players who play games report to people who do not play. My advice to them is to listen to their juniors and their children. Let’s convince our bosses to play games to make our lives easier,” he concluded.

Catch an in-depth conversation with Tiempo in our November issue of Manifest!