Transitioning From Programmatic Advertising To Participant-Led Brand Engagement

Entertainment has moved from passive viewing to active participation, making traditional advertising models less effective. Jonathan Stringfield of Xbox and Doug Buser of Rocket argue that brands should stop treating gaming, streaming, and social media as separate channels. Instead, they should view them as a single, connected ecosystem built on deep fandom. The takeaway is that reach is becoming less valuable than relevance. Brands that force their way into these spaces with standard programmatic ads risk being rejected by protective, active communities. The advantage goes to those who act as participants in the user experience rather than intruders. For marketers, the path forward means moving from advertising to adding value, a transition that requires patience and an understanding of the cultural narratives that drive behavior.

The Myth of Discrete Consumption

Most marketing plans treat media channels as silos: you watch TV, listen to music, or play a game. Stringfield notes that this is a convenient fiction for planners, but it ignores how people actually live. Consumers move across these experiences at the same time, often engaging in tri-media consumption.

The key insight is that gaming is not just another vertical. It is a high-attention, high-participation environment where second-screening is functionally impossible. While other media allow for passive background consumption, gaming demands focus.

> "In gaming there is no such thing as a second screen. Like you kind of have to be focused on that experience or you are generally not gaming."
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> -- Jonathan Stringfield

Why the Obvious Fix Makes Things Worse

Conventional wisdom says that if you want to reach gamers, you buy programmatic ads. But Buser and Stringfield warn that this check the box approach often backfires because gamers are protective of their experiences. They are not just consumers; they are participants who view the game as a space they own.

Treating gaming like a billboard creates a feedback loop of brand rejection. When a brand enters a space without a strategy for adding value, the community, which is already behind a keyboard and ready to voice an opinion, will push back. The discomfort of building a genuine, long-term program is the barrier to entry that creates a competitive moat. Those who take the time to learn the ecosystem, participate in the culture, and contribute to the community earn a level of brand salience that programmatic spend cannot buy.

The 18-Month Payoff: Anticipate, Participate, Shape

Buser outlines a framework for cultural relevance that moves beyond immediate campaign metrics. He suggests a three-step cycle: Anticipate (use data to find trends), Participate (show up to learn the rules of the party), and Shape (eventually create your own experiences).

This is not a quarterly play. It is a long-term investment in brand equity. Buser’s example of the Rocket Arena open house illustrates the power of this approach: by treating a digital property like a real-world listing and donating the proceeds to the community, they moved from being an advertiser to a participant. This created 10x the earned media of a standard campaign, proving that the delayed payoff of cultural significance eventually leads to superior business results.

> "What you do not want to do is show up and then leave. So you are talking about long-term relationships... We look at as awareness, affinity, advocacy, and then action."
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> -- Doug Buser

The Content Explosion and the Human Filter

As AI lowers the cost of content creation, the system will be flooded with low-quality material. Stringfield and Buser predict that the volume of content will make cutting through the noise harder than ever. The system will respond by prioritizing human-centric, immersive experiences. Brands that focus on the human aspect will stand out, while those that rely on automated, low-effort content will be ignored. The future of entertainment is not just more content; it is deeper, more authentic engagement with the intellectual property that fans have loved for decades.

Key Action Items

• Audit your channel assumptions: Stop planning for silos. Over the next quarter, map where your customer’s attention actually overlaps across gaming, social, and streaming.
• Adopt the participant mindset: Before your next campaign, ask: Are we adding value to the experience, or are we just interrupting it? If the answer is not clear, do not ship it.
• Shift from programmatic to presence: Allocate a portion of your budget away from always-on programmatic ads toward long-term partnerships in passion-led ecosystems. This pays off in 12 to 18 months.
• Identify your fandom intersection: If you are not in gaming, find the communities where your customers are already active. Apply Buser’s Anticipate, Participate, Shape framework to these spaces.
• Prioritize advocacy over reach: In the mortgage or high-consideration categories, word-of-mouth is the only metric that matters. Invest in experiences that give your customers a reason to talk about you in circles you are not in.
• Embrace the uncomfortable long-term play: If a project does not feel like it requires a multi-year commitment, it is likely too superficial. Choose the path that is harder to execute, as that is where your competitors will not go.