By Amanda Lacey, Founder, POPCOM PR.

For decades, product placement meant a logo in a film, a branded handbag, or a celebrity casually using a product in a magazine shoot. Today, one of the most valuable frontiers for brand integration is not on a screen people passively watch, but inside worlds they actively participate in: video games.

This shift matters because gaming is no longer a niche hobby. It is one of the largest entertainment categories in the world, with enormous attention spans and deeply engaged communities. Platforms like Roblox have a reported 151 million daily active users, 44% of whom are over 17.  

For public relations professionals, it opens a new discipline entirely, one where earned attention is created through interaction, not interruption.

I recently spoke with Peter Starodubstev, founder of Petrex, about how brands are entering games commercially and creatively, and why many PR teams are still underestimating the opportunity. 

It is not product placement. It is world-building.

When I first spoke to Starodubstev, he was quick to challenge the old terminology.

“Think of it less as placement, more as integration,” he explains. “You are not just slapping a logo on a billboard. You are building an experience that lives inside the game world.” 

That distinction is important. Traditional placement relies on visibility. In-game integration relies on utility, relevance and entertainment. It needs to be usable. 

A beverage brand might create a power-up that players use during gameplay. A car company might launch drivable vehicles. A fashion label might design digital wearables that become status symbols inside a social game. The best executions are not decorative; they are part of the game and how it is played.

Two ways brands enter games

Anyone with a brand that fits the gamer profile would be interested in an integration with a second world, but how easy is it to achieve? According to Starodubstev, there are two commercial models for brands to integrate into a game. 

The first is during development. A brand partners early with a studio and helps shape custom experiences while the game is still being built.

The second, and often more practical, route is to integrate into games that already exist and have an audience. This means working inside proven environments with millions of active players, rather than spending time and budget trying to build a new destination from scratch. 

For PR and marketing leaders, that second model is particularly compelling. It offers faster timelines, lower risk and clearer audience forecasting.

Why this matters for Public Relations

Public relations has always been about relevance – putting a brand into the conversations, platforms and cultural spaces that matter to its audience. Gaming is now one of those spaces.

The opportunity is not simply media exposure. It is narrative participation. Instead of talking about a brand, audiences experience it directly. Players take and share screenshots, invite friends, create content for the game and repost it, and importantly, spend time and experience brands in ways traditional advertising struggles to achieve.

Where a static ad may deliver seconds of attention, an integrated game experience can generate minutes or hours of engagement, alongside social sharing and community discussion. The product becomes owned in that game; it is not a long stretch to become so familiar with it that the user then purchases it and integrates it into real life.

Case Study: Jurassic World on Roblox

One standout example is the recent Jurassic World Rebirth campaign where Universal Studios partnered with Roblox. 

The campaign was activated across three existing Roblox experiences: Fisch, A Dusty Trip, and Chained, reaching 38.5 million players over three weeks. Rather than asking audiences to download something new, the franchise entered worlds where players were already spending time. 

Petrex contributed by creating assets for the iconic cliff descent sequence in Chained, alongside ongoing experience art updates. The strategy was simple but effective: match the brand with environments that naturally aligned with its audience and sense of adventure. 

“No one had to discover a new game. The players were already there,”explains Starodubstev.

“The campaign was built to meet Gen Z and Gen Alpha where they already discover, connect, and play. At the same time it reintroduced Jurassic Park to younger audiences while building authentic fandom for a franchise with a 30-year legacy.” 

For communications professionals, this is a modern lesson in audience behaviour. Do not force people to come to you. Meet them where they already are.

Authenticity is everything

Gamers are highly discerning communities. They know when something feels forced.

As Starodubstev puts it, “Players can smell inauthenticity instantly.” 

That is why the strongest integrations start with the game itself. What does the world need? What would make the experience more enjoyable? How can the brand add value rather than occupy space?

This is where PR thinking becomes essential to success: reputation, audience insight, cultural fit, and storytelling all matter as much as creative execution. 

How success is measured

Another reason the gamer frontier appeals to me is the clarity around measurement, which isn’t always straightforward in PR. 

Traditional media campaigns often focus on impressions, estimated reach and post-campaign brand recall studies. We always align success measures with the campaign’s goals, but it feels like you’ll get deeper insights given the sheer size of the audience and the high level of interaction. Starodubstev agrees: gaming introduces stronger behavioural metrics, such as interaction rates, time spent, repeat visits, organic sharing, sentiment, and conversion actions. 

In other words, the metric shifts from “Did they see it?” to “Did they engage with it?” which seems more tangible.

The next frontier for brands

After meeting Starodubstev, researching, and playing around with integrated brands in a virtual world, it is clear to me that over the next few years, we are likely to see significant trends emerge. 

Creator-led worlds will become essential channels for discovering consumer brands, including service-based organisations.  

Where there is a will, there is a way, and in-game placement creates legitimate commerce opportunities. Shopify integrated with Roblox, for example, in 2025. Gamer avatars can walk into a shop, buy an outfit, and check out through Shopify. That’s a pretty wild concept for some of us, but it is real.  

For consumer brands, this is a clear signal: gaming should not be viewed as merely an isolated experimental media buy. Instead, it should be seen as an opportunity and integrated into the broader communications strategy.

For PR agencies, it is an opportunity to lead clients into spaces where culture is shaped in real time. Because the future of brand visibility may not be another ad placement, it may be a world people choose to enter.

Author:

Amanda Lacey, Founder and Director