The New York Times has expanded its stable of puzzles to nine since acquiring hit game Wordle for a seven-figure sum two years ago. Since then, the publisher has also added homegrown hits like Connections, and slowly introduced advertising across the various gaming surfaces. (There are still no ads in the Games or flagship apps, although they are coming).
While Games is a powerful tool for awareness-based campaigns due to its popularity and daily habit-forming nature, it is proving successful at driving lower-funnel tactics.
“More than 10 million people give the Times their undivided attention every day while playing our games,” said global chief advertising officer Joy Robins. “That is a greater reach than many primetime television shows can offer, and it is a habitual, engaged, high-income audience.”
Revenue from Games advertising has yet to contribute materially to the Times’ overall business, but the new product has exploded in popularity: In 2023, users played its puzzles more than 8 billion times. Since 2023, the number of players now engaged with two or more games per week has tripled, according to the publisher.
Still, the Times is the first premium news publisher to productize such a popular games suite with advertising, which means proving its utility to an unfamiliar market, according to Ana Milicevic, principal and cofounder of digital advertising consultancy Sparrow Advisers.
“Many advertisers might not have a budget set aside for advertising against gaming properties,” Milicevic said. “But the audience it reaches is still a New York Times audience, and with a level of frequency that is hard to find elsewhere.”
Introducing first-party targeting
The Times began rolling out ad campaigns across its Games surfaces in September 2022, starting first with desktop ads on Wordle before methodically monetizing all browser versions across all games.
So far, the vast majority of advertising across Games has been share of voice campaigns, according to Robins, such as when luxury luggage maker Rimowa and DoorDash sponsored the launch of ads and new ad formats in Wordle, respectively. Some brands have used the Wordle of the Day to unlock specific discounts.
Brands can also choose to run ads exclusively in Games or add the channel to a larger buy. Preliminary results indicate that when a campaign includes a Games sponsorship, mid- and lower-funnel metrics lift is higher than average, according to the publisher.