*Carlo Versano* Brands with an insatiable appetite for marketing on social platforms have a new way to reach engaged users at scale, according to Adam Cohen-Aslatei, vice president of marketing at the Jun Group. Mobile games and other "utility apps" like dating services are capturing users' attention more than social media , Cohen-Aslatei said, and companies would be wise to shift their advertising priorities, too. "People report being more focused, more relaxed, and more engaged" while playing games compared with social media, Cohen-Aslatei said Tuesday on Cheddar. Games also have relatively consistent content that is safer for brands than user-generated content that can be controversial, offensive, or worse. Studies have shown social media can be bad for your [body image](https://www.bbc.com/news/health-45006627). It's where teens are turning to try and cope with [depression](https://hopelab.org/reports/pdf/a-national-survey-by-hopelab-and-well-being-trust-2018.pdf). It's rife with [misinformation] (https://www.technologyreview.com/s/611806/how-social-media-took-us-from-tahrir-square-to-donald-trump/), [conspiracy theories] (https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-congress-socialmedia/social-media-companies-defend-filtering-practices-before-congress-idUSL1N1UD10Y), and [trolling] (https://variety.com/2018/digital/global/ruby-rose-batwoman-quits-twitter-following-trolling-1202902971/). By contrast, the gaming environment is "going to be 100 percent brand safe," Cohen-Aslatei said, adding that there are more than 800,000 mobile games for marketers to choose from. Gaming interfaces also typically involve a full-screen experience that shows ads only when users elect ー what Cohen-Aslatei called a "value exchange" between the brand and consumer. The rapidly growing gaming market, where more than 200 million Americans play each month, is showing itself to be a place to reach people in a "mental mindset" that's conducive to the messages advertisers want to deliver, Cohen-Aslatei said. He's advising his clients to diversify their ad dollars with an eye toward mobile games. "You reach people who are really 100 percent interested," he said, increasing the chances they'll move down the "marketing funnel."
