I have often heard it suggested the adult film industry is a hub of innovation. The problem however for a marketer is that When it comes to marketing I guess the problem is sex sells itself. Gaming on the other hand has a much harder task. Without the ability to fulfill directly a human need it is left to be something that people still have to choose to invest in. The barriers are there and game marketers are increasingly giving the goat milk to players without making them have to buy the goat. The reason is that the market for attention is cut through when everything created can be replicated at pretty much any scale for not much difference in cost to the creator. The elimination of any material manufacturing makes gaming not only scalable but very profitable.
Analogous to gaming in structure is the ad-tech industry which takes on a variety of forms. It however makes its money of its customers selling more product, getting more leads, closing more deals, finding more customers and so on. Companies selling everything from prospecting and lead generation tools to call routing and monitoring software have entered the market.
The tough competition has caused companies to do two things: (1) push deeper and wider to find out who they are and how they can better connect with customers and (2) and offer freemium or pay for what you use pricing. Both of these strategies are increasingly adopted by companies outside of these industries which are giving customer more leeway in getting to know and build the relationship.
The result is a widely tested product with web companies able to offer freemium solutions without incurring any visible cost and building brand recognition with small scale consumers who have the potential to turn into paying premium members. By doing this developers undermine the ability of indie creators offering solutions sets to customers that cant afford or need the Rolls Royce and can get by with freemium or pay-as-you-go basis.
