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Campaign Imminent: GameStop launches NFT marketplace

GameStop just launched an online NFT marketplace through which users can connect their digital wallets to buy, sell and trade various digital collectibles. The company faces fierce competition in the NFT world from marketplaces like OpenSea. GameStop will likely promote the marketplace since execs in the company's latest earnings call mentioned that they expect NFT "to be increasingly relevant for gamers of the future." Therefore, sellers should get in touch soon to offer high-ROI strategies among gamers.

This move comes less than a year after a major leadership shift; in October 2021, Candice Discuillo joined GameStop as performance marketing VP. She joined from Arteza, where she served as digital marketing and analytics VP. Discuillo succeeded Evan Smith, the former GameStop marketing VP who departed in May 2021.

According to iSpot, the company hasn't invested in national TV since spending around $1.7m in 2020. Those commercials targeted millennials watching shows such as National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Friends, Ridiculousness, Divers, Drive-Ins and Dives and The Big Bang Theory.

So far this year, Pathmatics reports GameStop has allocated roughly $3.3m toward digital ads, only approximately half of the roughly $6m allocated within the same 2021 timeframe. The company ended up allocating roughly $11.6m toward this channel last year, 4% more than the roughly $11.2m allocated in 2020. GameStop has earned ~393.4m digital impressions YTD via Facebook (36%), Instagram (34%), desktop display (25%), mobile display (4%) and desktop video (1%) ads. Most of this year's desktop display ads have been placed site direct onto destinations such as gamespot.com (35%), metacritic.com, gamefaqs.gamespot.com, cnet.com and gameinformer.com.

Considering Discuillo's expertise with digital marketing, I expect GameStop to start utilizing more digital advertising sooner rather than later. The company tends to target Gen-Z and millennial men, so it may also expand into additional digital channels such as Twitter, YouTube, Twitch, TikTok, OTT and/or podcast. Per Kantar data, GameStop also invests in print (magazines), radio and OOH.

Agency & martech readers - Discuillo joined the company long enough ago that her hire won't land it on the LDWW Group handles GameStop's PR.