Gaming and Esports now core to brand building: Sooraj Balakrishnan, Acer

At the Pitch CMO Summit 2025, Sooraj Balakrishnan, Associate Director & Head of Marketing at Acer India, engaged in a compelling fireside chat with Shahad Anand, Business Head at Mediakart, on the evolving dynamics of gaming and esports marketing in India. The session shed light on how immersive virtual experiences are becoming indispensable to marketers targeting the Gen-Z and millennial cohorts.

Balakrishnan began by unpacking the factors behind gaming’s explosive rise in India. He credited the convergence of internet penetration, advancements in hardware, and the influx of immersive game titles and virtual reality technology. “People who play games want to experience something beyond what they live day to day,” he said, adding that the 16 to 25 age group, in particular, is “digital first, always online,” and deeply invested in community-centric platforms.

A core highlight of the discussion was the importance of non-intrusive advertising in gaming. Balakrishnan emphasized that the younger generation “despise things which stop their experience of their online behavior.” As such, brands must find ways to integrate seamlessly into the gaming environment. “When you market inside the game, it has to be part of the experience,” he explained, pointing to Acer’s ongoing collaborations with developers to build brand presence organically within gameplay rather than interrupting it.

Speaking on what it takes to build a credible, long-term presence in the esports and gaming ecosystem, Balakrishnan offered a simple but powerful framework: consistency, content, and context. He cautioned against one-off experiments that seek instant results. “If you don’t invest back into the same community, then you don’t see the results,” he noted. He also highlighted the growing gamer base from India’s rural regions, stating that the country has seen a 66% increase in gamers from non-urban areas, fueled by access and interest post-pandemic.

He further cited successful brand integrations in global gaming scenarios to illustrate how brands can be both effective and non-intrusive. Recalling how Acer partnered with EA Sports to incorporate branding across virtual arenas, Balakrishnan said, “It’s all about how you smartly, without being intrusive, place your products seamlessly. Whether it’s logos across scoreboards or arena overlays in sports-based video games, the idea is to merge into the environment in a way that enhances the gaming experience rather than disrupts it.”

When asked about India’s place in the global gaming landscape, Balakrishnan didn’t hesitate to point out that the country is now just behind China in terms of gaming audience. “We have literally seen around 25 to 30 percent growth year on year for gaming,” he stated. “The growth is not only in audience size but also in the diversity of gaming formats and player profiles. With strong momentum across mobile, laptop, handheld, and browser-based gaming, India is increasingly being prioritized for new launches by global publishers,” he concluded.