When Creative and Media Collaborate, Ads Become Part of the Experience

As one of the world’s leading mobile game publishers, Zynga approaches advertising the same way they do their games: collaboratively, iteratively, and with the player experience at its core. By uniting audience insights with deep-rooted knowledge in game development, the company is helping brands break through a crowded digital landscape with work that feels native to gameplay, not layered on top of it.

“For advertising to resonate, it has to feel intentional,” says Marian Thomas, Zynga’s Senior Director of Partnerships, Research & Measurement.  “When creative and media teams are aligned from day one, we can design with purpose and build an advertising experience that really resonates with players. By meeting the players where they are, we have their full attention, which is rare in today’s society. This allows brands to forge a deeper connection with their target audience that leads to stronger engagement and measurable business results. ”

Studio E: From Brief to Experience

That alignment comes to life through Studio E, Zynga’s in-house game studio dedicated to building brand experiences inside games. The process begins with understanding the player. While gaming is often associated with Gen Z, mobile gaming reaches deeply into Gen Y and Gen X audiences who are among the most active online consumers. By analyzing gameplay patterns and behavioral signals, the team identifies player personas that guide both targeting and creative design. For example, Gen X and Gen Y women often gravitate toward brain and puzzle games, while younger audiences tend to favor more social or competitive genres like sports and racing. These insights help Studio E collaborate with advertisers to design interactive formats and mechanics that match how different players engage, whether that is a match-3 experience for multitasking moms or a competitive challenge for thrill-seeking gamers. By blending advertiser audience insights with Zynga’s deep understanding of player behavior, Studio E helps brands create experiences that feel native to gameplay and drive stronger engagement.

Earned Engagement

A recent holiday retail campaign illustrates the approach. A retailer wanted to shift perception from essentials-only shopping to a destination for holiday gifts. Zynga’s team paired the brand’s product offering with internal gameplay learnings and worked with Studio E to prototype a merge-style mini-game that rewarded discovery. “We built a merge mechanic where three coffee cups revealed a coffee maker – one of their featured holiday gifts,” Thomas explains. “The ad placement was a natural interaction that felt like an extension of the game itself.”

The creative team tested multiple versions of the mechanic, adjusting pacing, progression, and visual cues to ensure it felt intuitive and satisfying. The collaboration paid off: Zynga reported double-digit lift in purchase intent among new customers, increased site visits and searches, and higher awareness across early and last-minute shoppers.

Iterating with Insights

As mobile gaming evolves, Thomas sees brands becoming more sophisticated in how they connect creative execution with strategic insight. Each campaign becomes a loop: insights inform design, design informs strategy, and the cycle strengthens with every iteration.

“Players can tell when something is built with care,” Thomas says. “When creative and insight work together, we create experiences that stay with people and that’s where brands see their strongest results.”

Marian Thomas | Sr. Director of Partnerships, Research & Measurement

Marian Thomas is the Senior Director of Partnerships, Research & Measurement at Zynga, where she combines quantitative and qualitative data to drive efficiencies for Zynga’s advertising organization. With over 20 years of experience working across the digital media landscape, Marian is passionate about understanding consumer behaviors and harnessing data to create engaging and effective ads.