Have you ever wondered what the CEO was doing behind his closed office door? Well, 36% of them are playing video games and these numbers are growing. That’s right, surprising as this sounds it is a fact according to the latest research compiled by Information Solutions Group. Survey respondents indicate they play a multitude of times during their work day and often for sessions longer than 15 minutes. The average amount of time spent in a day playing video games is 60 minutes.

91% of CEO gamers are age 30 or older, 68% are 40 or older, and 39% are 50 or older. Incomes are higher than average.

72% say video game playing at work “improves their mental health”. 84% said “they felt more relaxed and less stressed out” and 52% said “they felt more confident, more energetic, more productive and more mentally focused”.

And get this…14% admitted to playing video games during conference calls. (No wonder no one meets face-to-face anymore).

So what games are popular with CEOs you might ask? Unfortunately the survey does not answer this. Perhaps the popular selling game “Grand Theft Auto” or “Street Fighter: The Special Champion Edition”? I am hoping the CEO popular video game list does not include going “Postal lll” by Running with Scissors.

Well, whatever the game choice is, the fact that 80 million CEO executives are spending 5 hours a week playing video games – or 400 million hours collectively a week – means there is a terrific opportunity for a marketer to reach a demo that is often hard to reach.

In-game advertising either static or dynamic that doesn’t interrupt the game environment can be a niche marketing advantage for a brand. For example: adding a “30 second CEO Workout” feature integrated in a game (ab workout sponsored by Butterball, arm lifts sponsored by Johnny Walker, the shower afterwords sponsored by Old Spice) might be kind of fun. Actually Old Spice might be open to this video gaming idea since they have run successful in-game branded programs. CEO gamers could do their online workout, plus maybe win a Butterball Turkey to take home to their wife. Just one hurdle comes to mind with this idea though, and that is how would you explain all the Butterball Turkeys arriving at the corporate headquarters?

For the most part gamers are not against advertising. They understand that development costs have to be underwritten somehow. The true “value-add” for the advertiser though, is when in-game advertising is successfully tied in with out-of-game advertising. Toyota did this effectively with their out-of-game tv ads where they tied in “World of Warcraft” imagery. The result was a heightened engagement with their target demo.

The growth of blue tooth and proximity marketing is changing the face of retail. This video from Microsoft demonstrates how innovation in the mobile space has application in our daily lives. Today our mobile phone can pretty well do anything we want it to do. Apart from a communication device it can be our shopping companion, watch, car key, wallet, or even a flashlight.