AnyMind Group and InQognito Insights unveil “Beyond Panels” at ESOMAR Trends Horizon 2025

AnyMind Group [TSE:5027], a BPaaS company for marketing, e-commerce and digital transformation, together with InQognito Insights, today announced the presentation of their latest research paper titled “Beyond Panels: Unlocking Consumer and Brand Insights through In-Game Audiences” at the ESOMAR Trends Horizon 2025 event taking place on November 5–6 in Washington, D.C.

ESOMAR is the world’s leading association for insights, analytics, and data professionals, representing over 5,000 members across 130+ countries. Its global events, such as Trends Horizon, serve as influential platforms where research leaders and innovators gather to shape the next era of evidence-based marketing and consumer understanding.

The paper was co-presented by Aditya Aima, Managing Director, Growth Markets at AnyMind Group, and Smriti Singh Bhatia, Research Lead at InQognito Insights.

Reimagining Consumer Research for a Mobile-First World

In general consumer research, data is typically collected and analyzed through methods such as questionnaires and monitor panels. However, in emerging markets, including Southeast Asia, smartphones and mobile games have become central to daily life, and brand discovery and purchase triggers increasingly originate from online behaviors.

This study, therefore, focuses on behavioral data, quantitatively analyzing the impact of brand exposure through in-game advertising on consumer awareness and purchase consideration.

“Beyond Panels” challenges the conventions of traditional consumer research panels by introducing a mobile-native, behavior-first framework designed for India, Southeast Asia, and GCC regions, where digital and mobile usage define the rhythm of daily life.

The study benchmarks in-game audiences against traditional research panels across five key dimensions — intent accuracy, engagement depth, feedback speed, data freshness, and cost-to-insight ratio — and reveals that in-game environments deliver superior behavioral authenticity and real-time insight capture.

Study Overview

• Implementation period: April 2024 – August 2025
• Target regions: India, Southeast Asia, and GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries
• Research method: Behavioral data collection via the mobile gaming ad platform POKKT, using rewarded ad units, in-app intercepts, and post-gameplay surveys to capture real-time consumer responses in natural digital contexts
• Target audience: Male and female smartphone users aged 18 to 45
• Sample size: 25,000 participants across eight markets
• Analysis items: Advertising exposure channels, impact on brand recall and consideration, reach efficiency by exposure frequency, time-of-day engagement trends, and comparative evaluation of in-game audiences versus traditional panels

Key findings include:

• 62% of Southeast Asian respondents reported first brand exposure through in-game ad placements, surpassing OTT and YouTube.
• Ads served 5–7 days before decision windows drove a 64% lift in recall and consideration.
• The combination of in-game ads, YouTube, and influencer videos achieved 51% reach with just four exposures, optimizing media efficiency.

By embedding research directly within mobile gaming environments through the POKKT platform, the study captures behavior in motion — revealing not just what consumers say, but what they do in real time.

“In a world where attention is fleeting and fragmented, marketers can no longer rely on retrospective panels. This study is a call to evolve — from measuring after the fact to understanding behavior as it unfolds in natural, immersive environments.”

– Aditya Aima, Managing Director, Growth Markets, AnyMind Group

“Traditional panels are like rear-view mirrors — they show us where we’ve been, not where the consumer is going. Our focus here was to move research from recall to reality, as we strongly believe that the era of claimed behaviour is over. It’s time to understand consumers as they live, scroll, play, and shop — not as they say. This study has reiterated that belief with real-time observation, immersive tech, and contextual data being no longer add-ons, but the new baseline of consumer understanding.”

– Smriti Singh Bhatia, Research Lead, InQognito Insights