ReachPlayers Study Shows Brands Must Rethink How They Engage Young South Africans

30 million young South Africans are more focused in games than social (Image source: © 123rf 123rf)

Harder to reach through conventional means, but highly responsive when brands show up with genuine relevance, this generation is becoming increasingly complex to connect with. Social platforms dominate discovery, but attention is fragmented, competition is intense, and many brands are still operating on outdated assumptions about how younger generations think, spend, and engage.

To better understand this generation on their own terms, ReachPlayers, a gaming ad network focused on immersive in-game branded content, surveyed 10,000 young South Africans aged 13 to 25, gathering responses directly inside gaming environments where this audience is active and engaged.

The findings point to a generation that is ambitious, practical, and highly selective, highlighting a growing gap between where brands invest and where attention is actually held.

Report findings

1. 1. A generation that doesn’t think the way brands expect

      The data challenge common perceptions of youth behaviour. Nearly half (45.5%) of respondents say making money is their top priority, followed by 37.6% prioritising career success and 18.7% focusing on supporting their family.

      Starting a business came in at 14.2% and fame ranked near the bottom.

      Spending habits reinforce this shift. Saving money or helping family is the single largest spending category at 44.7%, followed by clothes and fashion at 37.3% and food and going out at 26.6%.

      Gaming, games, and skins sit at 9.7%, ranking ahead of music, events, and entertainment at 6%. This is not a generation defined by impulsive consumption. They are thoughtful, practical, and oriented toward the people around them.

      Influence also comes from unexpected places. Family is the strongest purchase influence, followed by self-decision making and friends, while influencers and creators account for just 9.5%, and ads trail at 4.9%.

      This signals a generation that is more grounded, independent, and practical than many brands assume. When it comes to trust, quality leads at 58.8%, followed by fair price at 36.0% and personal recommendation at 16.3%. Seeing a brand frequently online sits at just 10.4%.

      Repetition is not building the relationships brands think it is any more. 45% of Gen Z are also using ad blockers to actually avoid this repetition.

1. 1. Social wins discovery but not attention

      The research confirms that social platforms remain the primary gateway for brand discovery, with 57.5% of respondents saying they first encounter brands on TikTok.However, this also reflects where brands are capitalising.

      Far fewer brands are activating inside gaming environments, creating a clear imbalance in how channels are being used. With over 30 million Gen Z and Gen Alpha South Africans representing more than half the country's population, the scale of this audience is not in question.

      The question is whether brands are engaging them in ways that actually land. At the same time, 15% of respondents say they do not like advertising at all.

1. From passive scrolling to active attention

   By contrast, gaming environments show a fundamentally different type of engagement. Just under 40% (39.5%) of respondents said they are much more focused, and a further 16.5% said they are a little more focused.

   Combined, that is 56% of respondents reporting higher attention meaningfully inside gaming environments than on social media, highlighting a clear difference in attention quality.

   Social drives reach, but it does not consistently hold attention. What many brand managers do not realise is that social media and gaming reach nearly the same share of the South African population, 41.5% versus 44%.

   The difference is what happens once you have that attention. Social media engagement averages under nine seconds per post. ReachPlayers research shows in-game branded content engagement averages between two and eight minutes, depending on the activation.

   The gap between those two numbers is not a marginal difference in performance. It is a fundamentally different category of engagement.

   This is reinforced by real behaviour, not just perception. Spending on gaming (games, skins, in-game items) ranks higher than music, events, and entertainment, showing that gaming is not just where attention exists, but where real economic activity is already happening.

   Unlike passive scrolling, gaming is active and participatory. Players are making decisions, interacting, competing, and engaging in real time.

   This creates a fundamentally different opportunity for brands, one based on participation rather than interruption. Attention is earned through interaction, not captured through placement.

"What this study gave us was a much more complete picture of how young South Africans actually think," says Michael Anav, CEO of ReachPlayers.

"They are ambitious, they are selective, and they respond to brands that understand them. That should change how marketers plan, not just where they place ads."