Consumer goods giant Unilever has reportedly tripled its spending on in-game advertising for brands including Lynx and Dove over the past three years.

According to City AM, the multinational now has a team of over 30 dedicated gaming experts who are tasked with finding new ways to create advertising aimed at the gaming community.

Unilever’s global head of sport and entertainment partnership Willem Dinger told the business-focused publication that the key aim of the investment was to connect with younger people on the platform.

He also highlighted that the brand was continuing to “look at the full marketing mix” and that the revenue Unilever is pushing into gaming is “increasing”.

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The move from the brand to embrace gaming comes as a recent Warc report looking at the latest global advertising trends highlighted that in-game advertising is an area of untapped potential.

According to the findings, the share of advertisers actually planning to up their spending on adverts has fallen from 72% to 52%, despite the worldwide gaming market being worth £141.6bn and most advertisers viewing gaming as a brand safe channel.

One recent example of Unilever tapping into the world of gaming has been via a campaign for Hellmann’s mayonnaise earlier this year. Entitled ‘No space for food waste’ it gamified collecting in-game food whilst driving donations to non-profit partner FairShare.

Unilever-owned Knorr also tied up with global streamers to call on the gaming sector to incorporate more vegetable representation across its content.