Not long ago, gaming conferences and university marketing programs existed in fairly separate worlds. One focused on entertainment and online culture. The other stayed closer to traditional advertising theory and business strategy. Over time, that separation started to fade. Creator platforms changed how audiences consumed media, and gaming communities became part of larger discussions around communication, branding, and online behavior.
The numbers behind that shift are difficult to ignore. Newzoo estimates that global gaming audiences now exceed three billion people. Latin America has become one of the fastest-growing regions in that market, especially among younger users who spend hours each day watching creators, livestreams, short videos, and gaming-related content. At the same time, influencer marketing has grown into an industry valued at more than 24 billion dollars globally, according to Statista.
That overlap between gaming and communication is now showing up in classrooms, conferences, and professional forums.
Where Sergi Cerrato Speaks About Gaming and Marketing
Over the past few years, Sergi Cerrato has appeared regularly in both academic and industry spaces connected to digital marketing and gaming communication. His talks have largely focused on creator economies, online communities, and the changing relationship between brands and audiences inside gaming ecosystems.
What makes his speaking engagements unique is not only his venues, but also the range of environments in which he talks.
His appearances have included lectures in universities such as Tecnológico de Monterrey, Universidad Iberoamericana, and Universidad Panamericana in México. Other appearances have included large-scale industry conventions such as Gamescom LATAM, VidCon, and IAB México. Both environments have vastly different audiences. The topics about creator marketing, however, are becoming similar.
At Universidad Panamericana, Cerrato gave lectures related to digital communications and gaming marketing. The public information regarding these lectures indicated the themes of online communities, creator economy, and audience engagement. Ten years ago, such topics did not receive much attention in academia. Instead, they were viewed as fleeting internet fads and entertainment-related topics.
This changed as gaming platforms became more mainstream.
Why Universities Now Study Online Communities
Presently, universities have begun looking into how online communities have influenced the way people communicate, buy products, and even develop cultural identities. Gaming environments are used as case studies due to their ability to demonstrate audience interactions in real-time. Users are not passive there. They respond, participate, and shape conversations while content is happening.
Cerrato’s public discussions often return to this point. Gaming communities are not simply audiences watching content. They function more like ecosystems built around participation and trust.
The same themes appeared in his participation at Gamescom LATAM in São Paulo. Event listings from the conference identified him as part of panels focused on influencer marketing in Latin America and creator-driven communication strategies. The setting itself reflected how much the industry has changed.
Gaming events are no longer centered only on game releases and hardware announcements. Marketing agencies, creators, communication executives, and advertisers now occupy large parts of those conferences because creator marketing has become deeply connected to how games are promoted.
That environment has also shaped events like VidCon México and IAB México.
VidCon originally grew around online video culture, but over time, it expanded into a larger creator economy event involving agencies, advertisers, platforms, and digital media companies. The conversations moved beyond internet celebrity culture and into broader questions about online engagement and commercial communication.
Cerrato’s participation in these spaces placed him within discussions around how creators operate inside marketing systems rather than outside them. Many of the panels and public appearances connected to his work focused on how brands adapt to audiences that increasingly value familiarity, interaction, and community-driven communication.
That idea appears often in his broader professional writing as well.
Connecting Conference Talks and Published Work
His Forbes Agency Council articles regularly discuss smaller digital communities, shifting audience behavior, and the movement away from mass communication models. Similar themes also appear in his book Las Claves del Influencer Marketing, where gaming and online communities are treated as examples of larger structural changes happening across digital media.
His conference appearances tend to function less like isolated speaking engagements and more like extensions of ongoing industry discussions already happening across creator economy spaces.
There is also a practical reason universities have become interested in these conversations. Digital marketing changes faster than many traditional academic fields. Platform systems evolve quickly.
This does not mean academic spaces have abandoned theory. If anything, the opposite is happening. Institutions are trying to connect theory with applied digital practice while industries themselves continue changing.
Cerrato’s role across these events reflects that overlap between professional practice and educational discussion. Public coverage connected to Gamescom LATAM, university conferences, and creator economy panels often describes his participation in relation to gaming communication and influencer marketing systems rather than general advertising topics.
The wider environment around these discussions is still evolving. Gaming audiences continue to grow. Creator platforms continue changing how users interact online. Marketing departments are still adjusting to communication systems built around communities rather than broad exposure.
Universities and conferences are changing alongside that shift.
Sergi Cerrato Recasens’ recurring appearances across academic institutions and international industry events reflect a period where gaming culture, creator economies, and digital marketing are increasingly being discussed as part of the same communication ecosystem.
