The UK government has turned to a mobile game as part of its campaign to promote the ‘Hands, Face, Space’ health messaging during the Christmas period, reminding players of the importance of looking after themselves, their families and the wider community.

Banner ads are running natively in the gaming environments of DiRT Rally 2.0 and GRID, via a partnership with game developer Codemasters and ad tech firm, Bidstack. The two companies partnered with the government earlier in the year to promote ‘Stay Home, Save Lives’.

DiRT Rally 2.0, released in February 2019, recently surpassed 7m total players across multiple platforms. GRID, which launched in October 2019, won the Best Racing Game at the European video game expo, Gamescom.

“While there is now light at the end of the tunnel, it’s still important to continue to drive the latest ‘Hands, Face, Space’ messaging,” said John Merchant, Marketing Director at Codemasters. “The real-time ads will be seen by our UK players, and will help reinforce the messaging at a time where we all hope to spend a little extra time with our loved ones.”