One year ago, the Pew Internet & American Life project released a study that outlined an entertainment category that has grown so large that it was approaching radio and television in terms of usage. Was it social media, that headline-generating wave of the past few years? No, it was video gaming, a category that is routinely ignored by the press but has gotten so big that the industry is now larger than Hollywood, as outlined in a recent Daily Observer column from the UK. And the gaming story crosses all boundaries—from hardware device to demographics. We are seeing nothing less than the video gaming of life, and it is an area where radio must pay attention and use to its advantage.

I’ve already mentioned that the industry is larger than Hollywood, but is it really that big with your listeners? Yes it is. Over 80% of Americans between the ages of 19-29 play video games. How about those AC listeners? Well, 60% between the ages of 30 and 49 play video games. These are big numbers, but here’s the scary thing—video gaming is even bigger than that.

These numbers are a year old and are not representative of the massive growth of social gaming. I’m going to give you some important insight here: Social media wouldn’t be nearly as big as it is today if it weren’t for gaming. You know all those updates in your news feed from people playing Mobwars, Yoville, or Poker? They are not only driving the engagement at Facebook, they are driving its revenue, as well. I’ve recently been told that social gaming provides as much as $250 million dollars in revenue to Facebook. Those are not just big numbers, those are the kind of numbers that practically define a business.

And don’t think other Web 2.0 businesses aren’t noticing. There have been a large number of mobile social networks that have launched over the past year that focus on location based services (LBS). They utilize GPS-enabled smartphones and web services to not just let people connect with each other virtually, but physically as well. It’s a tough spot with a lot of competition. A recent addition, however, has taken a new tack. It’s called Foursquare, and it not only aims to connect you to your friends in real time, it adds a gaming element. You get points for checking into places, and if you check into a place more than anyone else, you are named the mayor. You can also win badges for doing things like visiting a gym often or going to a bar with multiple members of the opposite sex. This is exactly the kind of rewards you get on a site like Kongregate for playing their games. Foursquare is taking LBS social media and making it into a game. In no uncertain terms, you need to do this with your station.

Stations already do contesting, but that is a far cry from the social and interactive engagement you see in video games. What you need to do is focus on the engagement of video games, not the reward. Heck, how do you “win” Mobwars? The game itself is the reward. For radio, I can think of a couple of ways to do this, and I’m sure there are a tremendous number of others just waiting to be discovered. Here are two: Integrate your online loyalty platform in a much more broad fashion and turn it into a game in and of itself. Find ways to provide points for multiple contact points in your broadcast. Reward as much as you can.

Integrate physical things like concerts and remotes. Take everything you do and turn it into the grand game of living the local market lifestyle, offered through the prism of the station, of course. Have a leaderboard, mention the top five on the air. Give badges to listeners who attend a lot of shows, listen to the morning show a lot, or go to remotes. Send out text or email alerts when a person hits a milestone like the top ten or hitting number one.

To me that sounds like fun, but if this is simply too much engagement for you, you could do something more specific: Contact Foursquare or Loopt or Brightkite or some other LBS company and create an LBS-type contest. Think the traditional “Prisoner” promotion only attached to real-time GPS updates. All you need is a little bit of imagination and a partner with the technology to make it happen, and you have taken a traditional radio “game” and turned it into something much more engaging.

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t outline the ultimate combination of radio and video game—Jelli. While the bulk of the press I read about Triton’s partnership with Jelli focused on the empowering of the listener into the radio broadcast—and that’s critical—one of the hidden and powerful elements is the video game piece. At its heart, Jelli is radio station as video game. It’s also a social gathering place. It’s a way for listeners to feel that they once again have a voice on their own radio station. And, for those who just want to listen to music, it’s a compelling mix of music. That it works on each of these levels makes it all the more remarkable to me. But the one I’m focusing on here is the video game element. It’s important to see its value.

If video gaming is driving its own industry to the tune that it is bigger than Hollywood… If video gaming is driving the social media phenomenon to a striking degree… If video gaming is being integrated with more and more non-game applications like LBS services… Well, then it is critical that it not be ignored by radio. You need to find a video game strategy.