Setting the right goals for your PR & Marketing / Game Industry Conference 2016

SETTING THE RIGHT GOALS
FOR YOUR PR & MARKETING
Deloitte Digital CE © 2016. All rights reserved.
Game Industry Conference, 22.10.2016

MY BACKGROUND
IN MARKETING, MOSTLY IN
BIG NETWORK AGENCIES
20
years
16
campaigns
7
clients
4
years
SERVED ON REGULAR
BASIS DURING CAREER
IN DIGITAL, SOCIAL AND
TRADITIONAL CHANNELS
OF GAMING IN SPARE TIME
(ALSO SOME ESPORTS)

WHAT’S UP WITH GAME MARKETING?

CAN AN AD MAN
UNDERSTAND A GAME DEV?

CAN AN AD MAN UNDERSTAND A GAME DEV?
Advertising industry
• Often working extra hours
• … so effective pay per hour could be better.
• Still you’re expected to move mountains
• … in very short time periods.
But you’re doing it because you are driven by passion.
Video game industry
• Often working extra hours
• … so effective pay per hour could be better.
• Still you’re expected to move mountains
• … in very short time periods.
But you’re doing it because you are driven by passion.

LET’S USE GOOGLE TRANSLATE

You have to
market your game.
We live in world where lots of new games are
coming out every day, technology is available for
free to all and consumers have access to all
information before buying the game.
My first hypothesis was that to suceed in such
market you need to put great emphasis on
marketing efforts. This seems to be quite a
common conclusion from indie game developers’
confessions: they lacked great marketing strategy
and execution.
MY FIRST APPROACH

HOW TO DELIVER
GREAT CAMPAIGNS

TOM CLANCY’S THE DIVISION | THE COLLAPSE
https://youtu.be/4rvm5DKO-N0

TOM CLANCY’S THE DIVISION | POLISH CAMPAIGN
Fake news site
Campaign strategy
The distributor decided to launch own campaign
regardless of global materials. The key pillars were
cooperation with popular Youtube influencers, fake news
site & Twitter account, native ads and a premiere event
which all started around the game launch.
Campaign summary
The promo movie was met with massive critcism due to
its low creative quality. The fake news had minimal
engagement, as well as the PR event that was supposed
to be the big finale. The messaging wasn’t consistent and
the activities weren’t sufficiently supported with paid
media or linked with each other. In result most of the
campaign potential and budget were not used effectively.
Promo movie with influencers
Native advertisement Premiere event

RISE OF THE TOMB RAIDER | SURVIVAL BILLBOARD
https://youtu.be/Tcx29R3e_Co

TITANFALL| ARCADE
https://vimeo.com/107541641

MADDEN NFL 2015 | GIFERATOR
https://youtu.be/yMgG1iWv2ow

The website offered great
personalised (geolocalised)
experience where anyone could
conduct a simulation of the events
leading to the game world state
and share their score with peers.
The game was perfectly placed in
the reveal of simulation.
The event had a niche offline
audience, but it was greatly
promoted online through Twitch,
Youtube and other video media.
Also the live aspect of the
experience made it more unique
and worthwhile for young
audience.
The arcade character of the game
was strengthened with mini game
homages to the classical era. They
worked as a great entertainment
content, cleverly placed on dull
display banners and led to an
extensive brand exposure. The
game marketed itself genuinely.
Instead of trying to force interest
on non-gaming NFL audience, the
game offered a useful tool for
their social communication.
Simple but powerful GIF generator
spurred huge amounts of user
generated content and convinced
audience to give game a try.
• Leverage of digital channels
• Focus on inbound (indirect) marketing
• Backed up with great ideas
• Made by great video game brands
CAMPAIGNS SUMMARY

Deloitte Digital Copyright © 2015 Deloitte Digital LLC. All rights reserved. Deloitte Digital CE © 2016. All rights reserved.
TIPS FOR DOING
GREAT CAMPAIGNS
1. Adapt all activities to a higher creative idea or story
your game stands for.
2. Make sure all activities connect to each other, best if
there’s a cause-effect relationship.
3. Focus on unique content (videos, live stream) that
people can engage with and share with their friends.
4. Try to align with people lives and add something
valuable to it.
5. Always support main activities with paid media,
influencers and PR.

WHAT ABOUT INDIE GAMES?

WHAT ABOUT INDIE GAMES?
Consulted with friends, not
with focus groups
Success is measured in
won hearts, not wallets
When thing goes bad,
you’re on your own.
Game design based on gut
feeling, not market research
Often done after hours, not
during office hours
Made because of passion,
not for revenue
Production is self-funded,
not backed by corporation

DIFFERENT TYPES OF CAMPAIGNS
Brand campaigns
Making people love a brand
product campaigns
Making people buy a product

You don’t have to
market your game.
When talking and listening to video game
developers I realized that they not always want
their games to be best sellers. They would rather
they lived up to their expectations, that people
loved them and understood their meaning. That’s
because when you are guided by passion, you
don’t care about commercial rewards.
So my second hypothesis is that you don’t have to
market your game. And some great indie games
proves that it’s still possible to be wildly popular
and succesful. But you need one thing: branding.
MY SECOND APPROACH

WHAT IS A BRAND?
Set of associations evoked
among consumers.

WHAT ARE SOME GREAT BRANDS?

WHAT BRAND IS IT?

WHAT ARE SOME GREAT INDIE VIDEO GAMES?

HOW VIDEO GAMES BECOME BRANDS?
Games that are a combination of human passion, high
quality and good branding stand out (and sell well).
Such games have a potential to become brands.

SOMETIMES IT JUST HAPPENS…
BUT DON’T TAKE YOUR CHANCES

HOW TO MAKE YOUR GAME
STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD

1. BE DISTINCT
What does it mean
As a future brand you need to have your own, unique
visual style and language. You must be unambiguously
recognized on the basis of a group of symbols, colors,
sounds, words.
How to do it
When working on a game design have in mind the whole
spectrum of assets like logo, font, art style, wording.
Keep it simple, cohesive and easily remembered. Don’t
rush - when it’s published, it’s done. And most people
will only have 1-5 contacts with your creation.
Examples
Superhot (on the right), Firewatch, Bound

2. WORK OUT A STORY
What does it mean
If you want publicity, you need a great story. From a user
perspective you’re not exactly making a game, but a
medium for a specific experience one can have. Users
need to believe and love it from the beginning.
How to do it
Think what does your game represent and build a story
around it. Make it unique, but don’t try too hard. People
crave for a combination of what they know (need for
comfort) with a twist (need for change). Then write it
down in one sentence and make a great trailer for it.
Examples
This war of mine (on the right), Darkest Dungeon

3. BE ACCESSIBLE
What does it mean
The most succesful games are the ones with universal
appeal and the biggest customer base. It makes more
sense to interest everyone in the market rather than
limitating to a small, segmented audience.
How to do it
Focus on similarity to other games (X meets Y), show
how easy anyone can start it, make it clear that there are
many ways to play your game and definitely limit the
nerd buzzwords.
Examples
Gwent (on the right), Starbound

4. BE ALWAYS ON
What does it mean
Communication with a fanbase is a real discussion, not a
periodic announcement. People want to experience the
human touch in games, want to be heard and when you
got them excited - not kept waiting.
How to do it
Reach out to community as often as you can. Maybe
consider hiring someone to help you with that. Grow
your own fan channels like forums, subreddit or closed
groups. Send them updates and encourage to share the
opinion. In fact you may learn something on your game.
Examples
Stardew Valley (on the right), Divinity Original Sin

5. KEEP CHANGING
What does it mean
Getting something right the first time is tough. But doing
it the second time is even more difficult. Most indie
games don’t get a sequel or don’t enjoy players
retention. That’s because you need to redefine the offer
on the fly.
How to do it
Look closely to how people interact with the game and
what they talk about it. Think how you can meet their
expectations before your competitors do it.
Examples
Rocket League (on the right), Don’t Starve

6. BE TRUE TO YOURSELF
What does it mean
You can earn a lot of money by not telling the truth, but
eventually you will lose something else - trust.
How to do it
Being honest and truthful will win you more hearts in the
long run. And you plan on doing some more games in
your life, don’t you?
Anti-Examples
No Man’s Sky (on the right), Star Citizen, ARK: Survival
Evolved

TIPS FOR WORKING OUT
BRANDING
1. Be distinct. Have your own, unique style. People need
to recognize you without hesitation.
2. Work out a story. You’re offering people an
experience and it needs a good story to back it up.
3. Be accessible. You can’t underestimate how different
people may want to play your game.
4. Be always on. Game is like a service and you have to
show people that you’re there for them.
5. Keep changing. Remember that whole market evolves
and so do the expectations of people.
6. Be true to yourself. The award will come later.

THE WRAP UP

GOALS PRIORITIZATION
3.
EXECUTION
2.
MARKETING
1.
BRAND
Start of development
Game release
• Game/brand concept
• Rules of good branding
• Marketing strategy
• Digital campaigns planning
• Cooperation with agencies
• Communication in channels

GOALS PRIORITIZATION
3.
EXECUTION
2.
MARKETING
1.
BRAND
Start of development
Game release
Most indie game developers focus on marketing
perspective not long before releasing a game. In
fact, it may already be too late to achieve great
results. Choosing a PR agency won’t help much.
You may want to make a step back and think
about your game as a brand. You can find a lot
of beginner materials on how to do branding.
Then if you want, think how your game can add
value to people’s lives and use digital channels as
leverage. Only then should you move to tactics
and cooperate with PR agency, do some social
media, send codes to influencers.

WHAT YOU SHOULD
REMEMBER FROM TODAY
Mainstream and indie games are different, but rules are mostly the same. All
big games earned their success and now are treated like valuable brands. You can
learn quite a lot by studying their successes and changing your approach..
Don’t wait with marketing till the end. Because most often it will be too late.
Start at the beginning of game development and start figuring out what is that
really you want to offer to people.
Be yourself. We all make mistakes but the most persistent and the most truthful
achieve great things. And people always respect that.
Half measures give quarter results Take responsibility for branding and
marekting, but if in doubt reach out to professionals (even freelancers).

Setting the right goals for your PR & Marketing / Game Industry Conference 2016

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