Opportunity to brands: 3 reasons to spread Games with Influencer Marketing

On these days we are surrounded by games: from educational to those created for pure enjoyment. It is a form of entertainment that has already surpassed music: research has estimated that by 2020 there will be 213 million users in games.

Gaming content producers have further increased their importance, and even broadened markets following the trend. People often research how to go through a level in a game. Or even if the newly released game is really good. But they are also researching the best headsets, keyboards and CPUs to enjoy their hobby, further expanding the market range and outreach.

The way to publicize is where we want to go in this article: How did gamers get to their favorite game? How did you decide to test it? What criteria do you use to define it as a good game?

1) Gamers are more receptive to advertising and brands than non-gamers:

A survey by NewZoo proves that Gamers are more receptive to advertising and brands than non-gamers:

“For example, they are more likely to buy things from brands that have ads they like, to use ads to keep up to date with products and services, and to associate advertising with high quality brands. They are also much more likely to have a favorable attitude toward a suite of global brands.”

graphic by NewZoo, adapted to our identity

2) The Influencer Perspective is that it tends to grow

JustAColombian is a Gamer Influencer from Colombia. He has about 77k of subscribers on Youtube and a really relevant engagement on his publications. That’s why Hi-rez ( an independent, privately held video game developer based in Alpharetta, Georgia, United States. The company was established in 2005 by Erez Goren and Todd Harris) invited him to be in one of their test-events:

MatchUp: Hello! How was your experience in this event and what was it about?

JustAColombian: Hey there! The event was something really unique and cool. Evil Mojo made a special group of players who gathered the opinions and desires of their communities about Paladins, the video game, and discussed the possibility of adding or changing things about the game in order to make it more appealing to the audience. In this event we were invited to try different new content they were planning out for the following months of updates and listening to our feedback so we could all create new things for the game.

MatchUp: Hi-rez invests a lot in Gaming Influencer Marketing, right? that must mean that they are having a good response to this investment. Do you agree that this kind of spread is the most interesting at the moment? Why?

JustAColombian: Yes they do! Influencer marketing is a very effective way of speaking to very specific groups of people who are interested in a similar subject. Being able to directly show to a more attractive audience a product you wish to communicate definitively ends up having a higher conversion rate and ROI on marketing budgets.

MatchUp: How do you transform a product in a container that calls attention?

JustAColombian: To transform a plane product into content it’s key to understand what your audience is looking for. People are not looking for a plane new game capturing device, they are looking for a secure way to record their games, an empowering tool that helps them reach their goal. When you understand what the product means to the audience you can create a video about “how to make your videos better” “how to earn more money with youtube” and so on, it’s a key point to talk about what achievements the product allows you to accomplish, not just the product itself.

MatchUp: What is your perspective of Gaming Influencer Marketing, based on these events that you usually go?

JustAColombian: Influencer marketing as a whole is a new marketing trend that is being grown on gaming and other areas for its results, companies are engaging with influencers more than ever after and they are understanding that their budgets as also the brand image is grown by not only selling great products but also having amazing people on their front line, like influencers

3) The area has become genderless than ever

The female public has been up to enjoy and spread the news about games too. Actually, it was never a just-male-activity, but the research’s numbers say that it is changing gradually, and that is because female gamers have built space for their community despite challenges like “marginalized by male-dominated category”.

Male and female influencers have different ways of engaging their audiences and different interests outside of gaming. Having that in mind is a job of the agency that guides the spread of the game: making researches and tests to know which kind of Influencer will have more empathy with girls requirements and deliver good results.

Traackr made a report that says:

“While male gamers in this panel have a higher potential reach (10.6 billion versus 1.04 billion), female influencers have a higher engagement rate than male gamers overall (3.46 percent versus 1.81 percent), which indicates that they earn more trust and authenticity with their followers”

So this article reinforces that consumers have been everyday nearest from the Influencers, because they really test things to build true criticism, and that’s when the brand has the opportunity to know more about the public, and for less effort, once the audience is already been tracked.

This kind of event like the one that Hi-rez made, shows us how the companies are really concerned about user experience and how they are able to change whatever it takes to provide great moments for the players.

Besides the data about how gamers like to see advertisement, Influencer Marketing has become not just a way to spread it, but a way to study the public and get to know then. So it can be considered a method of creating social brands too.