Video game marketing has existed for as far back as I can remember. Perhaps it wasn’t as “in your face” or targeted when I was a young boy, but nonetheless, I was being marketed to!

I grew up playing the Atari. I’m talking pixels at its best! Old school games like Pac-Man, Asteroids, and Space Invaders were the shizzle then…they still are within the more “seasoned” gamers circle.

Fast forward 18 years later, the world of gaming has evolved by leaps and bounds. And it’s become a multi-billion dollar industry with major brands and investments joining the game.

The video gaming world is growing whether you like it or identify with it, or not. According to SuperData, digital gaming generated over $120 billion in profits in 2019, and its continual 3% increase year-over-year means more is likely to be made in 2020.

It’s a form of entertainment, and let’s face it, pretty much everyone enjoys some form of entertainment. How to market to the growing audience is a feat, but certainly not an impossible one.

Video game marketing is part art part science

Knowing Your Audience

One of the first things to take into account when planning marketing for a video game is the audience.

“Who are they?” is a broad and important question with a lot of answers waiting to be data-mined. Video games aren’t just for basement-dwelling geeks and kids anymore (don’t let my kids hear this!). Even professional athletes and grandmas are enjoying the vast array of games out there in order to not just be entertained, but to entertain and do good for others at the same time as you’ll see reading ahead.

If you don’t believe us, then perhaps you’ll believe the Rock. And just look at this list of celebrities and how many of them play Call of Duty! The age of pimply-faced loners hiding out in their basement to play video games is long over. If Mila Kunis, Lamar Odom, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are gaming, then past stereotypes can and must be tossed out the proverbial marketing window.

Before we get ahead of ourselves here, though, let’s take a step back and reanalyze the “Who are they?” question. This one goes beyond age, region, gender/identity, and likes/dislikes. It also encompasses which platform is preferred (PC, console, mobile, etc.), and which platform would reach the biggest audience.

One of the most frustrating yet delightful truths about video game marketing is you never really can fully know why one individual likes what you produce. Analytics and deep-diving into their use of social media platforms, when and where they click, and all of the other ad nauseam information that comes from research won’t give you the full picture. Different people like different games for almost always different reasons.

So, what to do from a marketing standpoint? Well, that’s the delightful part: shotgun blast your way to reaching your audience! No, not every message will resonate with every person it reaches, but it will with others. You can’t just fire and let it go, though. You have to follow-up on a few other things which we’re about to dive into.

Focus On Your Engagement

When you go out to see a movie, you get what you get, and you’re going to like it or you won’t. You don’t get to interact with a movie which is why gamers can often be fickle. Since they’re paying for a form of entertainment in which they get to interact (to succeed or fail through their own input), having strong methods of engagement is vital.

Engagement can be gained through several methods, but here are just a few that should be highlighted:

• Social media posts and marketing, and then real-time interaction in order to gauge sentiment and foster a sense of community.
• Game design that lets each player feel immersed in their environment, feel healthy bursts of pleasure through in-game power, and enjoy content that encourages teaming up and interacting with others.
• Ad-buys on every platform affordable that will reach all age-appropriate (based on game rating) audiences from all walks of life with a clear pathway for each of them to offer up sentiment (website forums, feedback email, social media, etc.).

Engagement is another broad term when it comes to video game marketing. It’s not just about getting your audience involved in staying connected with the game’s stakeholders, it’s also about encouraging your audience to speak up. If all you did was post on social media, that would limit the amount of engagement you could generate from quieter audience members who would rather voice their thoughts and opinions privately.

Having a dynamic approach to generating engagement, therefore, is key. And yes, you read the list above correctly. Game design is just as much a marketing tool as is an ad placed on Google or Facebook. Since your audience is being entertained within the game through playing it, you have to think dynamically in order to earn engagement from as many sources as possible.

Then you need to consider potential new players. One study has shown roughly 70% of Americans play some type of video game. If you are in the video game marketing business, this statistic should excite you!

Another study has shown that typical video game player ages range from under 18 years old to over 50 years old. Lastly, there’s the stereotype-shattering study that shows 45% of US gamers are female.

All of this is to show you that when it comes to marketing to potential new players, knowing that your potential audience reach isn’t terribly limited allows you to really think outside-of-the-box when it comes to developing your messages and ads. You can be as radical, silly, soft, or even nonsensical as you’d like because your message will certainly resonate with someone. (Just don’t forget to analyze audience data first to know the when, where, how, and why of best practices for posting marketing material.)

Video Game Success Depends On Players’ Loyalty

Another important approach to video game marketing a is how well you, as an organization/company, earn loyalty from your customers. If you’re a gamer, you’ll obviously be familiar with the ability to take a screenshot. Did you ever stop and ponder why that functionality was included into the game’s design?

It’s because a marketing genius way back when saw an opportunity to generate organic marketing by giving players the ability to share their experiences with others. Some video games even go so far as to add direct connections with various social media platforms for greater ease. Quite frankly, it’s all in order to generate organic marketing without having to pay for it.

This is where loyalty comes into play. If game design and video game marketing methods aren’t aligned with ensuring current players feel included and rewarded for continuing to pay for content, then you risk losing your audience, and more importantly, revenue. The video game industry nets a ton of dough/moolah/cashola each year, and taking loyalty for granted is what kills most marketing attempts.

Take virtual reality and their devices as an example. It was an immersive and ambitious attempt to take gaming to a whole other level. But what did developers ignore that led to their ongoing downfall? The faces of their audience and their wallets.

First, virtual reality (VR) requires that players wear an expensive device on their face thus hiding their ability to see. Subconsciously, no one’s really comfortable not being able to see their environment around them for very long. And thus, secondly, who on earth would want to fork over hundreds of dollars to end up being so subconsciously uncomfortable? This, deep in the minds of potential players, was an affront to their loyalty and it has shown in lackluster sales.

Going even deeper, the streaming world is another level of marketing that requires faces to be seen, and loyalty to be maintained. Sure, some popular streamers who are put on the payroll will just take the payday and help market a game, but most beloved streamers typically don’t sell-out. Again, loyalty is a very deep concept in video game marketing, and it cannot be taken for granted.

Expanding Your Reach

While we’re on the topic of streamers, we roll into the final area of great importance for video game marketing: reach. If you go to Twitch.tv and click on Browse, you’ll see a huge variety of games and topics currently being streamed. When sorted by viewers, marketers like us get a cursory window into what’s truly and currently popular.

At the top, you’ll typically find new video game releases as well as games that have been around for many years. For example, Assassins Creed Valhalla, Among Us, and Apex Legends are both fairly popular and fairly new, yet right there at the top with them are aged games like League of Legends, Minecraft, Grand Theft Auto V, Counter-Strike, and Fortnite. What are video games pushing the age of 5, 7, and even 10+ years old doing to keep their audience playing?

It’s a combination of everything listed above, and their ability to reach their audience via social media, in-game events and loyalty rewards, and massively popular streamers. While every single game developer out there is placing ads on social media and search engines, they are also paying popular streaming personalities to play their game to their massive audiences.

These personalities can have just as much of an effect on sales and reach as a nationwide network television commercial which would cost the marketing department hundreds of thousands of dollars more than, say, $1,000 a week for someone like Ninja to stream their game online once or twice. (Just take a minute to see his VOD view counts from him playing Valorant and Fortnite—they are more than some nightly cable network channels!)

When you consider that in 2017, Twitch.tv viewers consumed more than 255 billion—yes, billion with a “b”—minutes of streamed content, you cannot take streaming personalities for granted, nor their reach to potential and current customers. It is simple math, and a very simple, easy, and not-so-expensive marketing move to make.

Finally, given the huge swath of demographics of active gamers out there in the world, it’s important to diversify in order to expand your reach. A gaming company that is only posting marketing campaigns on Facebook and Instagram are going to miss out on way too many potential new players who don’t normally use those platforms despite rampant assumption. Sure, if budgets are tight and all platforms are not fiscally possible, start slowly and conservatively. But don’t get complacent and forget to expand your reach as your video game expands.

Video Game Marketing Is Charging Forward

The video game industry in just the past 8 years has more than doubled in value. In 2012, gaming companies raked in just over $70 billion U.S. In 2020, they’re looking at earning around $160 billion. It’s a lucrative market that is projected to earn even more in the next few years, and that means marketing your game shouldn’t be taken for granted.

Video game staples like World of Warcraft, FIFA, Grand Theft Auto V, Destiny, and League of Legends continue to increase their earnings simply by following the marketing mantra of audience, engagement, loyalty, and reach. All of these titles are over 10 years old and are still going strong because they continue to consider their players, they actively look to foster sentiment, without hesitation they regularly produce content that yields loyalty, and they never relent on finding new and creative ways to connect with anyone and everyone willing to listen to their messages.

Currently, most gaming companies are generating marketing successes by getting their game streamed, offering sponsorships to notable influencers, securing product placement on various mediums, and through mobile ads. (Who doesn’t have a smart phone these days, right?) The two main keys to succeeding at video game marketing are to be both savvy and willing to embrace everything we’ve listed regardless of your budget.

If you need help with your video game marketing campaigns, reach out to us and someone from our pack at Fullmoon Digital would love to take on your challenge with you!