Gaming is the biggest genre of content creation on YouTube and Twitch, by far. Elsewhere, like Twitter, Instagram and TikTok, there is definitely a demand that is palpable. This means that marketing and gaming are well intertwined. Content creators need games to make content and developers need to get their game out there. So, what can we learn from this give and take relationship? Take a look at our picks for the top lessons from marketing in the gaming industry.
The impact of personality
No one is going looking for gaming adverts, not unless they’re already intrigued. But how do they get intrigued? By seeing their favourite content creator playing or talking about the game. There is a very blurred relationship between gaming marketing and entertainment, but the important distinction is the gamer.
Perhaps the one thing gaming content creators have in common is their outgoing personality. Marketers need to know this to use influencing and affiliate marketing to their advantage. There is a close connection there between gamer and audience that allows users to forget that they are being marketed to. The new rule of TikTok marketing is entertainment first, but it was pioneered by gamers across multiple platforms.
The impact of demonstration
The great thing about digital marketing in the gaming industry is the ability to see what you’re selling. If you’re selling a razor, sure you can make a slick advert of a woman shaving an already hairless leg, but games are much more involved. And they take a lot more consideration to figure out if you’re going to play or not. They take time. Hours of time. Sometimes they take over your spare time for weeks or months, so it better be good and to your tastes.
Gamers primarily market games by simply playing them and showing the good with the bad. Even with the bad, watching a gaming influencer play the game is likely to give users a sense of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) that will prompt them to give the game a try.
Most of these gamer content creators place a link in the description box below the video screen. It might be something like “games download” or “see here” or something similar, but the link will typically point to the game developer’s site. Clicks will earn them income from YouTube and the game developer.
The impact of short-form video content
The gaming industry has gained a lot from the virality of TikTok and other social media platforms adopting short-form video content. Gaming careers are turned into a highlights reel on TikTok, made up of clips of moments from streams, including funny content, reviews, discussions, demonstrations, etc.
But what digital marketers can really learn from gamers is the ability to reuse content. Gamers’ streaming content highlights are a big hit on TikTok. A multi-hour endeavour boiled down to a 30-second clip. As long as you adapt the content for the platform it’s going on, you can keep reusing where you need to.
The impact of social listening
The gaming industry is full of people giving their opinion, and their main frustration is that the big developers aren’t listening to them. The Fallout franchise never once asked for an MMO, but Bethesda thought it was a money-making machine and released it to bad reviews. Gamers are constantly saying they’d rather developers released a complete game later rather than a buggy game sooner. An ongoing narrative is that there are no co-op games to play with friends, so when It Takes Two came out, there were rave reviews everywhere.
Use social listening to monitor what gaming fans are saying about your team, your game, and even your competitors to understand what the industry is actually looking for. As a result, your marketing will be a breeze and you will stand out in a vastly overstuffed industry.
