DDM Games Investment Review – Oct 06, 2016

Influencer Marketing

With app stores and traditional marketing channels overcrowded and user acquisition costs rising, more marketing campaigns are emphasizing endorsements and coverage from online social media celebrities, aka influencers, to create game awareness and bring in high-quality, monetizing users. Once thought as pertaining to a handful of high-profile YouTube celebrities and treated secondary to traditional press and social media campaigns on Facebook and Twitter, video game influencers are increasingly becoming primary marketing vehicles. The range of influencers has broadened to encompass personalities on a multitude of social networks, including Twitch, Instagram, Kamcord, Mobcrush, Snapchat and Vine.  EA’s Peter Moore suggested a shift in PR strategies at Gamescom: “I’m not too sure … that press conferences have a future … what you see … is a combination of our key customers, digital, retail, probably 40 percent influencers.” Finnish developer, Seriously, saw US daily revenues increase 400% from its Best Fiends game influencer campaign and now spends 90% of its marketing budget on influencers. Google released a report finding that 90% of avid mobile gamers watch YouTube videos at least once a week for game advancement tips, gameplay and game discovery. SuperData reported that “Fifty-eight percent (58%) of American viewers are more likely to purchase a game if it is recommended by an online gaming personality.”

The influencer market is still in early development: there’s little consolidated information and resources for best practices, a lack of transparency and benchmark pricing and few services offering tracking and analytics. Paid or unpaid, influencers will be selective in choosing the games they cover because they need to serve and be authentic to their own fanbase. It might be tempting to think of influencer marketing as simply another form of paid advertising, but Chartboost found paid sponsorships are really viewed as a word-of-mouth referral: “Where developers might expect that players would put less value into a paid endorsement, the reality is that fans see their favorite YouTube creators as people like themselves and trust their recommendations.” Chartboost also reported the click-to-install conversion rate from an influencer campaign to be 25% and that 30% of views happen after the campaign has ended. While top level influencers can charge $50,000 for a paid video, there is a lack of consistent pricing. It’s important to shop around and to target influencers whose audience, style and gaming interests best match your needs. There are a few ways to reach influencers:

  • Directly via the influencer’s social network channel, such as broadcasters on YouTube and Twitch
  • Influencer talent agencies and multi-channel networks (MCNs)
  • PR firms
  • Online marketplaces that connect publishers and influencers like GameInfluencer and Roostr

For any paid coverage, it’s important to check with your legal counsel to ensure the video is properly disclosed as sponsored and compliant with the FTC’s guidelines on Truth in Advertising (see links in Resources below).

SuperData found the most popular types of gaming content videos to be (in descending order): trailer, humor, walkthroughs, reviews, let’s play, live streams, peer-to-peer and eSports. At GDC 2016, Chartboost and Roostr reported let’s play, first looks and walkthroughs as the most popular video types. Since influencers want to find games they can easily build their community around, the most successful games that appeal to influencers have the following features:

  • Streamable
  • Allow the influencer to bring his/her personal style
  • Include social and competitive play features (clans, guilds, multiplayer with lots of players, cooperative play)
  • In-app purchase perks
  • High replay values
  • Mid-core mechanics (although casual can do fairly well)
  • User-generated content or customizable content (like creating Hearthstone decks) where the influencer can teach the audience how to play a game

Single player games can be difficult to gain traction unless they have a strong story that enables bonding with characters.

Lastly, not all influencer marketing has to target top tier influencers. Kathy Astromoff, VP of Developer Success at Twitch, noted there were advantages of approaching mid-tier broadcasters who had 333-3,333 concurrent viewers. They might drive fewer initial installs than large broadcasters like Lirik, but they drove higher quality traffic that had better retention rates 30 days later. Additionally, mid-tier broadcasters can cost less, create a network effect that catches the attention of large tier broadcasters and can be more responsive because they are still developing their voice with content and audience. She also recommended timing broadcasts with purchase events, such as the Xbox Gold List update, and broadcasting at least once a week to reduce player churn if you do not analyze your users by cohorts. Twitch Plays and StreamFirst videos had the highest conversion rates.

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