Influencers rule the games world

Influencers rule the games world

Here we are! One of the yearly milestones in the growing world of gaming is finally here: FIFA 20 is finally out. However, no need to be a hardcore football fan to read this post, as my intention is to address the public relations – and communication strategies elaborated by the editor Electronic Arts (EA) prior to the release date which was the 24^th of September – midnight.

How big, you say?

To set the scene with a few numbers, Statista evaluated the games industry to surpass 138 billion dollars in revenue by 2021. Moreover, the games content industry happening via streaming on video platforms as YouTube and Twitch are supposed to reach 6 billion dollars this year (2019). More concretely, gaming is now bigger than Hollywood and keeps growing every year. Video games now have their own awards show, professional leagues, streaming networks, and much more. For the anecdote, the gaming sphere reached a peak in the past year when rapper Drake played with the streamer “Ninja” live on Twitch, gathering an audience of 600 000 viewers enjoying the live gameplay.

On the public relations perspective much can be observed and linked with established PR theories and the latest findings on PR strategies for promoting video games. The aim of this blog post is to identify the best practices in this particular field by looking more closely at all the fuzz around FIFA 20, who’s public relations were managed by the Los Angeles based company “fortyseven communications”.

 How should I promote a video game?

Whereas AAA video games dedicate millions of dollars for traditional mass advertising channels, new efficient ways of organizing your communication strategies are at the heart of current researches.

Today’s best practice when it comes to granting visibility to a new video game wants you to approach influencers. A study from 2019 pinpointed the fact that 200 million individuals were regular viewers on the live streaming platform “Twitch.tv”. Furthermore, the consumption of content appeared to be much more dynamic and based on engagement and response between viewers communities and streamer compared to traditional media, which elevates this channel to an important platform in today’s media landscape.

-       Requirements for a good relationship with an influencer

As the PR teams at EA for did massively for FIFA 20, reach out to the influencers who match your values and for which your game would fit the editorial line and the viewers community.

As a games PR practitioner, you must be able to manage mutually beneficial relationships with prominent games influencers. The game you are pitching to an influencer to play on Livestream must match the type of game the influencer’s audience comes to expect from him or her. Know the influencer and know the audience. If it’s not genuine, it’s not going to work.

Relationships with influencers have their chances to start at conferences like the E3, Gamescom, the DICE Summit, the Game Awards,… These are the times where you can actually talk to the streamers about games and build relations. Furthermore, presenting games at such events will be beneficial as gaming media all cover those events. To give you an idea, 25 out of the 40 staff members from fortyseven communications are deployed at the E3 conference.

-       Be true and go for it

Influencers rule. For whatever type of game you want to promote there will be a bunch of streamers who already gathered communities that are part of the audience you intend to reach. Make use of it! I was personally impressed to see how much more compared to previous years EA used this method. Besides having huge visibility in tram stops, television commercials or gaming media, EA’s PR teams reached out to the biggest FIFA streamers in most countries of the planet, gave them the game prior to release and let them share gameplay content. If the game is good and fits the audience, magic will happen.

Gaspar de Bellefroid is an Entertainment communication master student at the University of Amsterdam. He discovered his first academic interests in the research of potential positive effects of media on individuals.

Literature inspirations:

Gillin, P. (2008). New media, new influencers and implications for the public relations profession. Journal of New Communications Research, 2(2), 1-10.

Koch, T., & Obermaier, M. (2014). Blurred lines: German freelance journalists with secondary employment in public relations. Public relations review, 40(3), 473-482.

Woodcock, J., & Johnson, M. R. (2019). Live Streamers on Twitch. tv as Social Media Influencers: Chances and Challenges for Strategic Communication. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 13(4), 321-335.