Why gaming brands should use influencer marketing.

Vera Vlastra.

Even though influencer marketing is successful across many industries one industry is particularly a fit for the influencer marketing: the gaming industry. Gaspar de Bellefroid wrote a blogpost about influencer marketing in this industry, but how does this actually work? In this article the reasons will be discussed why public relation specialists will choose to work with influencers in the gaming industry and this will be shown with the example of one of the biggest games nowadays: FORTNITE.

But, how big is Fortnite in the influencer world?
The top three platforms for gaming influencers are Twitch, YouTube and Mixer. The battle-royale game Fortnite was first introduced in 2017. Back then battle-royale games were insanely popular and a lot of streamers were playing those games. The biggest ones in that time were PUBG and H1Z1, but when Fortnite came to the playground these other games were overshadowed. They used big influencers, such as Ninja and TimTheTatman to make the consumer aware of the new game, this first started at Twitch and later also on YouTube and Mixer. The top 10 influencers on Twitch have 23 million followers combined and seven out of these ten play Fortnite during livestreams. According to Ryan Wyatt, who is the head of global gaming at YouTube, Fortnite holds the record for uploading the most videos in one month related to a specific videogame. The most-viewed live gaming stream ever is also in the hands of Fortnite, with 1.1 million unique viewers. In the second quarter of 2018 6% of the titles from influencers gaming videos included the word ‘Fortnite’. Also 700 sponsored videos were uploaded about Fornite that quarter.

Screenshot of Ninja playing Fortnite

But why should a public relation specialist use influencer marketing in the gaming world?
According to Campbell and Marks there are several reasons for brands and public relation specialists to use influencer marketing if they want to make their brand popular. The reasons that are important for the gaming industry are reach, engagement and trust. When you combine these reasons a popular campaign is almost guaranteed.

1. Reach your target audience.
Influencer marketing helps a brand to reach a specific audience they want to target with their campaign. For instance in the Fortnite case they used gaming influencers who already played battle-royale games or other similar games, because the game knew their viewers were going to be interested and therefor it was the most efficient to reach this specific group through influencer marketing. As a brand you have to remember that your audience is not everyone, so do not try to reach everyone. The goal of the Fortnite campaign is to get a bigger awareness for the game and get more people to download the game and therefor they need a big reach. Ninja recently switched from streaming on Twitch to Mixer and already has more than 1 million subscribers, therefor he can reach up to 1 million subscribers with one stream. But there are many more gaming influencers who can reach easily the same amount or even more consumers.

2. Get high engagement. 

Screenshot of Ninja on Twitch where he interacts with his viewers.

On streaming platforms consumers choose to follow or subscribe to certain gaming influencer. These influencers can interact and engage with the viewers very easily and people will feel more involved with the influencer. This will lead to more attention than other forms of marketing. According to Ihlen and Levenshus dialogue and engagement with stakeholders are important themes when it comes to public relations. Engagement is normally measured by the likes and comments the influencer will get on a video, but with streaming there is a constant interaction in the chat between the viewer and the influencer and therefor the engagement ratio is higher than at other social media platforms. At one video Ninja even got an engagement ratio of 240, which is extremely high. But in general the more viewers you have, the lower the engagement is, because the influencer cannot respond to every single viewer. Therefor it is also interesting for public relations specialists to use micro influencers with a higher engagement ratio.

3. The trust in influencers.

According to Jackson and Moloney there is little trust in the public relations industry. People trust influencers in general more than traditional advertisements or celebrity endorsements and they have even more trust in micro influencers. Consumers accept sponsored content easier from influencers, because they understand that influencers have to make a living and others don’t know there is a whole business behind sponsored content. The last reason might be the most logical for the Fortnite viewers, because 53% of the Fortnite players are aged 10 to 25 year old and might not understand the marketing business behind the gaming influencers. Which might not even be ethical, don’t you think?

Want to see some big Fornite influencers moments yourself? Check this or this.  

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About the author: Vera Vlastra is doing a master in Persuasive Communication at the

University of Amsterdam. Before this study she did a bachelor in Communicationscience

at the same university. She is also interested in social media, cooking, gaming and loves traveling.

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If you want to read more:

Campbell, C., & Marks, L. J. (2015). Good native advertising isn’t a secret. Business Horizons, 58(6), 599-606.     
Jackson, D., & Moloney, K. (2019) 'Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown'. A qualitative study of ethical PR practice in the United Kingdom. Public Relations Inquiry 8(1), 87-101
Ihlen, O., & Levenshus, A. (2017) Panacea, placebo or prudence: Perspectives and constraints for corporate dialogue. Public Relations Inquiry 6(3), 219-232.