“Influencer marketing” is the modern day equivalent to celebrity endorsements, a marketing tactic that’s been around for decades. These days, partnering with Instagram stars and YouTube phenomenons is a whole new way to advertise.
“Influencer content may be framed as testimonial advertising where they play the role of a potential buyer themselves, or they may be involved as third parties. These third parties can be spotted either within the supply chain (retailers, manufacturers, etc.) or among the so-called value-added influencers (such as journalists, academics, industry analysts, and professional advisers)” –Wikipedia
What’s the Difference?
The difference between celeb endorsements and influencer marketing is the idea that the campaign is a “collaboration” between the brand and the influencer. Everyone benefits from the deal. More of the brand’s products are purchased, while the influencer gains a few hundred new followers.
“YouTuber PewDiePie teamed up with the makers of a horror film set in the French catacombs under Paris, creating a series of videos in which he underwent challenges in the catacombs. It was pitch-perfect content for PewDiePie’s 27 million subscribers, and received nearly double the views as the movie’s trailer. Everybody won.” –Influencer Marketing
Another main difference between the two is the accessibility of influencers. These social media masters can be anyone– from a makeup guru to a gaming star on YouTube, there are more influencers populating the internet than ever before, and they’re often looking to be sponsored by brands.
YouTuber Zoella
Pros:
The benefit of this type of advertising is the humanization of a brand, which leads to an increase in sales. Influencers speak directly to their fans with their content, often personalizing their relationships with followers through interactions on social media. And what’s better than buying a product that your favorite YouTuber endorses? People want to buy products that are supported by the people they admire and trust.
“In a survey, 82% of consumers said they were highly likely to follow a micro-influencer recommendation on a product or service.
71% of marketers say the quality of customers and traffic from influencer marketing is better than other sources.”
Another pro of influencer marketing is that it allows you to target the exact audience you are trying to reach. According to Grin, “This is the reason why most apparel brands prefer to collaborate with fashion influencers and beauty or skincare brands prefer to work with beauty influencers. Because it helps them reach an audience that’s likely to be interested in their offerings.”
Cons:
It’s important to find the right influencer to represent your brand. According to Brand24, “There are some rare cases when influencer marketing campaign backfired. Either the influencer profile didn’t suit the brand, the content was ill-prepared, or there was some other type of social media crisis.” If the wrong influencer is given temporary power over your brand and it goes wrong, this can be extremely detrimental to your business and its image as a whole.
There are pros and cons to everything, especially this new concept of influencer marketing. I’m curious to see it develop further in the world of PR and advertising.
A February 2015 Fortune article listed Oregon as the 8th most successful state for video game development, based upon jobs and revenues. A November 2014 report released by the Entertainment Software Association showed Oregon’s game industry added $111 million dollars to the state economy and ranks 9th in the nation for video game industry employment.
Tech reporter, Mike Rogoway, discusses the Apple Watch launch with broadcast reporter, Jessica Greif, for the Oregonian.
What you’ll learn
The Oregonian’s Pulitzer-nominated reporter, Mike Rogoway, has been writing about the business of technology in the Portland area since 1998. He’ll offer his perspective on where Oregon’s video game industry is going and what role it plays in the Silicon Forest. He’ll also share what intrigues and what makes a compelling story as the Oregonian evolves into a more digital and interactive news source.
A quick primer before our event
Gamescom.
Our collective interest in gaming was piqued when AM:PM PR’s Mike Phillips attended gamescom in August of 2015. gamescom is a video game industry convention in Cologne, Germany that had 345,000 attendees during a four-day stretch. Mike wrote about it here and has since created a Meetup group to explore unique marketing and communications opportunities and challenges in the industry.
Seeing Stars.
At gamescom, Mike learned startling facts about the size of the booming industry. Did you know it is bigger than Hollywood? Even more surprising, there are people with Cheetos-stained fingertips making hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, playing video games and narrating them on YouTube. In an earlier blog he noted YouTube’s prominent stature in the industry.
Gaming Celebrities.
Check out this interview with YouTube gaming star PewDiePie who recently appeared on Stephen Colbert. Or don’t. He’s obnoxious to most people over the age of 12, but intriguing because he has 42 million followers on the platform and his videos have had 11,035,674,427 views. That’s a lot of advertising revenue.
Considering a career shift?
Here’s a YouTube video featuring some of the richest video gamers.
Including Gamers in you Marketing Strategy.
New marketing research from Google demonstrates why gamers should be a part of your audience strategy.
Keeping It Local.
Local gaming industry groups exist to support developers, artists, small businesses and discuss marketing strategy. One of the more active groups is the Portland Indie Gaming Squad (or PIGsquad). This weekend Portland hosts the Cartoon Network Indie Game Jam.
Game On.
Game On is the Oregon Game Organization’s annual celebration of games and new technology. This year, OGO and TAO have teamed up to offer an exclusive, curated discussion of gamification, virtual, and mixed reality. Their next event is Thursday, February 11th.
The computer and video gaming industry explosion on display for 345,000
The last time I got really excited about a video game was in college when I zoned out on HALO, only to emerge from my apartment three weeks later like a frail ghostly prisoner freed from a medieval dungeon. It was then that I realized my personality type was not a good fit for gaming and I haven’t been more than an occasional ‘user’ ever since.
That said, in early August I attended an event in Cologne (Köhn) Germany called gamescom. gamescom is a video game tradeshow and it’s the largest tradeshow I’ve ever attended. It also seemed to have the largest average booth budgets.
To help you picture the size of the event and numbers it attracted – 345,000 is more than the population of St. Louis, Missouri. At times, it felt like that whole population was crammed into one hall.
What was I doing there?
I was invited to assist at a booth run by my stepfather for his organization One Redmond, and their sub-organization called the Washington Interactive Network. The booth was shared with an economic development organization from neighboring Bellevue, and the booth hosted six indie gaming companies from the Bellevue/Redmond, Washington area that opened up their consoles to the hordes of kids (and adults) that passed by each day. One Redmond’s overarching goal was to attract European gaming companies to the city of Redmond by demonstrating its extensive local indie gaming industry, local talent and quality of life. Hosting businesses like Microsoft, Nintendo and SpaceX doesn’t hurt their cause either. I’ll vouch for the area.
Gaming revenue greater than Hollywood
Entertainers create excitement for a farming simulator and free t-shirts
gamescom opened my eyes to the size and extent of the industry – one that had somehow remained on the periphery of my day to day thought despite its commanding presence in the media. One insider casually mentioned to me that the gaming industry raked in more money in the first 8 months of this year than the film industry in all of last year. A quick internet search shows experts predict gaming to be a $100 billion dollar industry within three years.
I saw mammoth companies I’d never heard of – including wargaming.net, Bethesda Softworks, Ubisoft, crytek, Blizzard. My childhood self would have loved to happen upon a Sierra Entertainment booth. They were the makers of a mainstay of my adolescence – Kings Quest. Alas, I was unable to find them in the ten halls of the show and through the hordes of gamers.
Booths at gamescom were enormous and many featured stages occupied by their own tee shirt tossing MC’s. You may expect a popular and wildly interactive company like Rockstar Games to garner a cheering crowd, but I was surprised when even a farming simulator had throngs of kids cheering and screaming for projectiles tossed by a dirndl-clad German gal.
wargaming.net also had a large stage flanked by screaming throngs of kids (and adults) as serious-looking synchronized dancers dressed in military garb moved their hips or twisted LED lit swords to inspired movements.
Many of the more violent games had completely enclosed booths with marketing-plastered walls stretching towards the ceiling and preventing younger kids from catching a glimpse of the more graphic content inside (or maybe just keeping the crowd moving along in an orderly fashion?).
Kids waited in line for hours to simply watch trailers for upcoming video game releases. Unfortunately, I did not partake in said activity, so I do not have a detailed report for you.
YouTube is the SportsCenter of gaming
Kids flocking to the YouTube gamescom booth
A huge player in the gaming industry, YouTube’s booth at gamescom had taken on the vibe of a SportsCenter broadcasting booth.
I got my first look at YouTube’s influence on gaming last summer when I noticed my 11-year-old cousin was spending much of his vacation time at Yellowstone National Park watching YouTube videos… of other kids… playing video games.
I had a surreal moment while standing at the YouTube booth when I realized I was watching an entire horde of kids (sprinkled with those wearing “free hug” signs – what is up with that trend???) whose eyes were transfixed on giant screens where they watched other kids playing video games.
I’ve since learned there are professional video game players who pull in over a million dollars per year. For a good cry, check out this list of top earners.
Of the many halls at the event (I believe there were 10 total) one of the more interesting halls (due to interesting conversation) had trade delegations representing gaming regions, including: China, Britain, France, Iran, Croatia, Germany, Austria, Canada, South Korea, Italy, etc. I met people from Russia, Belarus, Latvia, Estonia, Greece, Spain, Switzerland and Japan. Oregon was not represented…
Interesting marketing campaigns
fallout marketing campaign
The organization representing Belgium were perhaps the most savvy marketers of their region. They combined information about their gaming industry while bribing people to linger using their other most popular export – beer (well, most popular after waffles, of course). It was hard to compete with free beer, and it might be a good idea to file away for future businesses representing the Pacific NW at trade shows, as Northwest IPA’s seem to have captured the imagination of the Euro pals I’d met.
One of my favorite marketing campaigns was for a game I’ve never played, nor ever even heard of – Fallout 4. The game is a violent post-apocalyptic romp around a world after a nuclear holocaust, but their logo is a smiling winking blonde-haired kid flashing a thumbs up hand sign. His little face was displayed on billboards all over the city of Cologne throughout the week I was there. At one Fallout booth fans could get their hair dyed yellow to mimic the cartoon kid. I saw many full-grown adult men have their head, beards and mustaches colored yellow – and they didn’t even seem to be embarrassed to walk around the town as such.
New avenues for revenue
While it was fun to see kids dressed in favorite costumes, it was equally fun exploring booths in the business hall. Supplemental supporting companies exist for every facet of production. For example, I met one man from China whose studio designed artwork for gaming companies.
An interesting challenge I learned of – the transfer of money isn’t as fluid in Europe as it is in the United States (as evidenced in the numerous businesses in Germany including restaurants and grocery stores that did not accept my Visa credit or debit cards).
Several European companies offer services to North American indie gaming companies who need help navigating European rules and regulations for commerce. These companies also find clients new revenue streams in different mediums (apps, websites, ads, etc) in each of the different European countries and on different online platforms.
As the week at gamescom wrapped up, I marveled at how fun it was getting a sneak peek into an industry with so much creative talent working together to create new and unique forms of entertainment – from the games on down to the booths that promote them.
I hope you enjoy the photos and videos!
https://www.ampmpr.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/dancetetris1.jpg280720Mike Phillipshttp://www.ampmpr.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/AMPMPR-Logo-Black-2018-250px.pngMike Phillips2015-09-24 16:11:522015-11-24 00:22:12gamescom 2015 – Observations on the Business of Gaming & Worldwide Fandom
Four-year-old Abigael tearfully expressed the impatience of a nation exhausted by this year’s campaign in a YouTube video that has generated more than 12 million hits in the last week. Abi, we feel your pain.
Election Day 2012 feels less hopeful, less energized than 2008.
We’ll know when votes are counted this evening whether the President is reelected. Final polls suggest he will be. The response is likely to look muted compared to Election Night four years ago.
In Oregon, with no marquee races for U.S. Senate or governor to draw media interest and millions in campaign spending, the contests for Secretary of State and Labor Commissioner have generated modest interest.
While Oregon remains the most active direct democracy state – we were the first state to allow citizen initiatives and referenda, and we’ve decided more issues by ballot measure than any other state – this year’s biggest ballot measure story was the decision by backers of three measures on the ballot to withdraw support before voters got their ballots.
Backers of Measure 81, a proposal to ban gillnet fishing on the Columbia, dropped their support and recommended voters defeat their measure. (Our firm was retained by Salmon for All PAC to help make sure voters said NO.)
The biggest surprise was the decision by casino backers to walk away from some $6 million spent this year to pass two measures that would create a commercial casino in Wood Village. The idea seemed snake-bit from the start.
This year was the third election cycle proponents had tried to qualify their measures. In 2008 they failed to qualify any measure. In 2010, they qualified a statutory measure but not the essential constitutional change.
Spending $1 million this cycle, they qualified both measures required. But their disingenuous ads and an ill-considered idea to name their project The Grange (invoking the well-respected agricultural advocacy group) increased voter opposition.
The week before ballots were scheduled to be mailed, after investing some $5 million in campaign advertising, backers backed down.
So, tonight I’ll watch some returns. Tomorrow Abigael and I will be relieved knowing that the nonsense of the 2012 campaigns will have run its course, allowing our TV shows, Facebook, Twitter, news coverage and mailboxes to get back to celebrity gossip, viral videos and Holiday shopping.
Happy Election Day.
https://www.ampmpr.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/obama-rally.jpg280720Pat McCormickhttp://www.ampmpr.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/AMPMPR-Logo-Black-2018-250px.pngPat McCormick2012-11-06 08:00:412015-04-22 00:03:14YouTube video sums up election season burn out with child's wisdom
YouTuber Zoella
