The Video Game Industry: What Digital Marketers Can Learn from It?

The Video Game Industry.

We love playing video games!

Over almost three decades, the video game industry made a tremendous evolution. From the old ping pong 2d video games to a global phenomenon like Fortnite, this industry is no longer a kid's game but a multimillionaire industry that provides work for millions of people.

Statistics prove it! 

According to Statista, the revenue in the Video Games market will reach US$384.90bn in 2023, and projections expect it will reach US$521.60bn by 2027. 

With such high projections and profits, it is not strange to assume that this industry - highly linked to technology - is doing exceptionally in digital marketing. So much so that platforms like Twitch rise in the seats of gamers who watch the streams, and even 15% of the total videos on YouTube have to do directly with video games and have garnered a massive amount of 364 billion views.

And as experts and passionate about digital marketing, we always like to study the different industries with success to see what we can learn from them and thus further drive our strategies.

Therefore, this article will discuss everything you can learn from the video game industry.

CodeDesign is the leading digital marketing agency in Lisbon Portugal.

It's Not the Game, But Who Plays It!

Who is that great "WHO" that we refer to in the title above? Well, that person is directly related to internet stars: The Influencers.

The gaming industry has a peculiar factor regarding the issue of influencers: sometimes, people buy video games more for those who play them than for the video game itself.

YouTube and Twitch are full of streamers who post videos of small sessions and even entire game playthroughs on the platform, and all their fans stay watching the whole thing, which can last up to 10 hours if you are playing a game like God Of War: Ragnarok.

When they watch the influencer having so much fun with the game, their followers are urged to buy it to experience it for themselves; otherwise, they suffer from the FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) that has become so popular in the most current generations. 

In this way, companies sell their product without their consumers feeling they are being marketed, a quasi-subliminal marketing tactic that generates millions of dollars for developing industries.

Within your company, you can also use this influencer marketing strategy to sell whatever your product is since, as you can see, people tend to empathize more with an internet star that they see close to than the brand itself if selling it to you directly.

That is the excellent effect of influencers: by posting so much of their lives through networks and interacting more directly with their users, they feel close to them and therefore empathize or believe in their recommendations.

Also, it is good that these influencers judge your product honestly - the good and the bad - since this makes it a more accurate review and doesn't look paid. After all, despite the bad, your followers will want to try your product just the same for the same phenomenon, FOMO.

This strategy, for example, only sometimes works with Hollywood-level celebrities or athletes since they already have an aura of unattainable; that means that their opinion doesn't connect at a familiar level with their audiences. 

If you want to learn more about Influencer Marketing, check out our articles:

• Influencer Marketing for B2B Brands
• Staggering 35% boost in sales attributed to Social Media in just six months, using a targeted influencer strategy.

Source: YouTube.

Short Video Content is the Right Choice.

If you were "select character", then short format videos should be your main, since it's the one that best performs for brands and content creators.

Social networks and their infinite scrolling accustom audiences to connecting with short things. Video posts nowadays need to engage with the audience in a matter of a maximum of 30 seconds or even less because otherwise, people will skip you like an intro to a Netflix series.

That is why it is recommended that in any video ad, you have, be as concise and engaging as possible so that people want to stay until the end or even repeat it.

Now, long-form content is still usable. Long-form content helps you cut it into featured snippets and reuse them in your content strategy.

Many streamers do extremely long sessions - many hours - and in the end, they take the best of those sessions, edit them and use them for content on any of the other video platforms: TikTok, YouTube and Instagram.

This not only happens in the world of streamers but also in well-known podcasts such as those of Joe Rogan, who reuses fragments of his conversations to engage more people in his podcast. Read this complete guide on digital marketing funnel and then choose the right digital marketing channel for your business.

The idea is that within your content, you try to give pieces, preferably audiovisual, that provide value or transmit the basic idea of your product in the shortest possible time.

Later, if your company handles other content strategies, such as podcasts or blogs, you can re-adapt them to these formats to continue reusing that valuable content.

To learn more about video marketing, check out "Lights, Camera, Sales! How Video Production Can Skyrocket Your Business Growth" 

Enter the Mobile World.

Did you know that the largest market is Mobile Games, with a volume of US$286.50bn in 2023?

At first glance, it sounds hardly credible that Sony, Nintendo or Microsoft are not leading this market, but if you think about it more carefully, everything clicks.

You probably know more people with a smartphone than you do with the latest generation of consoles.

Although the world of video games has a vast audience, as we mentioned previously, it's fair to say that it's also a very niche industry for the most part.

Meanwhile, most of the human beings of the 21st century cannot live without a cell phone in hand, and the long hours of screen time are proof of this.

Probably mobile games top the list since they are easier to access for non-gamer consumers, and even any gamer can download them to have fun while their console isn't within reach.

Therefore, if you still need a mobile version of your website or an application for it, we recommend installing it as soon as possible to bring your business closer to the pockets of all your consumers.

Take Advantage of Social Listening.

Social networks allow you to have a direct evaluation of how your product is doing.

This tendency happens a lot in the video game industry since, at the very least, when a glitch occurs in the game, users immediately jump to Twitter to report the bug, and developers take this into account for future releases or updates.

In the same way, with the vast number of reviews or comments about the game, the developers can have a clearer idea of what players expect from new installments, be it characters, gameplay or details about the history of the video game.

That is why it is good that you continuously monitor how your users react to your product or service on social networks to continue improving your product until you deliver what they want. Check these Amazon FBA tips to grow your business and see how optimising your Amazon listing could help you grow. 

If you want to learn more about this process, we recommend our article on Customer Feedback Loop: How to approach it?

Minimize the Risk in the Innovation Process

Sometimes it's better to deliver a good product on time than a mediocre one as quickly as possible.

This is the thinking of many gamers and creators in the online gaming industry, which is why these developers are known for having an incredibly agile, systematic approach to launching games in phases that de-risks different elements of the business.

These phases are divided into:

Paper Prototyping: Even before writing the first line of code, developers start with a test version to test with team members and selected end users. This first phase allows them to confirm if the approach they are devising is the best and the one the audiences might like.

Beta Launch: This is a previous version, and without payment, that companies launch to detect any bug that may exist.

Alpha launch: Soon after, companies launch the video game in specific countries to fine-tune unit economics. This is the monetization phase, and they usually focus on metrics like revenue per user, retention, time spent, and acquisition cost. Primarily, video game companies want to maintain a healthy LTV: CAC Ratio.

Full launch: This phase involves a lot of PR and effective digital marketing strategies to maximize user awareness.

Live Ops: Launching a video game will never be the last phase since it can continue to have updates during its launch. We see this, especially in mobile games with up to 3+ years of constant updates to their software. For this, developers based their new updates on data-driven decision-making, just as we do in Codedesign.

Design Personalized Experiences.

Today users want a personalized experience, and video games are pretty good at it.

For example, going back to mobile games, they have minigames or short missions that their players can do in brief leisure moments, such as going on public transport or waiting for an appointment. In the same way, these games have other extended missions that offer the player an even more immersive experience; therefore, they can adapt the game experience to their daily habits. 

Read this guide on E-commerce supply chain and voice search optimization.

However, this customization capability goes to another level regarding purchasable items within video games. And yes, gamers are such fans that they are willing to pay real money to customize their characters.

Both console and mobile games allow users to buy clothing, accessories, skins and other additional items to customize their gaming experience. This gives a particular pleasure and novelty to their gameplay since they decide what iconic characters like Scorpion from Mortal Kombat or Ryu from Street Fighter will look like.

However, there is another part of the video game industry that we have not discussed throughout the article, which is just as important as the gaming experience itself.

Professional gamers' experience isn't just about the game; they need implements such as a headset, a screen and even a chair; if all these are customized to their needs, it is a thousand times better.

Gamers are considered athletes today, and they have a category called e-sports where they compete and earn millions of dollars that allow them to live off their passion. That is why many industries turn to this market to offer these athletes video game gadgets that adapt to their style of play, and thus, they can perform better in all competitions.

The custom-designed gaming equipment industry is valued at USD 10.72 billion in 2023 to USD 17.91 billion by 2028, at a CAGR of 10.80% during the forecast period (2023-2028), according to Mordor Intelligence, so it shows that it is an excellent addition to all this multi-billion dollar industry.

However, we know that businesses cannot perceive profits, even in a market as in-demand as video games, if they don't have a digital marketing strategy that helps them reach the right gamers.

In this section, we invite you to see our case study, where we skyrocketed eCommerce sales of custom gaming gear.

Here, Codedesign shows its gamer spirit!

End Credits.

Ending this video game adventure, we see how we must study all the booming industries to find valuable tactics and strategies to transfer to our niche.

Video games are highly tied to technological development, and for this reason, it is always good to keep an eye on them since, as things look for now, it is seen that the future of entertainment is in this area.

To finish the credits of this little video game, we encourage you to reach the next level for your business by contacting our digital marketing experts.

Finally, the game is over!

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