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Is the AIDA Model Any Good For the Gaming Industry?

I encountered a gaming company running OOH (out-of-home marketing – flyers, posters and such) campaigns a short while ago, despite having a life-service game. I’ve seen a number of examples of such ads before, but it’s usually been AAA games or some massive mobile titles. It surprised me, as, just as I expected, conducting such a campaign would mostly raise brand awareness and this isn’t what such games usually opt for – maximising client conversion. It would make sense to run a large-scale campaign like that as a part of a coordinated campaign. On the other hand, it got me thinking – how do PPC campaigns convert on the spot, despite not going through the classic sales funnel used in the AIDA (awareness-interest-desire-action) model?

If you need consulting regarding the marketing strategy of your game, drop me a message at jakub@heapsagency.com and let’s have a talk about it!

Application of the Messy Middle Model in Video Games Marketing

This entry is kinda fun, kinda sad for me. I was supposed to go to the Nordic Game 2024 this week, but some things need to be taken care of here, so I stayed. Not all is for nought, though, as I had my speech pre-recorded and am about to share it in this entry. I’m still available on Meet To Match there, so if you’d like to have a chat, you can schedule one there. Or just reach out to me via jakub@heapsagency.com.

When To Start Marketing Your Game?

I got asked a question a short while ago. “When should we start marketing our game”? The person asking the question had activities such as establishing a Steam page or starting social media communications in mind. However, marketing heavily pertains to all of the aspects of making video games. The answer to the question above is “before you start making the game”. Doing proper research and investing in the quality of the product is the safest way of securing success in the market. What do I mean by this?

Game Marketing Trends for 2024

The landscapes of marketing and the gaming industry are ever-changing. These are my predictions regarding the trends of this aspect of business in the upcoming year. If you want me to provide marketing services for your game, let’s talk – jakub@heapsagency.com

And now, without further ado…

How to Restore Total War Franchise to Its Glory?

Creative Assembly had a pretty major community crisis a short while ago and is dealing with the aftermath. Long story short, they released Total War: Pharaoh and comparatively few people played it (slightly more than 5k peak users on Steam), and it doesn’t look great for them. After that, chaos ensued, people were (allegedly) unrightfully banned on their Steam forums, and interested influencers started providing info that would’ve deteriorated the company’s public image. This all was well documented on Youtube and everyone talks about what has happened. I’ll take a different approach and will talk about what could be done to mend the relationship with their players and restore the Total War series to its former glory in terms of future product management.

Impact of Game Fairs on Sales and Wishlists

I wrote an article a while ago stating that going to gaming fairs is mostly useful due to networking. While I still strongly agree with a part of this statement (as it’s good for networking), my preconceived notions seem challenged. I had made an argument that it’s not a viable option for driving sales and wishlists, but a developer I met at Poznań Game Arena told me otherwise. Let’s dive into it.

PPC Gamechanger For PC and Console Gaming Marketing

The PPC (pay per click) methods of advertisement are often quite effective. This pertains mostly to mobile games. While paid advertisement for them is often considered unethical and cringe by the general public (I’m referring to ads showing fake gameplay), it works. A lot of mobile game studios don’t even have a regular marketing department, as they opt for investing in growth departments – most marketing they do is user acquisition via PPC. On the other hand, PPC activities in the realm of PC and console gaming are nowhere close in terms of prominence they get in mobile gaming. I’ll present a single idea that could greatly enhance the effectiveness of PPC and, under some circumstances, would flip the way we do marketing for PC and console games.

Why Gaming Communities Are Toxic?

Many gaming communities are toxic, no doubt here. Many community managers have spent countless hours thinking about how to mitigate it. Some were successful, some were not. Sometimes, the root of the problem was identified, sometimes it was not and in some cases, it was found but nothing was done about it. I’ll showcase some of the reasons why a gaming community can become toxic and aggressive in this article. It’s meant for both CMs who deal with these issues and game designers who hold power and can often make changes to make their titles less aggravating and more welcoming. These reasons are based on my experiences, both as a professional and a gamer, so it may not exhaust the topic. I’ll also do my best to provide some well and lesser-known examples from the industry.

“The History of Khorinis” final statement – SWOT analysis

A huge drama regarding the Polish gamedev scene was unravelled yesterday. A massive mod for Gothic 2 called The History of Khorinis (Dzieje Khorinis in Polish) was officially cancelled. Why would people care about a mod for a series that’s under the radar for many people? Gothic series has had a huge cult following in the country and it equates to a massive community. Then, there were the promises of the modding team regarding the project – it was supposed to be huge and was to feature voice acting from many prominent Polish actors (the voice acting of the first game in the series certainly helped with establishing it in the Polish market). The modding team has also generated a lot of press coverage for the mod and the hype was real. I’m not going to analyse why the project folded, as there is insufficient info on that front. We’ll go over their statement posted yesterday on the project’s Facebook page and we’ll conduct a SWOT analysis of it.

The Power Of Memes In Marketing

Balltze, better known as Cheems, died a few days ago. While it’s always sad when an animal dies, it’s probably the first time when one so strongly associated with memes (while it was alive) has passed away. We’re obviously not counting Harambe in, as he became a meme posthumously. This situation and the reaction of the internet community reminded me of how mighty memes can be in communications (and how they can also be misused) and I’d like to talk a bit about two huge reasons regarding that matter.