Three standout marketing learns from GDC 2024
By Haifa Barbari and Tom Morgan. Top image: GDC
San Francisco’s Games Developer Conference is the perfect place to take the industry’s temperature. Here’s our take on how the emerging themes point the way forward for marketers
1. UGC is poised to be a big winner from the AI revolution
Fortnite publishers, Epic, and Roblox Studios both demoed AI-powered tools that could put rocket boots on creators operating in their mega-game ecosystems.
In both cases, the emphasis was on inspiring and facilitating the UGC ambitions of the publishers’ hyper-engaged user-bases.
Particularly exciting were Epic’s integrations enabling the creation of:
Realistic non-player characters (NPCs)
Rocket Racing tracks
Custom Fornite weapons
Lego-themed islands within Lego Fortnite (with creators receiving 85% of engagement-linked payouts)
Meanwhile, Roblox demoed how easy it will be to rustle up personalized avatars and in-game objects using plain language text prompts and zero coding knowledge. It’s not hard to imagine how that could unleash a tsunami of creativity among the game’s enthusiastic young fans.
Our take
If it all works out as planned then a UGC golden age is imminent.
Gamers love to create and they’re about to gain access to tools that effectively mean: “If you can imagine it, then you can build it.”
It’s only a matter of time, as an entire branch of the industry is dedicated to producing the games-oriented AI tools that will fuel the revolution.
For example, we met with a company working on tech that will turn text prompts into 3D assets. Tell the AI to generate a magical waterfall, cascading down a mountain into a mist-wreathed pool, and your wish will be its command.
A clear implication for brands is that fully empowering creators will be a major marketing battleground in the attention economy.
Once the tools are in the wild the key won’t be generating UGC, it will be inspiring people to create in your world, or in association with your brand.
Attracting gamers via carefully selected partnerships with standout creators will be paramount. Think Adidas collaborations with cultural icons as an analog of this model.
You’ll also need vivid ways to fire the starting gun on activations. That’ll mean curating UGC in in-game installations, competitions, exhibitions, gigs, and potentially even creative face-offs: the user-generated equivalents of rap battles.
Exciting times lie ahead!
2. TikTok’s influence upon gamers is only growing
TikTok released some impressive numbers on their reach in the gaming space:
90% of gamers are on TikTok
75% of gamers have discovered a new game through TikTok
40% of TikTok users downloaded a game after seeing it on the platform
50% of TikTok users regularly watch gaming content - racking up three trillion views between them!
And TikTok isn’t stopping there. They’re on a mission to persuade game developers that TikTok is the channel for gamers, and by extension Gen Z.
Our take
If you want to grow your market and draw gamers into your community then you must have a fully fleshed-out TikTok strategy.
A gaming boom powered by AI development tools, and a wave of displaced developers initiating their own projects, is likely to intensify competition for consumer eyeballs in a year or two’s time.
Hence effective marketing execution will be underpinned by the brilliant basics:
Grow your market by reaching people where they are
Persuade with impactful video content keyed to consumer needs, values, and underlying motivations
While product USPs are important, they won’t move the needle unless you hit the right emotional notes, too
Speak your audience’s language like a native!
3. Battling negative sentiment in your community is a common pitfall
We spoke to numerous developers at GDC whose journey to launch had been thrown on the defensive by negative sentiment in their community.
The same issue cropped up time and again:
An early burst of activity had raised expectations among their hard-won fans
But then momentum had been lost as content dried up
Often a resource crunch delayed the release of promised game features, or opportunities for community participation hadn’t kept pace with gamers’ appetites for more.
Whatever the cause, a backlash followed as fans became disillusioned and drifted away. And once ardent advocates became thorn-in-the-side critics.
Resources got wasted on damage control and, of course, by the time you recover, you have to work twice as hard to persuade people to give you a second chance.
Our take
Everyone knows that over-promising and under-delivering is a recipe for disaster. But mapping out a realistic content strategy in advance often falls down the list of priorities.
Nonetheless, finding the time or resource to positively engage with the community in a strategic way can be the gift that keeps on giving.
A good content strategy needs to plot out a regular sequence of beats that aligns to your community’s expectations.
Contingency should be built in, plus a plan to manage expectations if they can’t always be met - which is so often the case!
Still, it’s amazing how far you can make a little content stretch - with sufficient creative instincts allied to a sound grasp of community engagement tactics, and a deep understanding of what your fans do and don’t want.
Above all, remember that gamers don’t want to be marketed at. They want to be connected with on a personal and emotional level. They want to feel valued.
Our final thought on GDC 2024
There’s so much more to discuss about the trends that were the talk of GDC and are set to remake the games industry over the coming months and years. Suffice to say gaming is undergoing a period of great upheaval, transition, and renewal, and our integrated team of specialist gaming marketers is fully equipped to deal with the challenges ahead.
We can help you with any aspect of strategy, creative ideation and execution, immersive world-building and activation, social, creator partnerships and more.
If you would like to discover more about our integrated approach and work together on a project, get in touch.
