A year ago, I had a marketing degree, a brand-spankin’ new job in games… and zero knowledge of the games industry.
I started at Ultimerse in 2021 as the Content and Brand Coordinator, thrown headfirst into an industry that was so unlike any I had ever known. As many post-grads could relate to, I had strong marketing theory and came in with my ‘7 P’s’ and value proposition statements swinging (iykyk).
And then, I looked at the game we’re developing (and that I was tasked to market) and I started asking: how on earth does all of this theory play out in games? No pun intended.
So if you’re asking that same question – how the heck do I market a game? Welcome, and my dearest, most sincere good vibes to you. Here are some tips on how the heck to market a game, coming from a one-year-old (games marketer).
(Author’s note: Please feel free to disagree and gently rip me to shreds (with kind, constructive feedback). If these aren’t helpful, clear, true, or explained well, I want to know so that I don’t lead marketers astray.)
Pictured: ACMI’s Untitled Goose Game – Live
You Don’t Have to Be a Gamer, but You Should Be ‘Game Enough’
One year ago, the only games I’d ever played were Untitled Goose Game and Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag. I had range (I know), but I had absolutely zero insight into what made those games fun, what made them appealing to me, or how they were made and marketed.
Fast forward to this year, while on the train into the Untitled Goose Game in concert, I explained to my husband how game developers make and market a game, from start to finish. Granted, I oversimplified and probably skipped over important sections, but the gist was got and at the end, he said ‘Wow, it’s cool that you know all of that.’ (and I know it’s hard to read ‘Wow’ in a genuine way, but he was genuinely wowed, I promise). This before-and-after story is what got me thinking about this blog post – so, let me share a bit about how I went from ‘before’ to, well, now.
My first question going into marketing our new game was: who is our target audience? (Author’s note: I’m going to use this question as a bit of a practical touchstone as I talk through my first year in games marketing. Keep it in mind!)
As I started to unravel the ‘who’ of our target audience, I realised very quickly that in my notes, phrases like ‘enjoys brawlers’ and ‘rogue-lite preference’ did not make sense to me (the number of times I’ve asked about the difference between ‘rogue-like’ and ‘rogue-lite’ = the number of times I’ve died playing Going Under).
There are a lot of terms in games that are, at first, very confusing to a newbie. They’re terms that as you get more into gaming or game dev, you just pick up. But as a marketer, I don’t have the luxury of picking up a new hobby every time I market a new product/service.
And while I don’t think I need to be a gamer in order to market games (say it louder for the people in the back!) I do think it’s my responsibility to be ‘game’ enough to learn more about the product I am marketing, and by extension, the industry.
Pictured: Sent the above paragraph to Tim, our Creative Lead – he says I am a gamer. Guess there’s no going back now.
So, yes, ask the marketing questions (like, who is my target audience?), but make sure you’re also asking the industry/environment questions – like, why do people play games? What genres do people enjoy? What does ‘brawler’ mean?
Try some games out that seem your vibe – think of it like market research.
Ask your team questions find (good) resources on Twitter (Victoria Tran, anyone?) and read what they write, and, if you want, harass your team into setting you up for marketing dinner dates with their contacts (thanks Tim and, of course, Lauren!) so you can spend two hours deep diving into your who’s, what’s and why’s.
I think it’s part knowing your marketing stuff, and part knowing your industry. This may seem simple, but learning a lot of information in a condensed way is difficult, so arm yourself with questions and a mind curious to deep dive into a new medium.
Like Tim says in our Discord screenshot above, as long as you understand the appeal of the medium, you can work with it.
This leads me to why it’s important to…
Understand Your Players Before You Market (or Make!) Your Game
What’s really struck me in games marketing is the personal link between customer and product. But it’s probably more like player and experience?
A game isn’t just a way to spend time, it’s a way to connect with others, develop skills, challenge yourself, or have a laugh (or cry). It’s like art that hundreds of thousands of people can buy and own and most importantly make their own.
And I hadn’t come across this particular desire to ‘make it my own’ from the customer side before – sure, people buy products and love them and get really invested, but with games, it’s like there’s a living network that comes with each one.
So perhaps the word that better suits this feeling of ‘ownership’ and ‘connectedness’ is community. Each game (even genre!) has its own community, organised by the devs or not. And within these communities, players have these connections with each other, with the game, the devs, and then the devs also have a connection to the game. It’s incredible, the rich tapestry of connection that is games communities.
So back to answering our question: who is my target audience? It’s still a great question, and still full of a lot of things I don’t know.
But, starting is half the battle, so here’s what I’ve done so far.
+ I looked into what kind of game we were making
+ Learned more about its style and genre, what the appeal of those characteristics are
+ Kind of sussed out what kind of people generally enjoy that genre
+ I watched a lot of YouTube S-Tier videos of games in that genre to see what they liked or didn’t like about it
+ With all of this info, I built some customer profiles
A Marketer’s Work is Never Done
It’s not complete yet, and I doubt it ever will be. I think it needs to be flexible and ready to be tweaked over time – because people change. The amazing Lauren from Lumi Interactive told me when we caught up for a marketing/mentoring dinner a couple of months ago (this is me paraphrasing): ‘marketing is about having a hypothesis, and then testing it until you land on something that works’. Basically, it’s like 10% guessing, and then 90% confirming and tweaking. What a comfort it is to know that we (marketers) rarely ever walk into something knowing exactly who our customers are and what to do about it!
However you go about doing this, keep this in mind: You want to understand your players’ pain and pleasure points so that you can ensure that the experience you’re making is the right fit for them.As marketers on the dev team, we want to ensure we’re making a game that people will want, buy, enjoy and then tell others about.
And finding these things out starts with learning more about these people – the players who will get the most out of what we’re marking and who might actually love it. So, yes, Tiktok, we’re going to be trying to sell you something – but really we’re trying to find our people, and help our people find us.
A Reminder: You Are Part of the Games Community
This is less of a marketing tip, and maybe more of a new-person-starting-at-a-new-school tip. At times, the games community may not appear to be super inclusive to newbies. From my experience, it feels like there’s so much to learn and it can feel overwhelming when you’re starting out. This led to me feeling that it can be difficult to ‘break in’ without feeling somewhat fraudulent.
And, of course, this is my experience – I’m new to games, and games marketing, and when I started to make sense of this new landscape, at first it felt like an open field where there are endless possibilities of how to market the game, except every 100 metres or so there was a bomb in wait full of what I don’t know about games.
And yes, you don’t have to be a gamer, but the games community is so unique in that you kind of have to ‘be in it’ in order to really engage with it. This goes for marketing within the games community as well – you’ll see better results from your marketing if you take the time to dip your toes in and get a lay of the land.
But, What Does This Look Like?
Play games, share your passion and find your people. Maybe you love to play a hardcore game in a casual way – you’re not alone! Your people are out there, and you are all gamers. Maybe you really enjoy following game devs and watching them build games – you’re not alone! You are part of the games community.
As Tim bangs on about, games are an experience and a big part of that experience can be sharing it and enjoying it with other like-minded people (but not prickly pears just trying to yuck your yum).
But here’s what I’ve been telling myself (feel free to borrow what applies). I am part of the games community, because I am part of the games community. I work for an indie games studio, and I market our games. I have the keys to our Twitter account. I’ve played Unpacking. My team gave me a Discord nickname! The Victoria Tran REPLIED to one of our tweets! What other evidence could I want??
Pictured: The day I died
As I was writing this, I hopped onto Twitter to check notifications, and I saw this gold nugget on my feed:
Struggling doesn’t mean you don’t belong. Even if it takes you a month, six months, a year in order to start feeling more attuned to the games community you’re wanting to engage with, you are still part of the games community!
So, in case no one told you recently – you are doing a good job, you are trying your best, and even if you are struggling, you still belong.
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Thanks for reading this, follow us on Twitter for more content like this!
And if you have any questions about games marketing, don’t ask me, ask Chris Zukowski (or read any of his blog posts). He’s incredible.
Hannah Vorlicek
Content and Brand Coordinator
