How can brands work with Gamers – Diary notes.

5 Diary notes from my conversations with “Brands/Agencies that wants to do something in Gaming”

1. If your brief begins with your understanding of GenZ – ensure it’s made/validated by the GenZ. What I saw in most of it is a projection of what a boomer believes GenZ to be! Outdated – misinformed!
2. Measures of evaluating the potential of professional gamers with their social media reach – is like evaluating a cricketer based on thier Instagram reach. The use case isn’t the players social – the use case is what your brand can do with that potential.
3. Gaming isn’t anti social as you imagine it to be. It’s incredibly social if you understand that community. GenZs bond over gaming – so much so, that a lot of them even “tip” their favourite gamers for their game plays or just conversations.
4. The myth of purchasing parity. Gamers buy things. Even & especially virtual things. They are people first so they not only buy, but are also ahead of the curve as opinion influencers recommending “what is cool and new age” be it a bag of chips, a car or an investment product.
5. Gamers are “one” cluster. That’s like saying all sport is cricket. All movie stars are Shahrukh Khan. There’s the person, the game, the genre, the persona. They vary and the ability to connect with the audience varies accordingly.

If you really want to understand this culture, and benefit from it – think of gaming as a new media tech, converging with entertainment and sports.

The inputs you have from your “research” is mostly as accurate as how mainline agencies explained the “fad” of social media back in 2008. If you really want to understand this space better – I’d really like to partner with someone to do a roadshow for them free of cost!