Relevancy has become a key component of impactful marketing in today’s cluttered digital environment, and one of the easiest ways for marketers to to resonate with consumer groups is through guerrilla marketing centered on quirky, unofficial holidays. One such holiday, National Video Games Day, will be celebrated this Saturday, and could be a great opportunity for marketers to gain resonance with the passionately engaged gaming community.
Here, we’ve collected five recent articles that offer insight into the rules of engagement with millennial gamers, as well as two tips to consider for crafting guerilla campaigns for the approaching holiday.
Subtlety is your friend
Gamers solve problems for fun, and after years of hunting and discovering hidden references in their games (known as easter eggs), marketers can count on gamers appreciating a more subtle hand in marketing execution.
Geico recently published an exemplary piece of branded content on Buzzfeed that—in addition to providing a fun, shareable experience—accented the brand’s connection to the gaming community in the most nondescript way possible; through the post’s URL. Amidst the collection of browser reference elements, the post’s URL contains “up-up-down-down-left-right-left-right-b-a,” a reference to the famous cheat code found in many of Japanese games publisher Konami’s older games. Entering the code on the page actually alters the content itself.
This native ad campaign hits all the right buttons for gamers; doubly so for its goal, which was to promote a Geico sponsored gaming event, which brings us to our second tip…
E-Sports are a force to be reckoned with
The rising popularity of game streaming on sites, such as Twitch TV and YouTube, has shifted the competitive gaming community from fringe novelty to international spectacle in just a few years. Considering popular multiplayer battle arena game “League of Legends” recently held its North American Summer Finals at Madison Square Garden, it’s safe to say marketers should pay attention to this fervent subsection of gamers when attempting to intersect with gaming culture.
