On May 30, 2023, My.Games the publisher of the popular tower defense game Rush Royale announced to have started a collaboration with boxer and internet personality Jake Paul. In this partnership, we can see how mobile games and influencers are coming closer and establishing new creative ways to improve user acquisition and profitability in a crowded space.
Why My.Games decided to collaborate with Jake Paul?
My.Games announced a new event for its flagship game Rush Royale: the Champion Rumble, participating in the two weeks event will allow users to unlock Champion Tokens, the Belt of the Champion Island, and a new champion, Jake Paul. Based on the famous boxer and influencer the new champion is going to bring a fresh skill set to the game and directly connect with Paul’s background.
Along with the announcement My.Games released a new promotional video starring Jake. In the video, we see him in the ring having a tough time with an unnamed opponent but getting saved by the boost of confidence he gets when playing Rush Royale. This creative cleverly taps into Jake Paul’s personal story and fame while highlighting the game as a positive influence.
In a recent interview Elena Grigoryan chief strategy officer for My.Games explained how the collaboration is part of a larger aim of the company to improve its brand marketing and differentiate itself in an oversaturated market. In the face of an increasingly challenging UA game companies need to find new and innovative ways to attract users, and influencer marketing seems to be the answer many are looking for.
Jake Paul is one of the most lasting and prominent influencers, starting his career on Vine, being selected for a starring role on the Disney channel show Bizaardvark, and establishing a YouTube channel with over 20 million subscribers. In recent times Jake has been at the forefront of the phenomenon of YouTube boxers starting with an amateur bout with fellow YouTuber Deji and moving on to fight retired professional fighters like Anderson Silva and Tommy Fury.
By collaborating with a personality with such a large following and traction My.Games will be able to bring their product in front of many new faces that would have not been reached by other means. Furthermore, this collaboration shows how much can be done with influencers to craft engaging campaigns: not every campaign needs to be limited to a post of endorsement by an online personality. Understanding the strengths of an influencer will allow you to create more engaging and relevant campaigns.
While not everyone needs a fighter in their commercials this is actually not the first time a similar collaboration happened: back in November 2022 former UFC Bantamweight World Champion and WWE star Ronda Rousey become a legendary champion for Raid: Shadow Legends.
Why influencers for games?
Games like Rush Royale and Raid had success in including Jake Paul and Ronda Rousey in their marketing since both the testimonial had experience in martial arts that could be used to insert them as strong champions in the game. But that doesn’t mean that you need to scramble for Tyson’s phone number.
Another game that has learned how to introduce real-life personalities in its marketing is Fortnite. Instead of going the route of finding famous fighters to partner with they preferred to look at it from another angle and partnered with many streamers and musicians to release custom skins and accessories that allow players to look like their idols.
- Influencers can be a powerful and creative tool for user acquisition.
- The use of influencers allows games to reach niche users.
- Influencers help create a community around the game.
- Influencers have the potential to improve the in-game user experience.
- Influencer’s fans and followers are interested in a closer connection and value those experiences that allow them to feel part of the creator’s journey.
Just a day after the announcement of Jake Paul’s collaboration with My.Games Call of Duty’s players were finally able to access skins inspired by two of the most popular streamers: Nickmercs and TimTheTatman. The fans of the two streamers were ecstatic to be finally able to play in the clothes of their idols as you can see from the comments.
By connecting to the right influencers and including them, not only in the marketing process but also in the game experience you would be able to create further incentives for the audience to engage and participate in the game.
Conclusion
The videogame sector has seen a huge expansion in recent years, especially the mobile part, and with it also an impressive uptake in competition. As a consequence margins are getting smaller for all the companies involved, large established games can continue to operate on reduced margins due to the critical mass of users they acquired but smaller emerging projects would struggle to get noticed when there are no funds available for marketing expenses.
Some games try to address this by combining different monetization strategies and covering the bills with users’ spending and in-game ads. But this strategy is easy to be miscalculated and result annoying to the users who are forced to watch ads after any action performed. Meanwhile, new avenues for promotions are emerging and allow for innovative approaches that can set you aside from the competition.
By offering audiences unique ways to support the creators they love you are not only going to be able to promote your game “above the noise” but you are also providing your users with the unique experience they are asking for.
