Gaming Influencers: Why brands need to focus on tapping the power of this community

In conversation with India's top gaming influencers and the founder of a talent management organization, Social Samosa deciphers how brands and advertisers can penetrate a loyal community with native content.

We rifle through the magnitude of the gaming influencers, content, and the gaming community, what constitutes as native content in this genre, and how brands can tap a wide spectrum of audiences through gaming influencers.

The Blow-Up

The potential and reach of this community, the kind of engagement gaming creators generate, when did the community blow up, and the future potential it holds for growth, are the factors that most brands would be interested in so let's dive right into it.

The gaming community is growing stronger each day, and to give you a glimpse of the strength, Ujjwal Chaurasia's channel Techno Gamerz holds 18 Mn subscribers on YouTube and garners anywhere around 4-18 Mn views on each upload.

Ujjwal mentions the gaming scene in India is not the same as three years ago, it has blown up in the last two years, and live streams have grown at an exponential rate. The creators, competition, and audience, all factors are shooting up and he believes after two years almost every other college kid could be a part of the community.

Rony Dasgupta of The RawKnee Games shares that earlier gaming was a niche, the only people who consume gaming content were the ones who used to play games. When PUBG became mainstream, he mentions that even his grandmother asked him, "Do you play PUBG?", and gaming content inflated further.

The shift from live streams to gaming content in the video format has also grown further. Mansi Gupta aka Magsplay mentions earlier the equipment and digital tools were not something everyone could invest in, and video was more of a montage of clips or highlights of the live stream, but that has changed.

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Tapping The Gaming Community

Earlier, only brands that cater to the gaming community had been collaborating with gaming influencers, but steadily brands from the Technology sector such as smartphone manufacturers, and a few lifestyle brands have tapped the community, but the influencers mention and agree that the community at large remains untapped.

Mansi says that as all gaming creators have a young audience, practically any brand whose target audience is the age group of 13-24 can collaborate with these influencers. She adds that gamers are not restricted gaming brands only, and they have few of the most loyal fan bases.

Rony shares that gamers live a life outside of gaming as well and every brand that is looking for a relevant TG can collaborate, as they do everything any other person does, so the scope of branded content is not limited to gaming.

Native Content & Partnerships

Paid partnerships with brands can be a natural piece of a gaming creator's content. The several formats of native content such as unboxing videos, product reviews, budget-based suggestions for gaming equipment, PC hardware, consoles, and more, are looked at as branches of their content.

The gaming creators further outline how can paid partnerships flourish with native content. Ujjwal shares that limited-edition versions of the products being promoted that are customized by integrating the gamer's identity such as his logo and more would amplify brand affinity. He mentions that the creator would feel a sense of closeness and genuine inclination to promote the products, and the community would also reciprocate in the same manner and the gamer's audience would appreciate it too.

Mansi reckons that brands usually set a budget and then rope in the maximum number of influencers they get their hands on, but they rather should go for quality and nurture long-term collaborations with a few influencers.

Rony states that brands should let them have their creative freedom as they know the best what works on their channel. A collaboration shouldn't e brands handing out four lines to them and telling them to recite it.

As a closing note, Pranav Panpalia, Founder, OpraahFx and OP Gaming says that the next five years are going to be golden for the gaming community, creators, and ESports, the various segments of gaming such as fantasy leagues, publishing, live streaming, and more, all account for a community that brands should look at as a target audience.