A version of this article appeared on PocketGamer. You can read it here.
Engagement is a must-have in the gaming industry. Standing in the way of this key metric, though, are lapsed players — especially as pandemic-related restrictions are lifted.
For instance, brands saw a three-point decline in gamers last year alone. To add fuel to the fire, the cost of player acquisition is on the rise, making retention all the more essential.
But gaming brands can remind their players of their love for the game to win them back. The only challenge is finding an approach that is just as immerse and visually-stunning as today’s games.
The solution? Reminds players of their epic battles, the friends they’ve made and other memorable moments from gameplay with a shareable, fun highlights reel. We’ve seen first-hand how top gaming brands are doing this to earn deeper engagement with existing players and spark interest among new audiences.
Celebrate Your Gamers
To engage players, gaming brands must be up-to-date with what today’s gaming audience looks like. Accenture surveyed 4,000 gamers and found the stereotypes that gamers have long been associated with are a thing of the past.
- They’re younger. 30% of new gamers are 25 or younger.
- They’re diverse. 46% identify as women, and nearly a third of new gamers identify as non-white.
- They care about the social side of gaming. Three quarters say more of their social interactions are on a gaming platform.
Today’s gamers want to be part of a community, one that takes place in a next-level digital experience. Personalized gaming recaps satisfy both needs.
By combining player stats with gaming footage, gaming brands celebrate each player as the individual they are — and give them a shareable video they can show off to the friends and teammates they constantly interact with.
Combining data with video is a time-intensive process done manually. To make it scalable, companies are using Idomoo’s Next Generation Video Platform to render videos for millions of players across countries in real time.
Check out this montage of gaming recaps to see how it works.
These videos are often a year in review, but they can cover whatever you want, from just one season to multiple years. For instance, Ubisoft sent millions of players a five-year personalized recap to kick off Ubisoft Connect.
As expected in the world of gaming, videos can also be interactive. Players can download recommended games or click to purchase weapons and skins straight from the video. This leads to direct ROI, like an 88% conversion rate for one anniversary highlights reel.
Regardless of how brands choose to leverage their personalized recaps, these videos all have the same end-goal: extending the personal player experience beyond the game.
Personalized Recap Videos: Examples from Biggest Brands
Personalized highlight reels were especially popular during the pandemic — and they’re still going strong. We’ve seen firsthand how brands excite players and inspire them to come back for more. They send lapsed players who have lost interest post-pandemic their very own recap video to rekindle their love of the game, leading to impressive results like 17x player reengagement.
One recent campaign was by Plarium. The top gaming brand celebrated their third anniversary of Raid: Shadow Legends by sending every player their very own recap video.
Available in five languages, each video told its own story of the viewer’s legacy with high-quality visuals and narration. Each video was truly data-driven, leveraging over 150 data points to give players insight into their performance, such as how they compared to other players.
Players loved receiving their very own video. Following the launch, Plarium saw an increase in daily active users and Twitter share rates doubled. Better still, players received a referral link along with their personalized video, encouraging them to share the game with friends — which led to 100% more referrals.
“This year’s campaign exceeded our expectations in terms of player engagement, referrals and creating a massive buzz on social media,” said Sergey Bragilevsky, Director of Growth at Plarium. “We are always striving to provide unique experiences for our fan base, and Idomoo helped us accomplish this.”
We’ve seen results from similar gaming recaps include 10x higher engagement, 68% higher sales and a 5x uplift in social sharing.
Boost Brand Reach With Interactive Video
A critical part of every campaign is social media. Accenture found gamers spend around six hours in online gaming communities — and that doesn’t include the eight hours spent watching or participating in live gaming streams.
Because social media is key in how gamers connect, every recap campaign should have its own social media component. Gaming recap videos can be interactive, lending itself to the social side of gaming. Players can click directly in the video to share their highlight reel with their favorite network.
And because every video is personalized, these highlight reels are a fun way for gamers to brag about their biggest wins and best moments.
Some brands are taking social sharing even further with user-generated content. Gamers can choose what they want included in their showcase video and then click to generate the video in real time.
CCP Games, for instance, sent EVE Online players this video they could customize to their liking.
By choosing exactly what they want to showcase, gamers could easily create a video they would want to share on their social platforms.
Even better, players share a video showcasing your brand to new audiences. This kind of word-of-mouth marketing is invaluable — 80% of consumers say UGC highly impacts their purchase decisions.
For CCP Games, shareable videos like these have garnered great results, including a 66% uplift in visits to their recruitment page.
A Better Way To Connect With Gamers
Brands are taking video tech to the next level with features like advanced interactivity and user customization. But this is just the beginning. Younger consumers, who make up a sizable chunk of today’s gaming audience, will continue to want more. Our market study shows Gen Z is 59% more likely to want video interactivity and 69% more likely to want video customization than other generations.
If any industry is ready to take on new tech — especially in the world of video — it’s gaming. And top brands’ rapid adaptation of personalized, customizable video to reengage and wow players shows the future of this tech in the gaming space is bright.
