PR: Gaming Magazines

Last year when I conducted a 100-participant survey for my Consumer Behaviour Report, I asked respondents: What influences you most when buying a console game? 41% responded: External sources and media- blogs, magazines, reviews.

Although this was just a sample of the entire gaming population, it does reflect the trust that consumers put in (assumingly) independent and unbiased opinions. And luckily for marketers of game publishers and developers, this form of PR and publicity is relatively inexpensive!

In Australia, there are many magazines that feature gaming related material, however the most prevalent gaming-centric magazines for each platform are PC Power magazine (or PC Gamer), Xbox 360 magazine, Official Nintendo Magazine, and Playstation Official Magazine. These magazines have a great following and substance due to official endorsement by gaming developers, publishers and console manufactures.

In turn, these magazines allow for constant coverage of AAA-titled games and new releases. A mass of developers interview, continuous previews, and opinionated reviews gives the publication depth of content (a sticking point for audiences) while giving the videogames relatively free exposure with little work from marketers.

The Official Nintendo Magazine (ONM) for Aus and NZ, for example, wrote a ton of articles and features for Nintendo’s Kid Icarus Uprising. Starting from ONM’s December, the magazine generated 5 months’ worth of hype, over 4 issues, consisting of game previews and feature articles. From there, the magazine contained a 5 page feature review, and 2 post-playing-tips articles. In total, The Official Nintendo Magazine had 27 ½ pages and 1 front cover, over 7 issues, dedicated to Kid Icarus Uprising, not to mention the many full-page adverts by Nintendo. Although there is a lot of information-overlap throughout all the previews and features, it does provide a level of consistent exposure and product awareness that Nintendo would have to work hard for to achieve.

Another example is the much-anticipated WiiU. As the first console starts a new generation of video gaming, both journalists and marketers are eager to feature the WiiU. Since its announcement at E3 2011 till now (on the eve of its release), the WiiU has had 17 articles written about it in ONM with 2 feature covers, over 12 issues. That’s a total of 91 pages of exposure! To avoid repetition, the journalists used different interest angles, allowing for a unique insight into the WiiU: some focus on the innovation of technology, others are about the opportunities the new platform has for indie developers, while many consist of the games, the features and the expectations of the console.

This form of exposure and hype-building smells less ‘marketing-y’ that outright advertising, allowing for the independent media’s content to be trusted in a reliable and honourable way similar to that of word-of-mouth.

As ideal as this sounds for marketers, PR does come with some risks. Because it is trusted to editors and journalists to write about a company’s product (or whatever it is), you run the risk of having what you hoped would be make it into the publication not make the final editorial cut. Even worse is taking the risk that the company’s game or console becomes the feature of a negative review or critical article, where undesirable word-of-mouth becomes fatal to sales.

To avoid this, marketers must manage a desirable and favourable relationship with these media outlets. Along with providing editors and journalists with trials and demos of games, marketers must also pamper the journalists by giving them opportunities to access new and exclusive content. This could include exclusive entry into gaming expos, conferences and launch parties, as well as providing in-house interviews, product giveaways and sneak-peeks.

Along with making their job easier, marketers should aim to create a positive bond with journalists and editors. Although it is unethical for journalist to accept bribes or have their professional journalistic unbiasness compromised by personal affiliations, it is important to keep them happy- or at least content- when they see your email in their inbox or hear your missed-call on their voicemail. Taking them out for a corporate lunch or even getting to genuinely know them individually will establish a personal and affirmative rapport, and increase the likelihood that what you hope they will write will be written, in a way that is agreeable.