Influencers: The Opportunity and Responsibility | Saralyn Smith

Editor's Notes

• #2: Hello Casual Connect Appreciate the opportunity to add a topic like this to our list of content today There is a lot that could be talked about so to keep this to 25 minutes I am skipping the WHY. I hope we are years passed needing to explain the value of WOMM and the power of influencers when there are Nielsen studies that say 84% of customers trust recommendations from friends and family the most
• #3: There have been a lot of recent headlines acknowledging the rise of influencers, and even more recently calling out the costs I want to talk about how Blizzard is approaching this space currently and offer suggestions for you. Some may seem simple, but for those of you doing more in this space I bet like us you are finding a lot of hidden complexity and nuance particularly when efforts are spread across your organization.
• #4: Aligning on vocab lead to a breakthrough in role clarity “Influencers” is such an umbrella term it pretty quickly loses meaning. Caveat that these are people with names (in fact several), preference to address them that way Further clarify this large group in categories like this… Content creators: Streamers, YouTubers/VODs, Artists, Podcasters, Mod creators Writers/bloggers (continue to be highly influential in KR!) Merchandise/product creators Talent: They are all talented, but… Cosplayers, Casters, Hosts, Pro players Leaders: …and organizers Reddit moderators Guild/team leaders Club/group leaders (e.g., college club) Grassroots event hosts/managers (e.g., BarCrafts, Innkeepers for FSGs, viewing parties, launch parties) Advocates: Forum MVPs, Social klout
• #5: Looking at the lifecycle of creators and talent, consider a three tier system. There certainly could be many tiers as your framework and needs gain sophistication. What this system is illustrating is the changing state, mindset, and needs of these tiers. The largest group is Tier 3: Tier 2: More of the Established group This is a serious commitment now. For streamers easily 60 hours or more a week. Needs to pay the bills, insecure time. At the mercy of others. Have heard this can be an isolating time as well They are refining and expanding their talent. Tier 1: Top tier is Mainstream and Epic They have a team, a business It’s no longer about paying the bills but now about sustainability, scalability
• #6: How should brands be navigating this space? First and critically important is your understanding and compliance with regulations Recent headlines about Warner Brothers, and assuming positive intent, it keeps seeming clear that many of us do not know the regulations FTC, Bureau of Consumer Protection, ESRB, European Health and Consumer Directorate, China’s Ministry of Commerce
• #7: FOCUS ON DISCLOSURES “If there’s a connection… that consumers would not expect and it would affect how consumers evaluate the endorsement, that connection should be disclosed.” Proximity and prominence This is not a checkbox, not one-and-done, this is evergreen consideration and effort After 1 violation, must end relationship with influencer In flux – “sponsored by” and “fair use” As reliance on digital influencers grows, so does Federal Trade Commission enforcement Note: If your company’s country of origin is the US this applies to your company everywhere
• #9: Prioritizing reach – the most expensive strategy. But makes sense during product announcement and perhaps launch. The Long Tail is an example of how we approached content creators for Overwatch recently. Blizzard had never made an FPS before and didn’t have relationships with big players there, so we used our networks for current content creators and found connections. We invited FPS creators and had them come do early playtests, give us feedback, meet the dev teams. Thankfully Overwatch is a great game and they felt that way too, many of them are creating content for us now. But we also were paying attention to undiscovered new faces showing up. The first video I ever saw of TacticalKoala was humorous, touching, and the game teams wanted to meet him. We keep in frequent touch with him now and he is making tons of great content almost daily. Promising as a strategy is time intensive but low cost for a brand. Sometimes this is your best option, like we think it is for Heroes of the Storm currently. Heroes is in a very competitive gaming genre and we have had creators with us from technical alpha so we are investing in them. We want to support and build them up, as a thanks for their passion for our franchise and of course we all benefit as they grow. My favorite strategy is Diverse. Four types of various lifecycle stages. We are closest here with WoW, with a very large community that’s existed for over ten years. Very active cosplayer community, fan sites, forum posters, guild leaders… it’s a robust and thriving ecosystem. We can always do better but the focus is to support the community supporting us.
• #10: Shifting now into activities – I think of them in three buckets. Ratio of staff
• #12: Earned or paid depends on lifecycle of your product
• #17: It’s important to bookend your compliance program with some sort of guiding principles, be it a values framework, manifesto, beliefs, etc. The point is you want to agree upon and socializing fundamental truths that will help inform the many small and big decisions made by your teams We have some examples for you, these don’t represent anything finalized or formal within Blizzard, just the conversation starters The discussions we have around principles and truths has illustrated a lot of nuance and while there is big benefit from aligning and finalizing them, this is a situation where the journey is also powerful and valuable
• #18: Doodleoddle video ranting about brands “You don’t seem to understand social media or that we do”
• #19: Beta invites, not approaching them but supporting what they want
• #20: To summarize, tremendous opportunity in this space. Studies report every $1 invested in influencers brings back $2 to $20 in value! But also this is about supporting the community supporting your game, and isn’t that the right thing to do Balance that with responsible internal education and compliance efforts.
• #21: Perfect storm upon us Rise of influencers – influencers old concept but the pool has grown as well as the channels and content. A lot more sophisticated. Age of the consumer – Ability for any user to become a viewer, creator, and publisher fundamentally changed the rules Relationship economy – successful brands are investing in relationships, it’s the new currency Perfect storm… caught in the storm? Crashing on the rocks? Ride the momentum to the benefit of our brands and players.
• #22: Thank you, I hope this was helpful!