Papa Jake and Free Hive Games on influencer marketing for mobile

hey guys we are here at Papa gamer connect in San Francisco 2017 I'm being joined by PAP Jake off of that YouTube and David from Beehive games now you guys have just done one of the talks in track one and you've been talking about pushing games out there using platforms like YouTube I'll start with you David rather than going to a traditional kind of publishing advertising group why did he think that YouTube was the right kind of Avenue for you yeah really good question so you know that's the big challenge we're facing I think just as a mobile gaming industry is you got more than 500 new apps a day it's become you know incredibly expensive to acquire people through Facebook and to kind of traditional performance-based marketing channels and so we're looking for ways where are there already audiences people who are passionate about gaming we know if you like gaming in general you probably actually like playing on mobile there's kind of this I think sometimes a myth that like oh there's mobile gamers

and there's console gamers know there's just gamers who play different ways different times and so you know we're looking at YouTube influencers we found that that's an opportunity to find a partner you can work with who can really be an authentic representative for the game actually really tell people about it in a deep way and get them excited in a way that you know I think actually gets people more invested in the game and more likely to check it out than just you know seeing a static ad or seeing a you know a 15-second video snippet somewhere jakie fill up a YouTube channel healthy subscriber base there what do you think helps people engage with the videos you make what trends do you notice based on the kind of games you play versus the kind of reaction you get yeah I think like for us being extremely genuine with our content making sure that like viewers know that we're having fun what with what we're doing whether you know we're playing a mobile game or a console game or even just doing like a fun vlog showing that it's just us as our true selves is probably the most important

thing because that's really what's right the influence that we have versus you know kind of faking it yeah it can be quite obvious sometimes and people are just with the big cheesy grin 50 and the fake smile so you guys are working on games I think at the moment you got something on the horizon you know that was to do and when you were looking at the options and you went right we're going to go to YouTube hey did you take advice from other people who's made games what do you think is the biggest mistake that people make when going in to try and connect with an audience so that's a good question I think you know I think the biggest mistake people make is is sort of not doing their homework so just looking and going oh you know what this person has a million followers or two million followers so you know let's let's partner with them and have them do something I think you really need to actually take some time spend time on the channel understand what kind of videos do they do how do they talk about them what kind of games do they like what type of games are their audience like and make sure it's actually a fit for what you're doing so that you can

have come to the point you guys were just making a really an authentic partnership where they're going to be talking about your game and they're going to be legitimately excited about it and not just saying you know my sponsors have now paid me to tell you this is great because that's I think where a lot of a lot of this falls down is when when things are not authentic right and audiences today are incredibly savvy and all of us you know we know what advertising looks like we don't want to be tricked we want to actually hear from someone we trust that they legitimately believe something is cool and interesting and so you got to find a partner who who's going to be a right fit to help you do that you've seen more and more with developers starting to hold back copies of the games for review the feds are famously has decided to not release these games early to the press but they are handing them out sometime to influencers and youtubers and the general public do you think as a youtuber that personally plays these games do you think that is a good thing to the industry or do you think that kind of opens it up to a little bit of mmm like questionable ethics okay yeah I

mean I think the biggest difference between like a company that's going to review a game and us is kind of going back to you know it's different every youtuber but it it's very genuine like I'm going to play a game I'm not talking about the graphics or the the smoke and how the pixels work or anything like that I'm just having fun or I'm not having fun it's really just and our viewers can tell right if the game is kind of a bomb and I'm going to say that you know if it's if it's a paid deal with something like that it might be different but in the case of like something like this ESDA when they hand you a copy of the game it's generally hey check out our game and give us your honest opinion and I think a lot of developers even now are looking at us and being like well yeah what what didn't you like or what did you like or they'll watch my two hour-long stream to see it where did you get frustrated or ready to get stuck so I think it's just a different way to kind of market it when do you guys think it's the right time to push it because I know some people tend to like long lead-in campaigns some people want to just drop it on day one and surprise everybody I mean both

tactics would seem to work and fail like what do you lean towards I mean on the mobile side I think it's I think it's getting earlier and earlier on mobile so you know a couple of years ago you really didn't see any discussion of new mobile games until okay it's drop this live you can play it now but now you know whether it's things like super mario run or other you know other games that have been upcoming you're seeing a lot more working with people early to actually get some brand awareness because people don't know it's coming again the app store is so crowded there's so many options out there that you know it's just a it's incredibly hard for someone to just casually notice that a game is there so I think there's an increasing need to have that conversation earlier and really get get on people's minds if you want to if you want your game to have you know a big audience from the start and if you know on the flipside if you're looking for more of a slow growth over time kind of approach if you're still working on the game then actually there can be real benefit to kind of waiting get it live

and then I think the point Jake made about actually giving the game to youtubers not just sort of as a marketing method but as a way to get feedback both them and their audience I think is an incredibly smart approach and you know if companies are worried that the press will be harsh with them no one will be harsher than that comment section if the game doesn't live up to what it's supposed to be so you know you can get very real feedback very actionable feedback from you know from those audiences and I think it's a great approach when it comes to live streaming games or making videos I mean there is there has been a massive rise in the mobile streaming if something goes that we do on the Pocket Gamer channels and stuff like that and it's only sort of a snakes maybe three years four years where you've seen a real rise of things like vainglory coming out as multiplayer MOBAs clash royale being eSports on mobile do you think that is where it's going are you going to be spending more time covering mobile stuff or do you think that the PC realm is still where

most of the stream is live ya know for for us I think it's definitely something we're starting to focus on more just because of obviously there's huge player bases but it's just more fun to know that you know if we're playing a game our viewers just have it super easy access to it so they can jump on and start playing or you know if I'm stuck at a certain part in the game I can say like yo guys I need some help and they're like all right right here I got it versus I gotta go boot up the Xbox so I think just how easy it is for our viewers to access it whether it's to play along with us or after the fact it makes a huge difference and for the future as a couple of things I'm asking everybody like I don't think you can talk about what you're working on as a minute right you guys I assume you're on the process of continuing to grow the channel and everything like that what games you playing at the moment I'm going to ask everybody this but like what's the one game that you're attached to you right now well what's the one game I'm attached to right now still still playing a fair amount of clash

Royale I just love the it's just minute to minute fun you know when I have four minutes and can just sit and play a game so I'm really enjoying that and then I'm just in kind of this perpetual loop is a lot of just the smaller indie games a lot of a story based stuff I think that that's something I'm really keeping an eye on is that starting to see a lot more story on mobile which really you know wasn't the case a while ago and so I'm really joining jumping into some of the some of the different games that started to pop up like I want to say it's old man I think is one day oh yeah three year like such an amazing game love yeah yeah yeah things like that that I may not you know I don't know that I'll keep playing that for months but to just experience that kind of story on on mobile is really cool being arrives with that old-style point if ik adventure where it's 2d you're interesting especially old man's journey moving from the foreground to the background and that adjusting the terrain is a really nice kind of way of doing it Jake what do you lean towards if you want to scream something what do you tend to go for if you're going to do it yeah if I'm screaming I definitely

like to focus on like I play gate like the games that I play personally are kind of along the line like story and it's slower page but I know if I'm streaming like my fans want fast paced so I'll do like a lot of you know clash royale that sort of stuff because it is very quick quick quick so that's definitely something that I try to play and I like games that I can kind of tell a different story it's not just straightforward everyone has the same you know puzzle that they have to complete and that kind of what I think good games like that is you know clash Royale but also Pokemon go if I'm out searching like my experience is going to be totally different than anyone elses experience yeah and finally coming to a place like this these conferences I mean from both of your perspectives what is the benefit of going and dealing with people physically where gamers people tend to spend a lot of time indoors or send home cameras and microphones on your own I'm very pale on the campus for the record we are indoors yeah yeah yeah again no

we might actually maintain the same space yeah but like actually going on physically meeting people and I think some people are wary of doing it what are the benefits as either a developer or a Content producer or coming out and actually dealing with people face to face I can go in so I mean I think I always find as much as technology allows us to connect over vast different distances really easily there's just something about being face-to-face and the conversations you have that they just go to a different level like you know we might you know we might never stumbled onto that we're both playing old man's journey if we were skyping right because we talked about what we needed to talk about we'd be like okay great that was nice but we're not going to just kind of continue that conversation and so I've always found like you know working on creative development when we have ideas being able to go out and talk to people here what's here what they're doing here what they're working on and just kind of have that exchange of like what top of mind for you what's happening it's just always more casual when you're in person

in a way that allows new ideas and kind of different things to bubble up that I often find super inspirational and really helped me kind of you know get off a linear thinking path and some of you know I think some of our most creative ideas or best insights have come from just having face-to-face conversations with people in you know in settings like this