<p>For gaming brands like yours, knowing what to include on your site constitutes a high-wire act. Reveal too much and your most dedicated fans miss the chance to be surprised amid the hours of gameplay your title has to offer. However, if you don’t show enough, your current fans won’t get excited for what’s new. Worse, users who are new to your brand might not become customers at all.</p>
<p>With ongoing advances in social media, gaming sites are no longer the sole drivers of a successful campaign. However, with the right strategy and an experienced design and development partner, you can ensure your customers learn just enough from your site to keep them excited to start playing—no matter where they’re coming from.</p>
<div class="insight-upgrade"></div>
<p>In this white paper, you’ll learn:</p>
<ul>
<li>Why gaming sites are still an essential means to connect with your new and future fans.</li>
<li>The four questions every gaming site should answer.</li>
<li>How to ensure your gaming site avoids potential roadblocks on its way to design.</li>
<li>Why the right agency partner works best when provided with problems—not solutions.</li>
<li>How your site can accommodate accessibility and a rich visual experience.</li>
</ul>


Gaming sites that support your brand’s next launch have to meet the needs of multiple audiences. Access everything you need to know to get users excited.

What goes into a successful gaming site?

The complete guide for a successful gaming site to support your next launch

Inside, we walk you through the details of our approach to designing gaming sites in a way that engages your brand’s fans — and draws a closer connection with new ones. Enter your email for the link.

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Whitepaper - xx/2024 - Guide for a successful gaming site


“If you’re not growing, you’re dying.”

Voices as varied as Tony Robbins and William S. Burroughs have expressed some form of this idea. And from the perspective of your brand, who could argue? Growth is essential to any business. However, as your brand looks to increase sales, you face two choices:

Do you double down on your current audience? You could always try and capture a bigger share of your existing market, or sell current consumers more products.

Or do you pursue an entirely new audience and find the growth you need by expanding your fanbase?

Both directions have merit, and uncovering the right course for your brand requires a blend of art and science. But you don’t need a high-priced consultant to unpack reams of data to identify new demographics with potential interest in your brand.

What you do need is to look at your brand identity and dedicate time to discovering where its values overlap with any audience you pursue. Otherwise, any money you dedicate toward audience expansion is effectively dead-on-arrival.

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## Core questions any audience expansion effort needs to answer

Expanding your audience isn’t as simple as turning on a tap to produce more sales. If you want to generate more revenue from your current fans, you need to consider three factors:

1. **Satisfaction:** How likely are they to stick with your product?
2. **Likelihood to recommend:** Are your fans talking with friends about your products?
3. **Total addressable market (TAM):** Does your brand have the potential to expand from its current sales reach?

Targeting your marketing toward [building a lasting connection with fans is critical](/insights/how-do-you-build-a-generational-brand). Even the most popular brands can quickly fall out of favor as its audience ages or as new trends arrive. Before long, you need to consider new areas of expansion.

Before attempting to expand into a new audience, you should understand the gulf that exists between your data and a successful campaign. [An assortment of software tools](https://blog.hubspot.com/service/social-listening-tools) and trend reports can aggregate anonymized details to indicate a huge TAM that’s potentially open to your business.

Imagine opening reports that indicate Quebec loves your brand, and so does Central America. Great news, but what should you do with this information? Numbers aren’t enough to develop a message that will connect with consumers. The larger question for your brand is, once you’ve identified the right audience, how do you reach them?

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## Understand a new audience’s needs before expanding your marketing priorities

Whether your brand settles on pursuing an audience of college-educated women gamers or [a broad pivot to young fans](/insights/marketing-tips-young-target-audience), finding the right creative is often the trickiest part. Too often, brands will get caught up planning how to adjust their offerings in order to capture a new market. For example, think of how many brands adopted “EXTREME” logos and gaudy color schemes to court the youth market in the X-Games era.

Obviously, this approach very often comes off as disingenuous. You don’t want to be the brand whose message comes off as [a convoluted version of introducing yourself with, “How do you do, fellow kids?”](/insights/4-tips-better-youth-marketing) You want to identify areas where your brand’s products organically overlap with what your audience is looking for.

Sometimes, brands get lucky. The shoe company Crocs was effectively dead with defiantly chunky, plastic shoes with limited appeal confined to kayakers and gardeners. Then, the brand started incorporating plastic charms into the shoes that allowed for personalization, and the idea took off among a new generation.

They have since leaned into this renewed popularity as their data continued to demonstrate the brand was experiencing an unlikely renaissance. But Crocs remain the same shoe even as they found a new audience.

Instead of attempting to reinvent your brand’s identity to suit a new demographic, your brand should look to groups with values that overlap with your brand. Then, you can uncover their motivations and angle your unique selling proposition toward its ability to satisfy those needs.

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#### One-on-one research is key to successful audience expansion

Getting to know your audience is crucial before leaping into a new market. You need to dedicate time and energy to listening on social media channels to understand your audience’s needs.

But along with social listening, you also need to examine your target demographic with one-on-one research. For example, we worked with a major gaming brand on an initiative to expand its reach among young women. We looked at the core message of the brand and tried to find areas of overlap with the problems this new audience was looking to resolve.

Along with applying social listening to develop early insights, we interviewed women in the target demographic. We never asked direct questions about the brand, but we talked about their needs to overcome anxiety and claim “me time.”

We focused the resulting campaign on the way the company’s portable console and its current titles allow for quiet moments of escape and relaxation. We didn’t encourage the brand to change, or develop new titles that could appeal to women. The brand’s story remained consistent while tilting slightly to accommodate a new perspective.

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## Know your brand before making a move to a new audience

Targeting a new audience requires more than building a full understanding of who they are. You also need to know your brand and how it’s perceived in the marketplace. The right outside marketing agency will ask the right questions of stakeholders and deliver a vital, objective perspective of your audience and messaging.

As your brand considers its many options to pursue growth, you can’t afford to rely solely on promising data and undercooked research. At We The Collective, we can help you uncover the deeper motivations and behaviors of your target audience by asking the right questions. Before you decide where to spend your advertising dollars on a new audience, [we should talk](/contact).


Successful audience expansion for entertainment brands requires more than market research. Learn how to uncover deeper consumer insights to grow your brand.

3 strategies to expand your entertainment brand’s audience

Look beyond the numbers before your brand pursues a new audience


For entertainment brands looking to stay visible in a crowded digital marketplace, you have to navigate an environment that doesn’t always fit neatly within your marketing calendar. In fact, to retain your audience, you have to find a way to connect with them at any time and on their own terms.

Whatever area of entertainment your brand is in, your marketing should take cues from how other entertainment brands use their content to keep fans engaged and beyond their time using the product. From sports leagues and franchises, to video game publishers, to puzzle makers, innovative organizations are finding ways to stake their positions in pop culture by connecting with audiences on the platforms they’re already using. The same should be true for your brand, no matter your industry.

For any brand, your fans are your most important audience. The bulk of your marketing should always be dedicated to finding them, interacting with them, and keeping them engaged. Otherwise, they won’t be your fans for much longer.

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## Two universal truths for maintaining a bond with your fans

Entertainment brands can look to sports for two constant truths when it comes to marketing:

1. Audience expansion is always the goal.
2. Always-on content is your most important priority.

Of course, guiding your marketing to fulfill those truths is easier said than done. It also carries a measure of risk if your efforts aren’t combined with a well-considered strategy.

Your attempts to expand your audience can’t come at the expense of alienating your existing fans. And, just as delicately, your content needs to remain true to your core brand identity, even as what your brand produces increases in volume. Otherwise, you run the risk of appearing inauthentic to your true fans while making [a clumsy youth play that sounds like, “How do you do, fellow kids?”](/insights/4-tips-better-youth-marketing)

Whether your brand specializes in sports or video games, your fans will only spend so much time with your product. In the attention economy, people can only dedicate so many hours to watching or playing games. However, your fans still have the capacity to engage with you in other ways.

Your job as a marketer is to create a broad enough footprint that will find them on the right channel in a way that works for them.

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## Extend the reach of your brand with multilayered content

Larger brands in the entertainment industry can look to sports to see the wealth of possibilities for expanding the scope of their content. For example, the NFL successfully courted a young audience by partnering with pop culture and sports influencers who posted on social media about their love of the game.

The league also capitalized on the popularity of short-form channels like Twitter and TikTok to post meme-styled highlights [to reach a new generation of fans](/insights/how-do-you-build-a-generational-brand).  And, given the fragmented nature of the media landscape, the NFL never had to worry about alienating its existing audience. The TV audience never crossed paths with the brand’s social outreach, so any shifts in approach were effectively invisible.

### Always-on content engages your audience on every channel

An always-on marketing approach allows you to create a complete ecosystem of content that offers more opportunities to connect with fans beyond a single purchase. And your brand doesn’t have to be digital-focused to capitalize on the connection possibilities of digital channels.

For example, one company that specializes in jigsaw puzzles uses TikTok and Instagram to create engaging promotional content to engage their fans. The brand goes a step further to create companion Spotify playlists for each puzzle they create.

As their audience engages with each puzzle, they develop a deeper connection with the brand by having curated experience accompany their play. Plus, the music is enjoyable enough that fans continue listening even when not engaging with the puzzles.

Not only does the brand’s connection with fans grow stronger, they also equip their fans to become advocates. Every playlist and social media update from the brand presents another opportunity for fans to share more word-of-mouth posts on social media.

### YouTube connects Nintendo with a new audience

One of the largest gaming companies in the world, Nintendo, has developed [Play Nintendo](https://play.nintendo.com/), a site that serves as a crucial platform for the brand to engage and connect with its young audience.

Offering an assortment of interactive activities such as puzzles, quizzes, and more, Play Nintendo provides a vibrant new way for fans to connect with each other and the brand. Plus, it offers a way for younger audiences and newcomers to the brand to grow more familiar with their favorite characters and the worlds they inhabit.

YouTube acts as an extension of both of these goals. Capitalizing on the channel’s built-in young audience, the [Play Nintendo YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgK_2VQWwigtTr_5TviGy2w) builds off the brand’s site with engaging, on-demand video content. Fans can watch videos of their favorite characters and the things they can do as well as view clips of kids and families playing games, having fun, and exemplifying the brand’s positive perspective.

YouTube offers multitudes of options for gamers to engage with their favorite titles and brands. With the Play Nintendo YouTube channel, Nintendo offers the same content but aligned with the brand’s story. At the same time, Nintendo meets their audience on their own terms without the sales pitch typically associated with branded content. YouTube is just another way for Nintendo and its fans to stay connected.

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## Multichannel content offers control of your brand’s story

One of the core advantages of an always-on content approach is it doesn’t have to be expensive. On one hand, you should dedicate the resources to monitor and create for your audience in a way that suits each channel. But as compared with market research or million-dollar ad purchases, your brand’s investment is low.

Fundamentally, your marketing should provide your fans with the tools to stay interested and get other people interested. Even something as simple as a downloadable banner that allows fans to change their social background can create a feedback loop with your brand.

Your brand provides an opportunity for fans to declare their connection to your products. Then, your fans share their interests and want their friends to be interested, too.

Providing your fans with content on the channels they use also provides more control of your narrative. Instead of following the YouTube channel of an influencer who talks in a way that doesn’t suit your identity, your fans get information from the source. In the process, you build greater affinity between your brand and its fans.

## Increased fan engagement rewards shifting your success metrics

In a conventional marketing model, you worked to drive customers to your website. This hub-and-spoke model offered the potential of drawing a clearer connection between your marketing and its subsequent success. Unfortunately, [this is an increasingly outdated approach](/insights/video-game-marketing-agency-social-media). And with so many channels available to reach your fans, your website can no longer occupy the center of your marketing.

The challenge of an always-on approach to audience expansion is the difficulty generating quantitative data. It’s simply hard to prove how a downloadable image or behind-the-scenes social video directly led to a purchase.

However, by maintaining awareness of your brand, its products, or its characters among fans, you’re nurturing a more lucrative connection. If this sounds like the kind of connection your brand needs to develop and expand, [we should talk](/contact).



Finding and nurturing more fans is key in such a crowded space. What can entertainment brand marketers learn from the world of pro sports and Etsy creators?

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