How live-service games can develop an on-going sustainable relationship with creators beyond sponsorships
In this article, we'll discuss how games can increase their customer lifetime value, attract more engaged players, have a higher share of voice on social media, and create more loyal creators with Support-A-Creator codes.
The role of paid sponsorships in a live service world
These days, any publisher (big or small) has at least one person focused solely on building relationships with content creators and talent managements, and this person needs to execute these partnerships as smoothly and cost-efficiently as possible.
Today, these partnerships are primarily transactional. Publishers pay creators to promote their games through sponsored content, showcasing the game to their audience, or giving them early access (which works if the game is hyped enough). This model has proven to be a very efficient way to reach specific audiences. Paid sponsorships are so common today that almost every creator's audience expects them to have them relatively regularly (even if they mostly play one specific game). After all, the creator needs to put food on the table, right?
However, how these paid sponsorships work in practice has remained the same since they started appearing. The publisher pays creator X a certain amount of money, and the creator streams the game Y for 1-2 hours or makes a dedicated video.
Instead, the most significant developments around paid sponsorships have been the underlying data—which creators do we target and why? How will their audience respond to the game?
The leaders in this space use advanced data to pinpoint which creators (and which audiences) will be the most receptive to their game. Ultimately, your biggest hopes will be that the creator wants to keep playing your game after the sponsored segment is done, and two, that their audience converts into paying customers.
In the last couple of years, the industry has shifted increasingly towards ongoing, live service games, with most significant publishers chasing the next big thing. This is to be expected,
Read more on gamesindustry.biz
