This then trickles down into agencies who, in seeing shrinking budgets and cancelled games, get cold feet and divest. It then ends up that much harder for agencies to service gaming clients, and for game developers to find a good agency.


But what both sectors have failed to realize is that it’s their shared creative ambition, born out of uncertainty and tough times, that created the necessary pressure to turn lumps of coal into the diamonds that exist today. It’s the spark that lit the flames of innovation, turning


creative ideas into products, and campaigns into defining moments that shape culture. There’s no secret formula out there that will guarantee success. But success isn’t necessarily about cutting costs, reducing headcount or shifting marketing spend. It’s about investing in people, your brand and your business – remaining creatively ambitious to drive innovation forward, even when the arrow is pointing down.


WHERE INVESTMENT MATTERS Starbucks, LEGO, and Procter & Gamble are all great examples of this. At the height of the 2008-09 financial crisis, instead of cutting the workforce to save on costs, Starbucks invested in them - increasing salaries, benefits, and the like to build a strong company culture and retain top talent.


While Starbucks took a financial hit for nearly two years, it was through its investment in talent and ideas that it was able to turn the business from the $9 billion dollar company it was then into the $30 billion dollar behemoth it is today. At the same time, LEGO invested massively in partnerships and licensing of bold new IPs like Star Wars and created video games and new products to appeal to a wider audience. This reshaped the business and made it part of global


culture, and this all happened during the financial crisis while the company was on the verge of bankruptcy. LEGO understood the link between gaming, culture, and the marketing engine that fuels it.


Both gaming and advertising have some of the most


creative minds in the world at their beck and call. These industries are bursting with life, passion and creativity, so it would be a mistake not to take advantage of the talent that they have to offer. Give them time to breathe and space to create, and people can produce wonders. Games like World of Warcraft or Valorant didn’t happen overnight, and they certainly weren’t pressured into “deliver by Q3 to make it in time for holiday sales” deadlines. What made the difference was trust, and a shared belief that they were creating a unique experience that they themselves would want to play.


For agencies, it’s the trust and freedom to be creative, think out of the box, and be a little bit crazy, to create ideas that are worth talking about that shape culture. The famous Mr. T ad for World of Warcraft and the Old Spice ‘Man Your Man Could Smell Like’ ads didn’t come from a place of fiscal deadlines and short-term pressure.


THE HARD TRUTH Larian Studios is a great example of a game studio that’s doing it right. It continues to create stunning games that it only releases ‘when they’re good and ready’, without pushing developers to hit milestones or making the headlines the wrong way with layoffs.


Make no mistake, these games take several years at a time to produce, yet the business still invests in people, culture, and ideas even when the time between one release and the next is a decade away. While one could argue it has the advantage of the Baldur’s Gate IP,


it


was its original IP ‘Divinity’ that put Larian on the map and allowed it to create the award-winning masterpiece, Baldur’s Gate 3, in the first place. This is all due to the shared passion for creating great games, investing in people, and creating an experience players want to engage with and talk about. This is how you create ‘lightning in a bottle’ and a financially successful franchise.


The truth is, the relationship between creativity and growth


are symbiotic - not mutually exclusive. We need brilliant creative minds and their ideas, not just to break through the monotony of the same games and performance ad campaigns we see every day; but to challenge ourselves to create something new that attracts consumers, bonds them to our brand and products, and actually creates the opportunity for growth. We cannot sit here and do the same things over and over and expect different results. We have to be willing to take the risk on something big and see it through to see meaningful change occur. The answer isn’t cutting staff and cancelling projects just to focus on the 12th iteration of that one game that hasn’t died yet, or that one core competency everyone knows you have. Sure, it’s safe, but it’s in the unknown where beautiful things are created and where the opportunity for growth truly lies. At the end of the day, if we don’t diversify, if we don’t invest and take the risk in new areas of business or new games, we will never see the growth we want. And make no mistake, while we may not plummet as quickly as Icarus, we will eventually fall into the Icarian sea. Because the only thing constant in life is change. If we


don’t embrace it, if we don’t invest in people and their creativity, we’ll never create anything meaningful that allows us to soar.


February/March 2025 MCV/DEVELOP | 23


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