Q.
The days when an entire publisher’s release schedule was entrusted to a single agency for an entire region (or kept entirely in-house) seem to be ever more dwindling. How has this affected how agencies pitch for business?
Stefano Petrullo, Renaissance: Not every game needs an agency in every territory. Vice versa, not every game can be launched by one single agency only. As far as I am aware we are one of the few agencies that offers both a full in-house solution whilst also being networked with some of the best agencies in the world. This means we can offer a truly scalable model to suit each client’s needs. The trick for us is to focus on the big picture from the very beginning: before we sign a new client we develop a full strategic plan with measurable KPIs, timelines on tactics and budget estimations. It takes more work being transparent from the get go, but we do not sugarcoat anything to secure the business. We always want to make the best for the projects we work on and are able to do so more often than not, thanks to the huge pool of expertise within the team.
Mario R. Kroll, UberStrategist: For us, we give clients options and make sure we consistently deliver on promises. Since we operated for most of our history largely by word of mouth referrals, inviting clients to take a calculated risk and letting us show them what we can do before they commit broadly and long-term, has been very successful.
Kirsty Endfield, Swipe Right: We’ve always been flexible with how we work. For us it’s about the specific project opportunity and getting a foot in the door. I understand the need to keep an agency on their toes, you want fresh thinking and quite often the feedback that I get from new clients putting their business out to tender is that their current agency has become complacent. Ultimately when you do a fantastic job you see repeat business and grow your footprint with a client.
Some of our clients such as Coffee Stain and Outright Games entrust us with the full portfolio globally and this is a relationship that has built up over time and in some cases from specific event or project work. Our offering has also evolved to match this change. We like to offer full brand strategies for B2B and B2C, supporting developers, first parties, analysing competitors and doing a lot more than just actioning a launch campaign.
Stu Taylor, Dead Good: We’ve found it less of a case that release schedules are split, but rather that there has been a clear division of labour between traditional media PR and influencer outreach. We saw this direction of travel happening
pre-Covid with more clients requesting bespoke content creator campaigns, so Dead Good set up a separate influencer team with a specific skillset, as we feel that they are very different kinds of PR approaches. The analogy I use is the Steve Buscemi “Hey there, fellow kids!” meme – basically, a PR pitch that might be warmly received by traditional media, could come across as cringe or ham-fisted to an influencer who’s emailed out of the blue by someone with obviously no knowledge of their channel or content.
Dean Barrett, Bastion: Agencies need to constantly evolve and offer multiple solutions for clients. At Bastion we don’t have a set model of working with a client, we look at their needs, understand their challenges and provide services that suit that particular client, whether that is social-led, influencer-led, creative-led or traditional PR.
“Quite often the feedback that I get from new clients putting their business out to tender is that their current agency has
become complacent” Kirsty Endfield Founder and director, Swipe Right
46 | MCV/DEVELOP February 2022
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