Influencers play a major role in modern society, with businesses of all types using them to help advertise their products. Studies have shown that influencer marketing is significantly more effective than commercials, as consumers trust influencers more than traditional product advertisements. In a study, it was even found that 88% of consumers trust online recommendations just as much as personal ones, showing that influencer marketing is without a doubt one of the best strategies for advertising products for a wide range of industries.
Influencer marketing is especially prominent in the gaming industry, with many high-profile gaming influencers very effectively selling their audience games and gaming-related products. But can the same be said for historical games? Today we’ll be discussing influencer marketing and whether historical games, in particular, can benefit from it.
There’s an Audience For It
While it’s true that historical video games are a much tighter niche than gaming as a whole, there are plenty of consumers out there that are primarily interested in solely playing historical games. Titles like Civilization, Total War, Age of Empires, and Crusader Kings have massive audiences, so it’s realistic for marketers to advertise their games through influencer marketing successfully.
Breaking More into the Mainstream
Influencer marketing could help historical video games benefit even further – even outside of its already established niche audience. Arguably, historical video games can explode into the mainstream if marketed properly. Though the aforementioned video game franchises are already mainstream titles, countless other historical games have gone relatively unnoticed. Some endorsement by prominent gaming influencers may be just the thing to help historical video games become even more popular than it already is. Two upcoming historical indie games, Going Medieval and Chivalry 2, have the potential to become extremely popular, but the level of influencer marketing for both titles could make the difference between the games being moderate successes and big hits.
Using Historians instead of Gaming Influencers
Another possibility for how historical games could benefit from influencer marketing is that gamers aren’t the only target consumers. There are many history buffs out there that could be easily swayed by trustworthy historians instead of gaming influencers. It would be a bit unorthodox, but who better to pick to market a historical video game than those whose job it is to study the history itself?
Historical video games can gain quite a lot from influencer marketing, and there are multiple routes that advertisers could go to achieve success. If you’re a game developer looking to advertise your game through influencer marketing or any other means, Epoch XP has you covered. We have a team of marketing experts that can help market your game whether you’re in the middle of development or have just gone gold. Contact Epoch XP today for a free consultation.
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At Epoch XP, we specialize in creating compelling narratives and provide research to give your game the kind of details that engage your players and create a resonant world they want to spend time in. If you are interested in learning more about our gaming research services, you can browse Epoch XP’s service on our parent site, SJR Research.
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(This article is credited to Ben Price. For as long as he can remember, Ben has always loved playing, discussing, and writing about video games. Since receiving his B.A. in English, he now writes about them for a living.)