Best Practices for Asian Publishers Approaching European Influencer Marketing

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Asia has some of the world’s most successful game developers and publishers in the mobile sector. In the past few years, the gaming market in Asia went through a phase of rapid growth which has closed the gap to Western competition. By now, most Asian markets are dominated by regional publishers, while the Westerners are losing market shares in the area.
 
In the West, and especially Europe, things are still a bit different. While Asian publishers have been growing over the last years, they still play a minor role in these key markets. With their game quality rising, the question is: what is holding these Asian developers back from gaining bigger market shares?

Regional Marketing

 Facebook, Google, and other performance marketing platforms make it relatively easy to do worldwide marketing. While these marketing examples can be done from anywhere, one of today’s most powerful marketing instruments, Influencer Marketing, requires regional integration, cultural knowledge, and personal connections. Influencer Marketing is still a people´s business which is often difficult for foreign companies to navigate from afar. This holds especially true for the European market, given its multitude of different languages and cultures.
 
The European Union has 24 different official languages and this does not include financial powerhouses like Norway, who has again another language and culture. And while it´s necessary to understand the culture of the consumer, it is also important to be close to the influencer, understand their language and needs. This not only helps in communication and relationship building but also in guiding the influencer in the content they produce and is essential when approving the final product. Currently, strong, regional partners are required to succeed in this environment that is fueled by personal connections and cultural understanding.
 
Here are some campaign examples, that GameInfluencer has done for Asian publishers:

Best Case Examples

 Tencent relied solely on Influencer Marketing to drive traffic to their MOBA hit Arena of Valor. GameInfluencer gathered large Polish MOBA streamers for a concentrated launch push to shoot Arena of Valor to the top of the charts in Poland, peaking at number 1 of the Polish Role-Playing Games Charts and reaching the 2nd spot in Top Free Games on the Google Play Store.

 
Japanese powerhouse Nexon promoted Heroes of Incredible Tales with an Influencer campaign in the French market. GameInfluencer executed a campaign that brought together French mobile gaming stars BFA and Trapa for some awesome cooperative action in the game, resulting in high conversion rates and low CPIs!
 
The South Korean game publisher Come2Us did an Influencer Marketing campaign for their mobile hit Summoners War in the German and French market, working with all gaming influencers. The campaign, which consisted of 14 videos, reached over a million views and had great engagement rates through community and clan-building actions done by the influencers.