The video games industry. If you haven’t yet, it’s time to take it seriously. Perhaps it should too
As of November 2017, market research put a value to the global video games industry of $116 billion.
To put that in context, the industry dwarfs the global music industry ($17.4bn: 2017) and is beginning to rival the global sporting industry.
Not just in value but in frequency of interaction and engagement duration.
A shift in the consumption of mass media is at the forefront of many industry conversations, particularly around the topic of intangible assets.
At Interstate we often discuss the intangible benefits of our work and how they positively impact the bottom line for our clients.
Whether that is realised in a well crafted visual identity, marketing communications, prototype digital applications or in physical products;
brand value is one of the most important components of an intangible
asset calculation.
If we take the top 50 brands in the world we find examples of entities that are ‘asset’ light from a traditional sense, but achieve high valuations and market caps through the value of their intangible assets. This covers everything from I.P., to patents and brand recognition. Uber may own little, but as a brand listed in 44th place for global brand value [Brand Finance Report 2018], it has a huge amount of value placed on its intangible assets — granted the majority is in IP but as we have previously highlighted, the impact of UI/UX on brand
is huge.
Delivering a new brand for a client requires careful planning, absorption of a lot of data and generally speaking, an intelligent approach in order to assess the current position of a brand and where it can be improved. Informed decisions are, generally speaking, the best ones you can make.
As an exact point in case, the recent rebrand of prominent gaming brand SCUF by the team here took in to careful consideration market positioning, product positioning, existing and target audiences to build a strategic approach to a comprehensive rebrand that touched everything from physical product treatment to website, event expressions, above-the-line advertising, in-store presence and social communications.
While SCUF had built a large reputation as a brand for gamers built by gamers, the existing brand did not convey the precision and highly technical approach to building their products as well as it could. This necessitated a new positioning and visual identity to build a platform that would scale with, and support, the company’s ambitious growth plans.
At the same time, a brand like SCUF whose controllers are used by 90% of pro gamers worldwide, needed to maintain a tone of voice and position within the world of gaming that did not look too corporate or out of place.
With the growth of the gaming industry, brands will become more highly scrutinised. The responsibility for maintaining a standard and maturity that supports the financials will grow with the industry.
A well structured brand will support this in providing a platform and direction for growth. It doesn’t mean you become corporate and boring, just organised and mature.
Our advice to our clients remains consistent across all industries — don’t underestimate the value and power of your brand and its impact on your bottom line.
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Words: Ken Goodbody
Ken is the Director of Business at Interstate.
