Advertise to web2 users rather than web3 and How to

[autumn lintel]

Hello everyone!
In the following images you will find one of the 3 pillars that i was willing to bring to the Marketing Sub-Council to discuss on. More are to come as I find time to make these cool and clear infographics.

Looking forward to read your feedback and discussions around this topic.

[limber turtle]

I love the idea. Also another thing that you could add is affiliate links to the influencers as a cta for subscribing/signing. Either a price per signup or a scale of like 100 you get x price 500 x price or something. This will also help track how well the engagement is.

[autumn lintel]

It's one of the following Ideas. Referral links are a 500% necessary tool imo! Specially when advertising for Merchandising as it is way easier to implement than into IMX.
The amazing thing with referral links is that the deals are usually in percentage so the more the content creator/partner brings to you, the more they receive, incentivizing them to do a better job at promoting it, and leaving up to them how much effort they wanna put into the campaign

Just didn't mention it here because i wanted every idea to be clearly separated so that people can discuss every single one better.

[civic phoenix]

Like the idea aswell, but imo PVP Launch might be a bit early? Possible many bugs, imbalance and still a Long time to go until open Beta. Ofc pvp could hook for a while but it could be a Long time from pvp to open Beta. Especially if there are bugs and imbalance. Would rather wait AT least until first fixes, maybe even first balance patch.

[willow finch]

it is kinda late for me, but I will point out the 70% number refers to people having played a video game in the last 2 years once or more?, which includes console and mobile, which ILV won't have much to do with at pvp or public beta launch

Also I am unaware of ILV paying any creators at unreasonably high rates lately, so idk about the "stop doing this" part

Besides those 2, I think this is a relatively simple and obvious idea the marketing team likely has been having on their mind, and ILV is a deckbuilding game, after all, so going after card game players would probably be valuable as well; I know many of my former "colleagues" in HS are already looking at ILV.

As a last note, follower count is a suboptimal metric; views, clicks, avg concurrent viewers, view minutes, sub count on something like twitch, etc. would be much better.

[copper aspen]

I think this is a great idea tbh.

on @civic phoenix's point, I dont think its too early, many games begin marketing months in advance of launch and according to the roadmap Launch is set to 3 months after PvP Beta begins

This idea is both low-cost as well as high potential upside and the start of Illuviums marketing towards a web2 audience

[civic phoenix]

3 to 6 months.
And idk i don't See behind the scenes. But there's a Lot coming in q4, i wouldn't be surprised if open Beta has a little delay.

[copper aspen]

"I think this is a relatively simple and obvious idea the marketing team likely has been having on their mind"

Considering nothing like this has been done by Illuvium Marketing in any past Beta Launch (not even for a Web3 audience) I find your statement to be needlessly dismissive, lets be supportive of Community Members going out of their way to give ideas...

This is a draft idea, I agree that HS content creators could also be worth targeting and different metrics can be used to evaluate which creators to target, great constructive addition to this idea I agree

[willow finch]

It is an entirely different argument if you should market a private beta that will come out X months in the future to web2 or not

also I haven´t been dismissive, just this is rather simple idea, if we´d have direct links to this guy or this guy, that might be more helpfull than go find those people

[copper aspen]

Simple is the best way to deliver an idea... if the idea gets traction then the marketing team or sub-council can fill in the rest, but simple is the cleanest way to communicate it

[autumn lintel]

I find it a TINY bit unfair to call out people for putting effort into making an idea understandable for EVERYONE without having to spend 4h reading it. But i will still adress the points i find relevant to the discussion:

"Also I am unaware of ILV paying any creators at unreasonably high rates lately, so idk about the "stop doing this" part"
If it's not the case, why do we have an "Influencer manager" ?

Yes HS and any other card-game and probably 89 other games could be included to the list, again just putting effort in making every point as clear as possible so i'm sorry if i skipped your game. In the end it will be the Marketing Sub-Council and Team to decide on this and I have no intent to step on their toes. Talking about them, I'd love to hear their opinions on this, since they have actual Marketing experience.

[willow finch]

Maybe we can get some short feedback from @icy salmon on this, would love to hear his input.

[royal zealot]

How much do you think the influencer manager is spending on content @autumn lintel ?

[autumn lintel]

I won't do any assumptions as I don't have any info. The numbers i pulled there are based on market research on what does an influencer from a said size ask for, depending of it's activity domain, in this case: Gaming or Crypto

[modern valley]

Why did you put this out after the election?
Before the election you would have been elected, what a waste.

Congratulations to the 17 people who were selected!
And I hope that all 17 of you will think of different ways to increase the number of users, instead of splitting them up into different categories.
I hope that this will include other national languages.

[autumn lintel]

I definitely should have but it's been a busy week for me so i couldn't. Glad you like it though 🙂

Different categories are necessary in marketing since you don't market the same way depending on the target audience that we're aiming at. So far our communication has been centralized around Web3 users and I agree with you, we should target Gamers as a whole.

This Idea format could include content creators with different national languages than english for sure and that would actually be great 👌

[modern valley]

If I'd known at the beginning I would have voted for you, and I feel bad for you seeing the election results and knowing that my vote could have been reversed.
but I think you still have a lot of ideas to increase the number of users, so I hope you can come up with ideas , so you will get more support in the next election.

[autumn lintel]

If i run. Which is not decided yet. Nonetheless, I appreciate the support

Just adding here @river fjord response on twitter https://twitter.com/missionpoole/status/1657489846049357833?s=20

JP | Arcade 👾 (@missionpoole)

@Zeptyle This is certainly an important conversation to start having. As we discussed on the panel we did, I am certainly of the opinion that web2/traditional gamers should be the focus at this stage. Web3 carries a massive industry-tax and the only way Illuvium is going to -

Twitter · May 13, 2023, 8:55 PM

[river fjord]

This is certainly an important conversation to start having. As we discussed on the panel we did, I am certainly of the opinion that web2/traditional gamers should be the focus at this stage. Web3 carries a massive industry-tax and the only way Illuvium is going to reach it’s full potential is if we can get players coming in to enjoy the game in a way they are familiar with. Traditional games are raking in tons of money because there are not players coming in with an expectation of financial return. We need to create that same economic drive. The more we build up an image of our game/brand being simply a means of extracting value, the less we’re going to attract web2 gamers imo. There are certainly opportunities to still market to/with web3, but the web3 gaming niche is small at the moment, and most people in this niche have already heard of Illuvium or are following it. We need to branch out from this echo chamber we’re currently blasting to, and start marketing the game for the game. With that said, I am incredibly cautious of deploying capital in this market and believe that there are numerous ways that the Illuvium brand can provide value to participants in tournaments, etc., without deploying capital directly. The quoted $1,500-$3k cost for web2 content creators feels like something we can get lower. For the tournament you mentioned for example, I would source sponsors to put up the cash for that $20k so that Illuvium itself doesn’t have to foot the bill for that. I am looking forward to continuing these discussions though.

Just for convenience lol.

[icy salmon]

@autumn lintel the intention is to start marketing to web2 users through our esports partnerships once the beta with PvP is out. We have been spending less than 5k per month on influencers in web3 the past 6 months and the reason is tarren has built up relations with those influencers. So yes, great idea 🙂

[fierce laurel]

Some quick thoughts.

Instead of focusing on paying 8 top influencers upfront lets try and bring in as many top auto battler streamers as we can. The leg work to bring them into the tournament would be done beforehand and to entice them we have the prize pool that we can hopefully get sponsored ( JP idea ) by say Immutable, other Web 3 games(as web3 games would be the games most likely to sponsor it) and maybe a wallet provider like Argent or Moonpay.

This tournament would happen after the buzz has worn off from PVP being released and after any bugs found. (maybe 2 weeks after)

Tournament would be open to anyone with beta access.

This would be our focus after hopefully we come up with great ways to Market PB2 being released.

First to Catch them all contest would be fun!

Thanks for putting this idea out there @autumn lintel

[empty epoch]

This goes for all sub councils but I see this as an opportunity to showcase gov v2.

A lot of the community's ideas and what ifs are borne from the fact that the DAO has 0 visibility as to what the team has plans for marketing especially the months leading up to open beta. This leads the DAO to question why we aren't doing this or that.

I agree that many of our ideas stem from "basic" or "common" practices and I'd like to think the team are aware of this concepts. It's just that they can't execute it now cause it's not optimal.

Case in point- why market to web 2 influencers now when the game won't be out by q4? Wouldn't it make sense to start marketing closer to launch? We have our hard-core players complaining that the game is getting stale cause there's no pvp or the loop isn't complete. Wouldn't the sentiment be the same for new players (web2 influencers)?

So my suggestion is before we going throwing ideas let's get the marketing subcouncil to align with the marketing team as to what the strategy is in the next 6 months and provide a high level context to the DAO. It'll save everyone time and effort IMHO.

[fierce laurel]

Good first step

[river fjord]

Definitely agree with Scrub that we will be able to communicate this better to the DAO once we have a sync with the existing marketing efforts and plans.

I do think there’s a lot we can be doing in the 6~ months leading to public beta, so I am interested in coordinating web2 influencers/content creators earlier than later, but not at high cost. The $5k/mo that Kieran mentioned isn’t bad by any means but the council will just need to review these details to help build an informed plan forward.

[autumn lintel]

My opinion is that by doing this after PvP launch like you suggest, we miss a lot of momentum.

The content offer is not exclusive anymore and the beta probably won't be too much better 2 weeks later let's be honest. Also, I think we need to stop the entire "perfect before it goes public". Gamers know what a beta is, and aknowledge that bugs make part of the game.

Last but not least, making the tournament "not invitational, meaning open to everyone like you suggest, means that content creators from other games have 0 chance compared to our autobattler experts that have been trainning for more than a year now.

We would therefore be trading content that potentially attracts up 800k or more new users, for content that attracts nobody 😦

[autumn lintel]

about this, it's a matter of timing.

The Marketing Team/Sub-Council would need time to organize and strategize such an event, so the sooner we provide them the plans, the higher odds for it to be even just achievable.

Also like I state in the Jpegs, i really like the fact of advertising to web2 users while still not in Open Beta, reasoning for this is that for now there's no need for wallet or any web3 knowledge to play our Beta meaning less friction to onboard! Eventually once the people find out that there's crypto involved etc, they are already hooked, meaning we can bypass a lot of their biases by just showing them a cool game!

The creation of such an event could also, if done correctly be the start of a very good momentum that we can them feed and keep going until Open Beta release (since according to the road map PvP release and Open Beta release are separated by only 3 little months.)

[thick shadow]

Just want to say love your visual representation of your ideas. Was something I was going to investigate if I got on community sub-council… how to offer this service for community members with an idea.

[soft kernel]

Not up to speed on the comments but I'm pretty sure they are already looking at web 2 creators also. Many web 2 content creators don't entertain blockchain enabled games due to the current stigma around it. So it's less about the money and more about potential kick back or potential brand risk those content creators and willing to roll the dice on. Absolutely not saying we are a bad actor to warrant that but many just won't risk or entertain the idea.

[autumn lintel]

Yes that's a fact, some will refuse. Many others will just not care at all.

Remember the entire thing around Hogwarts Legacy? so many people saying they gonna boycott etc? And at the end of the day, because the game was good, the positive critics just silenced all the crap around it.

Our game is no different, In fact in this model we can even tell the content creators: no need to mention NFTs or blockchain at all if you're not comfortable with, just come play the game without NFTs (private beta) and talk about it as you would for any other game!

Let's not end up paralyzed by fear of irrational hatred. We won't be able to avoid it. But like 99.99999% of the times on Internet, haters are just a loud minority.

Otherwise what do we do? We wait for the minds to magically change about Web3 and only start growing then?

[soft kernel]

I would disagree, hogwarts legacy had a lot of traditional gaming support it was only a very small amount of identity politics obsessed people arguing that it's connection to JKR was enough to boycott it.

We are a different topic and whole other beast. Our industry is not well regulated and is full of bad actors and jokes/scams. With no meaningfully adopted and battle tested IP or titles yet.

I agree with trying but like I said many, specially larger names will not pull the trigger for worry of backlash, I think we are much more likely to get those people to give us a shot when we have released and onboarded some good amount of users and have shown to be a real project and not a joke.

[solemn laurel]

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[autumn lintel]

Which perfectly comes in line with the rest of my plan as a whole. (This is just one step)

But you if you appear next to the traditional games, on the "traditional media" (Influencers, Websites, Store...) We'll be able to foster a sentiment of trust around our brand, because the media they trust talk about us so we can't be that bad right?

It also comes to how you communicate with them.
If you go and say:
"Hey come and watch my brand new IBG built on the Ethereum Blockchain with no transaction fees thanks to ImmutableX and an entire Free Market of NFTs."

For sure nobody in web2 is gonna buy it. In 1 sentence we said Blockchain and NFT associated with 4 other words they have no idea what it stands for.

Now you go:
"Hey look at my brand new game!
Semi-Open World with 7 MASSIVE Regions to Explore!
225 Creatures to capture, train and evolve!
Fight with them in the most strategic Autobattler you've ever seen!"

This a gamer buys into. I didn't talk about money or ownership. I spoke about FUN. It all comes to knowing your customers' needs and gamers need to have fun!

Once they came and tested our private beta (That doesn't have any friction since there are no NFTs or wallets yet) it's too late, they're hooked and will now be willing to go through the effort of making a wallet and start playing the game once Open Beta is released.

[soft kernel]

I would say also the likelihood that you get a web2 content creator who would be willing push the game without also disclosing its blockchain enabled I would say would also be slim to none IMO. I think IMX passport is great and a game changer for adoption sake, I just think that the time to really hammer the marketing machine will be once we are ready and somewhat battle tested in our own web 3 bubble. Poven we are a proper game worth playing with fun and interacting experiences that with the help of IMX passport can mean a much easier capture for that web 2 player trying web 3 potentially for the first time. I have no doubt the team already are planning on showing the features of how IMX passport works within Illuvium and how easy it is to setup and get going. This in my opinion is what will bring people in, once we have proven ourselves.

[copper aspen]

I believe Zep said the target content creators would be around 100k subs on YT, Gaming YouTubers of that size would gladly take an oppertunity that not only gives them a guaranteed pay with a chance at a larger prize but also exposure on 8 other channels apart from their own.

Beyond that they arent being paid to "push" anything, just to try it out and compete in a bracket, they dont even have to mention Web3 or NFTs once to their audience if they don't want to.

Creators have no liability for anything, they are purely trying out a game and thats it, no ones shilling it or anything, its just a game...

No gamer is coming when they find out how IMX passport works, they come when they see how cool our game is (which seems to me the point of this proposal) and hopefully IMX passport is just there so that if they want to spend in our ecosystem there isn't a huge barrier in their way...

[autumn lintel]

But Gaming websites already talk about NFTs, like IGN and without saying anything bad from it!

Square Enix the creators of Final Fantasy are working on Symbiogenesis, an NFT project.

Also some traditional content creators also are now doing more web3 videos like Nizuuma (former HS pro, did content for TFT and now does web3 content).

People really give way too much credit to the entire backlash and "they're not ready" thing.

[copper aspen]

"they're not ready" is just Web3 Cope for why the world isn't adopting a technology that still has clunky UI

and now that we finally have it usable in a non-clunky way with clean UI in the wrapper of a game they are ready!

[soft kernel]

I agree it wont bring those users into the ecosystem but it does better help onboard them once they want to try the game out. Also an easier 'Sell' for a web 2 creator if the onboarding experience is an easy one.

[autumn lintel]

A lot of stuff would make our lives easier... But at the end of the day, if X or Y doesn't wanna do the video, cool onto the next one....

there's probably something like 500 Influencers (or more if we even go to a larger scope of games) that could fit into the "requirements" i've set, and we have someone full-time working on finding partnerships with influencers, please don't tell me we can't find 8 for this event in 4 months

[copper aspen]

Furthermore there is no "onboarding experience" that is relevant as far as this idea goes, Creators will get early access to the beta, no NFT or crypto is involved in any of it, doesnt seem relevant

yes the onboarding experience will be relevant for launch and later but it just isn't for this idea at all

[soft kernel]

I am talking about marketing to web 2 vs 3 in general. Pros and cons and my opinion why it isn't as clean cut and dry as mentioned in the idea, for the reasons I have made above. So has it's relevance as framework now for hitting web 2 targets needs to IMO be based in reality.