Results 2020: Kirill Perevozchikov from White Label PR about the main thing for the year in game PR
We continue to summarize the results of 2020 together with top managers and experts of the gaming industry (and related ones). Next up is an interview with Kirill Perevozchikov, founder of White Label PR. He also talked about the main trends in gaming PR over the past year.
Kirill Perevozchikov
How was 2020 for the company?
We have worked with 15 publishers and 50 games — I am proud to work with THQ Nordic and tinyBuild. We launched the B2B PR direction: the first client was Makers Fund, the largest gaming investment fund in the world. We conducted large-scale influencer campaigns for Wargaming. We have released several market studies on new generation consoles in partnership with the American company VGM.
They have grown to 14 people in 4 countries: the USA, Great Britain, France and Germany. We are still not working in Russia, although customers are asking very much.
As for the main topic of this year — the coronavirus, it has hardly affected our work. I have been working remotely for 14 years now. White Label PR, which I founded two years ago, was created from my habits and the culture adopted at Larian, where I worked for five years. Thanks to this, in 2020 we did not have to adapt to working from home, which allowed us to focus on meeting customer KPIs.
What new trends in your niche do you consider worth paying attention to?
1. Loss of tools
PR agencies have lost important tools. There were no industrial exhibitions, private screenings, personal interviews and live communication with journalists. I had to adapt and transfer it to a virtual format. Streaming saves you here.
2. Abbreviations of editions
The burden on journalists has increased, and editorial offices are being reduced. One of the public examples is the story of the Gamer Network. The company announced the dismissal of the last employees USGamer.com (coverage 3.4 million).
3. Growing interest in PR companies from the majors
PR agencies have become interesting to strategists. For example, Embracer announced the purchase of our competitor Sandbox Strategies. According to the Gould+Partners formula, the deal could amount to more than $5 million.
What new market trends would you note in general?
1. Weakening of seasonality
Due to the pandemic, the cancellation of exhibitions and falling revenues, seasonality has weakened. Everyone has benefited from this. Publishers can release games even in December, and players don't have to spend more than $200 in one month.
2. Budget content is increasingly interested in the audience
The demand for budget content has increased. The Xbox Games Pass subscription service wins the most from this, which has already added EA games, and all Bethesda games will be there soon.
I'm sure the demand for full price games will drop. First of all, this will affect those games of the new generation, whose price tag is $ 70. Example: Ubisoft did not raise prices, as a result, Assassin's Creed surpassed Call of Duty in initial sales for the first time.
3. The victory of the new generation consoles
The new generation consoles are selling better than all the previous ones. An important factor is the hype due to limited supplies.
Against the background of their success, it is clear that Google will need something more than exclusive Jade Raymond games to convince everyone to switch to Stadia.
What will be the stake in the development of the company in 2021?
In 2021, the focus will be on long—term relationships - with clients, journalists, bloggers and partners. The main metric of a PR agency will not be the coverage of the publications received, but the trust in the client's brand, his reputation. Our task is to create and maintain this reputation.
Which third-party game releases are you interested in this year? Which ones did you pay attention to as a gamer?
I love RPGs and I was happy to go through The Outer Worlds, I started to replay Fallout: New Vegas on Xbox Series X in backward compatibility mode. I'm looking forward to the New Year holidays to finish The Last of Us 2, Half-Life: Alyx and go through Cyberpunk 2077.
