2020 results: Mateusz Shukait from Galaktus PR on the main thing for the year

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 Mateusz Szukaite, CEO of Galaktus PR agency. He spoke about the redistribution of advertising budgets of games in favor of online.

Mateusz Shukait

How was 2020 for the company?

This year has been difficult for us. A significant portion of our annual revenue comes from brand support at big gaming events like IEM Katowice or Gamescom, which, for obvious reasons, did not take place this year. Fortunately, we were loaded with other projects as well. Plus, marketing budgets in the whole market have shifted from offline to online marketing, including to influencers.

Many achievements can be noted. We have signed several new clients this year. Our team has become bigger, and there are new cool specialists in it. We also launched our own studio for creating board games and a QA division. So overall, this year turned out to be better for us than 2019.

But I am sure that if we had not specialized in games, if we had not stood firmly on our feet in such areas as gaming PR, sales, marketing, esports and hardware, we would have found ourselves in an unenviable situation. Our strategy of being a useful interdisciplinary gaming company has paid off. Now we are looking forward to what the next 2021 has in store for us.

What new trends in your niche do you consider worth paying attention to?

If we talk about PR and marketing of games, the redistribution of advertising budgets in favor of online has seriously changed how brands arrange the premiere of the game, how it is launched and even how it is sold within the framework of events. Having a strong team of influencers at your side has always been necessary, but today it is even more important.

Yes, Facebook is no longer the main place to interact with a brand. Today, all work with the product community is built through Steam, Discord, Twitch and Twitter.

What new market trends would you note in general?

Considering that the top games of this year were (excluding a couple of AAA blockbusters) Among Us, Fall Guys, Animal Crossing and Hades, I assume that the more the game relies on the community, the more likely it is to succeed.

Gameplay innovations are now offered by small teams. At the same time, the success rate of such projects shows that AAA games should take note of their approaches, their mechanics.

The world of games is changing more than ever, so I believe that the new generation will surprise us with much more innovative and exciting games than we can imagine.

What will be the stake in the development of the company in 2021?

We will focus on developing our international teams and increasing the number of services we provide in Europe and the USA. We are also going to strengthen our QA department and eventually open our own game publishing house (after all, we have always been doing something that is very close to publishing in fact).

Which third-party game releases are you interested in this year? Which ones did you pay attention to as a gamer?

For me, the only obvious answer here is Hades. The game blew my mind and took away a piece of my life. I'm an old "baker", so the crazy experience that Hades gave me is exactly what I've been looking for for a long time.