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[Zizka]

Hello guys! 

Every once in a while, I'll see someone looking for an HR person to promote their games for a Greenlight or a Kickstarter. It's very rare that people will talk about how that went and whether or not it was worth it. So I was wondering if anyone had hired a PR person and if it turned out to be a good experience. Perhaps providing a reference would be neat too.

Also, how much should a PR person be paid for? How does it work? Hourly wage? Flat rate to promote the project from beginning to end? How did you guys handle it?

Advertisement plays such a huge role in promoting a game, I want to make sure I won't miss the boat on this one.

[RaccoonV]

Heya!

Advertisement is indeed very important for any game to make it a success. There are so many cool games available on the market that it is of big importance that your game stands out. You can consider hiring a PR agent or agency, but it all depends on your budget.

A PR agent or agency will most likely ask you: 'what is your budget' and 'what do you have in place'? If you don't have a large budget the budget for social media campaigns will be skimmed down or they won't personally contact journalists but send out general e-mails to websites like gamespress.com. Budget, budget, budget is the key of what they are able to offer. If they need to build up a network from scratch (0 followers, 0 likes etc) they will ask for a lot more money, because they need to grow these channels. If you already have established a community with hundreds/thousands of followers/likes with a solid plan in place they will charge you less, since they only need to maintain it.

My advice to you is:
1) Register all domains you need;
2) Register all social media channels you want to use (a Twitter username, Facebook page, YouTube, Twitch etc)
3) Create a press kit (http://dopresskit.com/)
4) Make a social media calendar (when you want to release content and on what channel for the upcoming months)
5) Write a press release (draft) of the information that you want to share with the public. Keep in mind that '6 playable maps' is not really a USP (unique selling point) but features like: '4 player co-op mode' are selling points.
6) Make a list of journalists / websites that you want to contact and match your target audience. If you publish a co-op game it is highly recommended that you get an article published on co-optimus.com
7) Release and produce content to share and start building a network

Try to do as much work yourself, or find a hobbyist PR-guy that can help you for free with the promise of compensation when revenue is being made. A great PR-agency can be pretty expensive ($500 just for an introduction conversation is what I have experienced once)

I hope this helps!

[Zizka]

Oh yeah, 500$ is way over my budget. I know what to do then.

[RaccoonV]

You can also check out cheaper alternatives. I know for a fact you can 'hire' a social media manager for like $10 a week on Fiverr. (I don't know if you are familiar with this website, but people offer everything for a minimum of $5) that way you can make your marketing more efficient and delegate certain marketing duties to these kinds of people. Please be aware of the rating these people have on the website.

[xier]

I've been hearing conflicting things about PR firms. I personally know two companies that have used a PR firm (one a multi-billion dollar telecom and one a fellow indie dev). This is their experience with this kind of service, but their efforts did more damage to the company then good.

The issue was that the firm had no clue about the product, nor did they take the time to research it. Money was just thrown at them and then they were left to mechanically spam everyone on the company's contact list. This did not convert people to customers. In fact it actually burned bridges with people making the company lose very valuable connections. In the end they lost money for using this service, and also lost valuable connections they had worked so hard to create.

For the telecom, this is not a big deal. They can just throw another mil or two at another PR firm and start over. But what about the indie who just blew his months pay check paying for a service that hindered his growth?

I would be wary of who you work with, and be very clear with what exactly you want out of their services.   

 

[Zizka]

Thanks for the feedback. What I find difficult is to determine how exactly you're supposed to pay them. A composer will charge you for a song, an artist for graphics but a PR agent... ? How do you determine how much work they've done? How much of an impact they've had? I find that very hard to evaluate and thus determine what should be offered to a firm or an individual who provides such a service.

The impact is something I doubt you can ever determine. I mean, how do you keep track of what they've done?

[BishopGames]

I know I'm a bit late to the party but I think hiring PR is worth it for specific events during development/production of a game. I call these events ''turning points'' and while they can vary in importance for each game, they all play an important role in its success or failure.

These turning points can be Steam Greenlight campaign, Kickstarter campaign, media booking for PAX/GDC/other big shows, release of the game, etc. I think having some PR boost for one or more of these turning points can really be beneficial for you and your game. Aside from the results/exposure brought by the PR firm, you can also have them give you advice and expertise on HOW to build your campaigns.

It is indeed quite hard to quantify the results, as you said, for a composer  you pay by song. How do you pay a PR guy? Well, you have to look at the results sure, but also from where he started. If you have like 0 followers, no traction, no hype surrounding your game, he will have to work twice as hard to make it work. You also have to take into consideration his credibility. Let's say PR guy #1 is in all the inner circles of the video game medias, you know when that guy calls IGN, they will listen. Well he will be much more expensive than PR guy #2 who's a bit of a nobody. So remember to take all these factors into consideration.

Just my opinion. For having meeting a few at shows like PAX, I can maybe refer one guy to you who's very good and very chill.

Good luck!

[RaccoonV]

Thanks for the feedback. What I find difficult is to determine how exactly you're supposed to pay them. A composer will charge you for a song, an artist for graphics but a PR agent... ? How do you determine how much work they've done? How much of an impact they've had? I find that very hard to evaluate and thus determine what should be offered to a firm or an individual who provides such a service.

The impact is something I doubt you can ever determine. I mean, how do you keep track of what they've done?

Assuming they researched your product, have prior experience in the gaming industry (you don't want a PR firm that mostly has clients in the automobile industry) and gives you a good vibe, you can discuss targets with them. Those targets must be measurable in numbers (make them SMART - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMART_criteria), for example: traffic for your website/store, Twitter followers, Facebook followers etc. It also depends on how popular / well known your game already is. If he has to start from scratch (even registering the domains) or already can start working with a small but active community. Also don't forget to discuss a time-frame with the agency. Just like you expect your composer to finish a piece of music in a time-frame, you can also expect (demand) this from an agent and/or agency.

It isn't hard to write down on a piece of paper where you stand now before the agency starts. That way you can keep track of how fast and with how much (%) every channel is growing. If they distribute copies of your games to journalists/YouTube'ers and other interesting parties it isn't that hard to collect data from that either. You can see how many they mailed and how much content is being posted on the Internet. (or when released on Steam you can even see how many keys have been claimed) The same goes for the other data, which is easy to track (Twitter analytic / Facebook Insight etc) 

You can perhaps even discuss targets in terms of revenue / profit, but I would assume that PR agencies won't really agree with terms like that.

When you think you are comfortable talking to journalists, have (or make) free time for marketing, know your way around social media channels and certain (free to use) marketing-tools, you can also do it yourself. It isn't all that hard and many resources are available online to help you (I posted a few of them in my previous post). You can maybe even consider hiring a person for just one specific PR task (e.g. social media) to make your time more manageable. My mother always told me: 'when in doubt, don't do it.' I understand you are here for feedback/experiences, but I think the majority of the people here have not used a PR agency in the past, judging from the amount of responses from others.

Hope this is helpful!

[Zizka]

Thanks for the replies,

Based on what you guys have written, I think my best bet would be to hire someone at a turning point If I'm going to pay cash.

The thing is, I’m not interested in paying someone unless I have some sort of guarantee. If I pay the composer, I’ll get my song, same thing with the artist… I’d expect the same from a PR, like I said before. Some numbers might work...

A firm is most likely out of the question as I they’ll require hard cash from the get go. This is my first game and everyone is working with the assumption that the game will get ksed.

I think I’ll need to find someone who believes enough in the project to promote it so much that it’ll get funded, in which case I would try to reach an agreement about the % share that person would like. Don’t know if it’s utopic of me to think of such a business deal but that really is the best I want to offer. I don’t want to pay someone in the first place and if the game isn’t funded end up the one wasting money. I’m very dubious about the fiver thing… I guess I wouldn’t mind paying the 5 bucks a week but I doubt I’d be getting a super promotion in return.

An amateur would do, I mean someone who is trying to get some experience. The whole team is like this basically, we’re all putting in the effort because we think the project will get funded and everyone will end up getting paid.

I think this wraps it up nicely. I'll try my luck at as a shared profit deal. Thanks!