Why did we create the brand?
It’s March 2020, and Covid-19 has hit the world like nothing we’ve ever seen. We are no longer allowed to meet people in person, and suddenly, our space feels small.
For me specifically, I missed talking to my brother about the latest and greatest video games. The problem is that many games my brother and I like to play tend to get little to no press on mainstream gaming news platforms. So we decided to turn the tables on Covid. Instead of locking ourselves inside the house, we took the idea of “everything has to be remote” as an opportunity to create something new. We taught ourselves how to make our gaming podcast and YouTube channel to share the best games to play with the world.
YouTube Gaming Reviews
From “Let’s Play” videos to full-on game reviews, the YouTube Channel catered to a more in-depth look at some of the hottest games we were playing at the time, and we recommend giving it a shot to everyone. It was also a good opportunity to revisit some of the classic games we played when we were younger and introduce them to a new audience that might have missed it the first time (i.e., Donkey Kong Country).
A few examples of YouTube thumbnails. We kept the icon in the upper right corner and the text in the same place to create a uniform look on the entire channel.
Dynamic Branding using Adobe Creative Suite's power!
I created a dynamic YouTube opener where you could easily update the title of your video and have the same glitch animation every time. We wanted to recreate the feel of a 90’s arcade machine because our mission is to feature the newest game releases and highlight the best games from the past. We are from the ’90s; after all, I still remember carrying around pocket change back in the day (Yes, that influenced our name).
However, my brother is still new to the Adobe Creative suite. So, while he was learning to use After Effects and Premiere, I made the opener into an Essential Graphics template. So that the template was easy to edit and did not need someone with extensive video production knowledge to create a new opener. The video above shows how to edit it in After Effects, but a ".mogrt" file was also created for Premiere.
In every podcast episode, we would feature the latest gaming news and make sure to talk about games we were currently playing or excited to play shortly. We made an effort to feature more small-budget better known as "Indy games," that other large platforms did not pay as much attention to.
Social Media Content Marketing Strategy
To build hype for the podcast channel and feature the most groundbreaking news of the day, I created Instagram templates to further the conversation on social media. A few major gaming stories illustrate how consistent type, color, and layout can create a dynamic brand.
One of our most engaged posts is this carousel of the (at the time) newly released Halo Infinite armors. I attribute the success of this post not only to the branding but also to our ability to post it faster than other large gaming networks.
On top of news-of-the-day Instagram carousels, we also created carousels on games we thought people should try. These carousels would go more in-depth on what made a game special. For example, with Indivisible, the art style alone made it a game worth trying.
We created graph content and Twitter headline templates to fill out our content marketing strategy better. This also allowed us to introduce more color options (Ie. pink & purple) and create a more lively brand.
A big addition to our gaming news content was the feature of "Xbox Game Pass" games because we believe it is the best deal in gaming. One of those games that gets lost in the shuffle is Quantum Break! Featuring characters such as Game of Thrones actor “Little Finger” and Aiden Gillen, Quantum Break is a thriller of a story. If you need more reasons, we've got you! This Instagram Carousel has more to learn about this science fiction action-adventure third-person shooter.
We created variations for Downloadable Content (DLC) to further the brand and previewed upcoming releases like the above “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” example. With the preview templates, we started using the “Bolt” icon as a design frame to take a look into the future.
We experimented with typography and gradients for new product releases to bring more hype and attention. The typography option is great because you can update it in many languages.
Conclusion
Ultimately, it's great to share the gift of great video games because there is a game for everybody. With Pocket Strategy, we can share that excitement with other players worldwide, and the dynamic nature of this brand that we built helps us amplify our message through many different platforms.
So, the next time you finish your favorite game and wonder, "What now?" give us a shout, and we'll point you in the right direction.
