Video Game Elements and Mechanics That Exist in Marketing

If you’re like me and grew up playing video games (and still do to this day), then you must’ve also spent your weekend watching the E3 event, anxiously anticipating what new game releases and updates we’ll be getting, or if your favorite game will finally get a new installment.

Being someone that works in the corporate B2B marketing world by day and being a geek that enjoys spending hours playing my favorite video games by night, I’ve slowly come to see that even though these two things are on the opposite side of the spectrum, there is actually a lot that they have in common. In fact, many elements and mechanics I’ve encountered while grinding my way to level up my characters can actually be applied to real-life marketing as well, and today I want to share those with you.

Let’s dive right into it.

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Artifacts

In MMORPG type of games, you get to play as different heroes, and every single one is unique in its own right. You get to level them up and give them cool weapons, and if you’re familiar with the popular MMORPG Genshin Impact, there are also these things called artifacts that you need to equip your characters to make them even stronger.

Now, let’s look at them through the lens of marketing. These artifacts would be your different marketing tools and strategies that you “equip” to your business in order to get your name out there and blow away the competition. But just like in the game, there are many types of artifacts, so you have to choose carefully which one you’ll use in order to really optimize your character.

There is a myriad of different marketing tools and strategies out there at your disposal, but you have to determine which ones are the best fit for your business. It takes a little bit of tinkering around, trial and error, but once you put together the right combo, your brand is going to blow the competition away.

DPS and Sub DPS

Your DPS and Sub DPS characters in games are your front liners in every battle. They’re the ones that deal the most damage. Since they are always at the forefront, they also become the “face” and main character of your team.

In our day-to-day marketing ventures, it’s you. Yes, you are DPS. And the content that you put out as well as the service/product you offer is your sub DPS’. Putting out good content — in the forms of blog posts, video reels, infographics, case studies, white papers, etc. — is what drives big numbers of engagement to ultimately turn into conversions. The key lies in knowing how to strategically use your different types of content that will solidify your brand’s name and presence on the market, ensuring higher engagement rates and new customers.

Support characters

Every DPS needs one or even several good support characters. They’re the ones that provide healing when the DPS is weak and give them all the right buffs to power up their moves so that when the DPS takes the field again, they don’t have to worry about anything else except hacking and slashing their way into victory.

So, who are our support characters in the world of B2B? That would be our lead generation team. Specifically, our inbound and outbound lead generation teams. They are the ones who monitor, reach out, and qualify new leads that pass through your sales funnel. They buff you up by organizing marketing campaigns for you and are also the ones in charge of setting appointments so that at the end of the day, all you, the main character, don’t have to worry about anything else than solely focusing on your product and/or service and how to make it better than every version it was before. They’re the ones that help you save your time and precious resources so that all you have to do is get into the battlefield and do your thing while they back you up all the way.

Dungeons

One of my favorite games that I have recently picked up and fallen in love with is The Legend of Zelda. Link, who is the classically beloved protagonist of this game series, has to always enter various domains or dungeons where he is presented with lots of enemies to fight and puzzles to solve. Once he’s accomplished solving and beating every dungeon, he receives a prize and the praise of whoever it is he has to save.

Sounds like a familiar feat? When we engage with new clients or even just possible prospects, we try to find out what their pain points are and solve them like a complex puzzle, and along the way, we may encounter various other challenges that we have to beat and parry first. Only when we’re successful at figuring these out will we be able to claim the sweet prize of our client’s/prospect’s trust and partnership.

Team Comps

If you’ve played games like Pokemon before, you know that you go into a battle with a team of six Pokemons, and depending on which pokemon trainer or Team Rocket grunt you’re fighting, you tailor your team to make sure you have the right one to counter that of your opponent. There is always the right team for every situation and you can be confident that they will get you through every battle.

Every business and company has their own sets of teams that are designated in different departments, having different specialties that make them shine in their respective positions. You have your sales team, marketing team, content team, human resources team, and PR team just to name a few. Each team is essential to make your whole business work as a whole and you know exactly who to turn to for different situations. With every team under your wing working together is what’s going to make your business run efficiently and garner success.

Wrapping Up

They say that games are for kids, but come to think of it, there are a bunch of parallels to our daily lives and careers that you can see reflected in the video games kids – and us adults – play. There is always a thing or two that we can learn from places we least expect to.

There you have it! I hope you enjoyed seeing our daily marketing grind through the eyes of a video game perspective and how some game elements and tactics can actually be applied to our marketing strategies. So, we hope that the points I mentioned above give you a new outlook and who knows? Maybe you’ll see even more similarities the next time you pick up a new game!