How to Get Gaming Marketing Right With Tripleclix

Christopher Erb unknowingly began his career the first time he picked up an Atari controller. Over the years, he’s held various marketing posts at GameWorks, Wizards of the Coast (maker of tabletop and trading card games like Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons), and EA Sports before founding his strategic gaming agency tripleclix. Video games have gained significant cultural clout since the first Atari console in 1977, with esports tournaments and studios churning out video game-inspired movies and TV shows. Brands want in, but there’s a learning curve. “You can't just go buy media in the gaming space and be like, ‘Coke's delicious,’” Erb deadpanned. Putting gaming into perspective While at Hollywood studio Legendary Entertainment, Erb was charged with promoting the upcoming feature Pacific Rim. “My first week, I had 1,000 marketing agencies come in and ask, ‘Hey, what can we do to help with the film?’” It wasn’t the reception he was used to in the gaming space, where he had to pitch potential brand partners personally because there were no marketing agencies clamoring for video game tie-ups. Which is ironic, if you know the numbers. In 2013, movie industry revenue was $36 billion, while game developers pulled in $85 billion. In 2023, those numbers were $34 billion and $184 billion, respectively. And while you may spend three hours watching a movie once, Call of Duty players have spent a combined 25 billion hours playing the game over 20 years, according to developer Activision. “So gaming is your life, movies are your escape,” Erb summed up. “When you start to think about the size and scale of the space, it's just untapped.” Stay in the game In 2009, Erb was leading partnership marketing for EA Sports’ Madden NFL. The nascent era of social media presented an intriguing prospect: figure out a way to let fans pick the game’s cover star. He wanted Doritos as a brand partner to make it happen. But when he pitched the idea to Frito-Lay, “They were like, ‘Why would we do that? Why would we do a video game promotion?’ So I spent two weeks in Dallas convincing them.” The response, according to then-vp of marketing at Frito-Lay Rudy Wilson, was “overwhelming” and led to the creation of two NFL-themed Doritos flavors—and has grown to be the unofficial tortilla chip of gamers given its continued brand collaborations across. “They're always in the game,” Erb said. “No one's saying, ‘Why is Doritos doing that?’ They're saying, ‘What are they doing next?’ You don’t want brands to be tourists; making brands authentic to the space is really the long-term goal.” Sonic the Hedgehog's IHOP menu was a viral hit for tripleclix. Drop the stereotypes Erb founded tripleclix in 2014. Ten years later, the biggest lesson he’s learned is that appealing to gamers requires building authentic relationships. Is your brand’s promotion creating value and making the gaming experience better? That means going beyond Twitch sponsorships and looking at what does well in retail, while also providing an experience for the consumer. Tripleclix recently worked with candy brand Trolli to give away in-game items to World of Warcraft players, brought a Sonic the Hedgehog menu to IHOP, and produced Xbox controllers in OPI nail polish colorways (46% of gamers are women, after all). “My passion is really helping brands authentically come to the base and build relationships with these gamers,” Erb said. “Because you can do a bad Star Wars promotion and no one really cares. But if you do a bad World of Warcraft promotion, you're gonna get killed.”

Lessons Learned

How to Get Gaming Marketing Right With Tripleclix's Christopher Erb

'You can't just go buy media in the gaming space and be like, Coke's delicious'

Eva Kis

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Eva Kis