Used YouTube creators to triple brand awareness and create lasting engagement
Schell Games is in the business of creating meaningful interactive experiences for clients and consumers. The brand is responsible for such household favorites as I Expect You to Die, Daniel Tiger, HoloLAB Champions, and more.
The company launched in 2002. Today, it is the “largest full-service education and entertainment game development company in the United States.” Schell Games’ mission is to enrich players’ lives, regardless of age or background, and they use gaming and VR to accomplish that goal.
Before they even knew what influencer marketing was, Schell Games’ marketing team gifted game keys to famous gamers with the hopes that those creators would share the experience with fans. Not only did this strategy work, it took off faster than they expected.
A critical part of Schell Games’ influencer program DNA was to pay attention to details. Follower comments, creator-follower relationships, gamer voice, and campaign performance metrics all revealed critical insights about the brand’s target audience and campaign success.
In light of their early success, the team knew they needed to get more serious about their creator approach. To standardize their influencer program, they would need to track creators, content, and campaign data accurately and efficiently.
And in one year, we were sending a bunch of keys out to different content creators. But then all of a sudden, it was picked up by some major big content creators on Youtube. We took a look back and wondered, how did that happen? And we had no real idea.
– Dwayne Waite Jr., Marketing Manager at Schell Games
When Schell Games switched from manual tools to GRIN, they instantly had access to a full suite of creator recruiting tools.
Schell Games’ creator recruitment reached a new level, since they could refine their creator outreach and uncover influential customers with engaged audiences online.
The marketing team’s dream of launching and scaling an in-house influencer marketing program was finally a reality. Team members no longer had to spend hours on wild social goose chases or bouncing among multiple tracking tools. GRIN brought all the pieces of their influencer program into one user-friendly platform.
Today, Schell Games’ influencer program can be more selective than ever before with their creator discovery, recruiting, and activations. Not only does this allow the brand to optimize campaign ROI, but it also allows Schell Games to promote their values and message consistently across all channels and creators.
“With GRIN, we can become a lot more intentional – here are the content creators we want to reach out to. We narrow them down… We regularly reach out to content creators we’ve worked with before… So I’m very happy with our program and what we’ve been able to do with GRIN to nurture those relationships.” – Dwayne Waite Jr., Marketing Manager at Schell Games