And that’s partially why the Epic Games title has seen such explosive success: disruptive marketing. In many ways, Fortnite marketing has ignored the way the video game industry traditionally handles marketing. Plus, instead of relying solely on teasers and trailers for upcoming video game titles, the game publisher has taken a decisively more involved approach to its social video strategy. Sure enough, as revealed by Tubular’s Q2 SOOV report, Fortnite fails became one of the hottest trends in the first quarter of this year, pulling in an astounding 726 million views on YouTube alone. Now we’re onto our Q3 SOOV report, which indicates this trend of non-traditional Fortnite marketing is still going strong. The clips definitely didn’t stick to the gaming category, either; like we found earlier this year, the Fortnite dance challenge is easily crossing into genres including kids’ entertainment, general entertainment, and even sports. Even Traditional Marketing Gets Millions of Views for Fortnite Okay, okay — so Epic Games did some traditional marketing to get the success of Fortnite to where it is today. This Fortnite marketing strategy clearly paid off for the publisher’s proprietary YouTube channel, which gained 60% of its Q2 views from these clips alone. Epic Games also didn’t shy away from working with influencers and sponsors. If you want to go the traditional route, turn to sponsorships, partnerships, and influencer-based strategies which involved the popular video game title; this will probably mean your brand teams up with Epic Games to make gameplay content, fails, or behind-the-scenes features.
Home Video Marketing Beyond Gaming: How ‘Fortnite’ Is Disrupting Traditional Marketing on YouTube and Facebook
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Jimmy Fallon’s late night team made an incredibly smart marketing move last week. The team combined two very popular topics in online video right now (K-pop music and the Epic Games title Fortnite) by booking the famous Korean band BTS and having them participate in the viral Fortnite dance challenge where members had to mimic the moves of characters from the popular video game. While this decision clearly reveals NBC’s close attention to some of the biggest trends in the world, the result was also some indirect but incredibly powerful marketing for Fortnite. And that’s partially why the Epic Games title has seen such explosive success: disruptive marketing.
In many ways, Fortnite marketing has ignored the way the video game industry traditionally handles marketing. Cultural- and fan-led content has driven massive interest in the title without Epic Games having to do much of anything. Plus, instead of relying solely on teasers and trailers for upcoming video game titles, the game publisher has taken a decisively more involved approach to its social video strategy. We have the facts to prove it, too, thanks to Tubular’s new Q3 2018 State of Online Video (SOOV) report. Here’s what we discovered about the unique Fortnite marketing strategy!
Fortnite Marketing Reaches Beyond the Gaming Industry
Back in April, I covered the incredible viewership Fortnite videos were receiving on platforms like YouTube and Facebook. Even then, I knew something was “up” about the way the game was gaining traction both inside and outside gaming circles. Why? Because out of the ten videos I covered, seven of them had nothing to do with gameplay content or trailers; they were all about funny moments, fails, and Fortnite-related challenges IRL. Basically, user-generated content and ideas were becoming one of the most-watched forms of Fortnite videos.
Sure enough, as revealed by Tubular’s Q2 SOOV report, Fortnite fails became one of the hottest trends in the first quarter of this year, pulling in an astounding 726 million views on YouTube alone. We discovered that these videos were crossing into genres including people & vlogs as well as entertainment; essentially, the renowned video game was appealing to both gamers and non-gamers alike, a feat which many video game publishers would kill to achieve themselves. And Epic Games did no traditional marketing to earn this attention for their game — the publisher basically sat back and watched the views flow in!
Now we’re onto our Q3 SOOV report, which indicates this trend of non-traditional Fortnite marketing…
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