How Deep Silver Successfully Partnered with Influencers for Dead Island 2

In the modern gaming industry, influencer marketing has become a crucial strategy for promoting games to a global audience. However, managing influencer campaigns manually can be a challenging task, especially for large publishers aiming to reach millions of potential players simultaneously. Utilizing a tech platform like Lurkit can significantly enhance the effectiveness of influencer marketing campaigns, which is something Deep Silver recognized and addressed before the release of Dead Island 2. Jorge Tavera, Global Influencer Strategy Manager at Deep Silver, shared his insights on how studios and publishers can ensure immediate traction from day one in the content creator community. The reception of Dead Island 2 in the influencer community was impressive, with over six million views on YouTube during the first two weeks and the game becoming the number one seller in Europe during the weekend launch. With a small team, Tavera successfully onboarded thousands of creators without hassle, thanks to the 1,200 creators Deep Silver activated through its creator program. Deep Silver's Dead Island 2 has sold over two million copies since its release in April this year. Tavera explained that they wanted to onboard hundreds or thousands of creators quickly, both to their creator program and campaigns. The previous manual process was time-consuming, requiring creators to fill out a form, which would then be manually evaluated by Tavera's team. This process would take a week and only result in onboarding 10 people. Tavera chose Lurkit due to its automated onboarding process, which allowed them to focus on the program and content, knowing that the creators were real and met their minimum requirements. Deep Silver aimed to integrate game key campaigns into the creator program systematically. Lurkit's campaign-based program with clear rewards gave them an edge over other platforms. Unlike manual methods, Lurkit streamlines the influencer marketing process by providing a comprehensive platform, allowing publishers to search and filter through a database of influencers, analyze performance metrics, and communicate directly to negotiate contracts and track campaign progress. This eliminates the need for time-consuming and error-prone manual work and high agency costs. Tavera stated that their goal was 250,000 hours watched on Twitch through Lurkit in the first month, but they doubled that to 530,000 in the first two weeks. For YouTube, their goal was 100,000 views, but they achieved 6.2 million views in the first two weeks. Many creators are now reaching out to continue playing the game, and Deep Silver has established good relations with them, thanks to the creator program built on Lurkit.