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Navigating The Gaming PR Dance
PhPetey writes "I recently began reviewing games and gaming culture for a U.S.-based national trade publication. I find the most difficult aspect of my job so far to be the lack of communication skills possessed by many of the people involved with the public relations departments of various developers and publishers. Simply establishing a basic relationship with these organizations is mind-numbingly difficult, as calls and emails repeatedly go unreturned. Are there any tips and tricks from experienced gaming journalists that could make this process any easier?" Tips from people who just pretend to be journalists to get free games are, of course, also appreciated.
Just remember that the company you are contacting, their most valuable resource is Time. And they get hit with lots of reqs for comp copies ("I run a major website", "We're a new magazine", etc).
What you need to do is make it a) idiot-proof, i.e. provide bonafide credentials that are self-complete, and b) make it cost them no time to respond. That often means phoning until you talk to them, and closing the matter then and there-- or better, getting whomever you reached to tell you which individual below them will handle 'the details' (you then follow up with said individual immediately with 'your boss told me to give you my addy so you can send X to Y, here's the details, I'll call you to confirm it arrived')
Basically, less shmooze and more effort. Make it worth their while because they have _no_ spare time to rustle up marketing/PR past their already-set-in-stone list of output sources.
A.
We're a small game developer that has gained a bit of notoriety, at least to the point where I can't keep up with the PR opportunities the way I'd like to.
:)
When I do pick which to do, I choose the ones where a small amount of my time can go a long way. If someone wants an email interview, that's pretty tough because it takes a couple hours away from coding. If they would like an in-game tour, that's a bit easier - I can show them the highlights of the game, and then let them explore. If they want to do a review, and just want to spend a few minutes on the phone, that's best of all - I never turn down one of those.
So, my advice is to go out of your way to make it easy on the person you're trying to reach. At least that works on me
It depends on who you're contacting. If you're contacting the developers, don't bother. Other than a few, most don't do their own PR, they let a publisher do it for them. If you contacted me or my company, I could talk to you generally (and would, happily), but couldn't mention any specific product we're doing, or send you screens or builds. Why not? Because that's contractually the publisher's right, and we're forbidden, contractually, from doing it. (We can, and do, get the permissions to post info on our website once products are announced).
So if you're contacting the publishers, you need to make sure you're calling the right person. The PR game from the publisher's side is them desperately trying to place info where it will be seen by the greatest number of people who matter to them. So, as you'd expect, enthusiast magazines like GameNow! get screens, press releases, new game builds, interview opportunities, etc. pretty much as a matter of course.
So do large mainstream magazines, like Time, and magazines that appeal to the demographic, like Maxim. They get anything they want, but typically use a lot less of what they get (since they cover things other than games).
Generally, most publishers will use a mix of in-house PR and contracted PR agencies. In-house people usually dedicate themselves to key accounts, so you may have one person who's job is enthusiast press, and one who's job is mainstream press. The out-of-house PR is usually dedicated to creating things like mass-mailings and dealing with less important media outlets, like small fan-run websites, and weird press inquiries, like those from freelancers.
If you're a freelancer, the reality is that they are going to want to hear from your editor, not you, at least until you've built up a pretty strong relationship. If your publication isn't an obvious fit, and you're a freelancer, and you want something they don't want to give out (like exclusives or game builds) chances are you're going to get shuffled to the bottom of the pile and get no calls back.
So, what do you do? The easiest thing is to work you way up. Find out who you need to talk to at each place, and ask to be put onto the email press release list, or for access to the press section of their site. This costs them nothing, so it is most likely to happen. Once you're getting press releases, when you want to cover a specific game, call them about the specific game, why you want to cover it, and make it easy for them.
Yes, their job is getting information out, but that doesn't mean they're supposed to drop everything when you call. They already have their hands full with their existing portfolio of publications, and are likely to think that they are pursuing all worthwhile opportunities, so your job will be partly to convince them that your outlet is a worthwhile opportunity -- you'll need to do some PR for yourself before you can get the game PR people to come around!
The number of fan web sites who barrage game PR people is pretty high, so to stand out, you can't just expect them to come to you. It can be tough, but it can be done -- I was launch editor of one of the first game fan sites (it wasn't a hobbiest site, but run by a publishing company) and it took a lot of work before we were taken seriously by the PR companies.
Good luck!
Dude, I think I can see my house from here.
The guy who posted the original is legit. I know this because he works for me as a freelancer, and he does an excellent job with the game reviews and general-audience coding columns he produces for us each month, despite his "newness" as a writer and our magazine's relatively new (but rapidly growing) gaming section. Hey -- gaming is becoming a HUGE influence not only on the electronic culture, but on "real life" and "real world" entertainment, as well. Does anyone honestly believe any tech-oriented mag worth its ink would ignore forever what is shaping up to be such an important market segment? I can't imagine that -- but then again, I'm not a marketing guru.
Thanks for your tips, "former gaming journalist!" I'm sure your insight will be invaluable to the poster, and I applaud you for taking the time to answer! You occupy a unique position from which to comment about this, and both PhPetey and I appreciate it, I'm sure. As far as I know, neither of us was aware before now of the many intricacies of the game-publishing industry, but being journalists, we're always curious and eager to learn. (And contrary to what may seem intuitive since the NY Times scandal broke, the vast majority of journalists actually DO work very hard for LONG hours to produce ORIGINAL pieces -- and we do it for considerably less financial remuneration than the average successful game producer or PR hack makes. We do what we do -- despite personal privation -- because we can't NOT do it ... and, granted, because we probably have a few screws loose.) ;-)
Yes, I do assist as often as I'm asked by writing to or calling PR folks, developers, publishers, etc. on behalf of "my" freelancers and staffers (and PhPetey is religious about asking for my help). Would you believe I handle about 10 requests of this sort each WEEK, in addition to my other duties? Ten may not sound like a huge number, but when you add the additional time required to contact those 10 people to the 60-80 hours I work in an average week ... well, you can begin to see where I'm going with this. Developers and PR folks are not the only ones who see the demands on their time outpacing their ability to fulfill them. Frankly, I think the system might work a bit better if each of us cogs in it could see ourselves as something other than The-Most-Overworked-And-Important part of the machine....
This is part of the reason we in the media sometimes hear from companies who complain that we're "not paying (enough) attention to their magnificent new product(s)." We're trying, but like the developers, publishers and PR hacks, journalists' time is limited, too. It's much easier for us to move on to someone who's eager to work with us, even if that person/company has received more than his/her/its fair share of "free advertising" in our publication in the recent past. (For example: Microsoft, Sony, and other "biggies" in the gaming industry send us their new products well before they're released to the public -- whether or not the product is appropriate for our market. Some of them even send us the machinery on which to experience the product, just to make sure we have what we need to review it, in case we're interested. They know we won't review everything, but can they take a chance on missing the market we serve? Apparently, they don't think so. Of course, such behavior is just a drop in the figur