This is a first post in a “Marketing Superheroes” series. I’d like to feature some of the brands that really nailed their marketing in some extraordinary way.
My personal favourite is Valve and their Steam platform.
Steam store
Steam Homepage
Steam is a digital game distribution, multiplayer and communications system developed by the Valve Corporation. It is used to distribute games and related media online, from small independent developers to larger software houses.
With over 1,200 games available through Steam, and over 30 million active user accounts, Steam is estimated to have a 70% share of the digital distribution market for video games.
That alone is impressive, but even more impressive is how Valve uses Steam to increase sales and retain their customers. All the games purchased from Steam Store are also launched through Steam client. That means every time you go to play your game, you see the Steam online store. With their special offers, “Mid-week madness” discounts and weekend specials there is always reason for the gamers to spend a little time browsing through the store.
And now Valve have taken this to a whole new level.
Steam Treasure Hunt Competiton
Steam Treasure Hunt - today's objectives
In the couple of weeks leading to Christmas, Valve has announced a special “Steam Treasure Hunt” competition. The concept is simple. Every two days Steam will announce a new set of four objectives. The competition spans over two weeks so there are 28 objectives in total. Completing any 10 objectives will act as an entry for the grand prize draw – winning 100 games of your choosing.
On top of that every two days, 20 people who have completed one objective will win the top 5 games on their wishlist. Each objective completed acts as another entry into the draw, so completing all four daily objectives will improve your chances.
Steam Store Top Selling List. Amnesia is on weekend special. Mafia II and Magic the Gathering only appeared in the list after they were featured in today's objectives.
The objective sets usually include at least one simple tasks requiring no purchase, one or two in-game achievements in a low-cost game for under $5 and one in-game achievement in a premium Steam game (RRP over $30). The games that are highlighted by the objectives are usually on a two day special discount to make them more affordable to gamers. You can clearly see this works marvels because every two days the games with objectives assigned to them move to the top of store’s best-selling list.
The Treasure Hunt competition is such a brilliant concept that marketers can only applaud the minds behind it. It’s a great way for Valve to:
- suggest new games to players
- increase sales of the featured games
- keep the Steam community interested and keen on coming back to the store
- get and excellent PR from press and build inbound links
- get every gamer who entered the competition to log into the store on December 20 (one of the conditions). It’s a perfect way to announce significant news or pitch specials to everyone involved.
Steam store and it’s Treasure Hunt competition is a perfect example of how to leverage your community and use platform and channels you already have in place to boost sales, generate buzz and keep users coming back for more.
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