Q&A: Julia Herd, Five in a Boat on PR challenges in the year ahead

Well that was an interesting year. According to most commentators, not the best in terms of marquee games, but, as ever, plenty of evidence in the games we did get that the industry is as creative and forward-looking as ever. If nothing else, 2023 will be every bit as fascinating when we come to look back on it.

It wasn’t just about the games of course. Events were back in a big way (apart from E3 of course), NFTs went away just as spectacularly, and we had the year-long soap opera of Microsoft and Sony’s custody battle over Activision Blizzard. How those played out from a comms perspective and what will shape the PR challenges in the year ahead is the subject of this month’s panel. First up is Julia Herd from Five in a Boat. Enjoy!

It’s fair to say that 2022 wasn’t the greatest year for quality releases or launches… or was it?

The satisfaction of players and communities are the yardstick here. Many will have been happy that their favourite franchise got another title, others will be continuing to wait for their long-delayed favourites to emerge. But 2022 was different because of the pandemic, and we must be cognisant of the fact that the previous two years were mired in uncertainty for development. Many teams developing new projects which would have been released in 2022 were shuttered.

Companies with established games – especially those with live games services – defocused other projects and new IP and redoubled their efforts on what was already working. In that regard, players of live games and MMOs generally received more content updates more regularly over the last couple of years, although this did return to a more normal cadence in the back half of the year. As the pandemic effect subsides and so too does the revenue from those live game services back to more stable levels, developers have reinvested in new projects. What we’ll see this year and next is the release of many titles that were originally slated for 2022, so ultimately the effect is net neutral.

E3 aside, it was a full house for live events last year. How do you see expos, conferences and other game events panning out this year?

As people are required to spend more time in the office moving forward, I see a parallel happening with events in that IRL (in real life) events will feature more heavily on people’s agendas.Where it will change is that we will end up with a less is more approach – bigger, more impactful events versus hundreds of smaller events. Also the power of the metaverse and of running hybrid events where parts remain online is very appealing to both businesses and employees.

Not only are they more cost effective, especially given the current economic climate, but environmental considerations have become more increasingly important in tech development, brand positioning and in planning and growth cycles. With more companies trying to better their sustainability credentials, not having to hop on flights multiple times a year to attend events (because there are now other options available) will continue to serve as a huge pull.

How else did the PR landscape change during 2022?

I have seen a lot more people start agencies this year than ever before. Former peers and colleagues who have previous been wedded to big PR corps are either becoming sole traders or launching their own companies. This started prior to 2022 but appetite for a greater sense of ownership, accountability and being more in control of your own destiny continues. In parallel more and more agencies are using SaaS-based solutions to provide digital offerings to clients.

I am on the fence about this one as whilst this approach can often make for more cost effective servicing, personalisation takes the hit which in my opinion undermines what PR is all about. As editorial teams are reduced in publishing houses, I am seeing coverage opportunities decrease or change for PRs due to lack of resource yet simultaneously journalists are relying more on PRs for content as they just don’t have the capacity to deliver everything that comes their way.

Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard dominated thinking in 2022. What’s your take? How well did Microsoft and Sony make their respective casse? Will the deal go through, and what will it mean for the industry in the years ahead?

The acquisition hasn’t yet been approved so it’s probably wise to take a cautious view on its potential impact. There’s been a lot of noise about it for sure, mostly around the fact that some of the largest IPs in gaming could end up being denied to players on platforms other than Xbox and PC. This kind of acquisition, if successful, will no doubt be the start of a domino effect of further buyouts. But we’re already seeing a number of independents being gobbled up by the likes of Embracer and others, and this is the nature of business. What we all have to hope is that deals such as these promote creativity rather than stifle it, and that the players are ultimately put first.

There were some spectacular U-turns earlier in the year as gaming companies climbed aboard the NFT hype train, before jumping off again before the next stop. What went wrong for them?

People who work in the games industry – and tech in general – need to pay more attention to the way they communicate. The use of buzzwords and jargon alienates players because they’re opaque and leave room for negative perception. Consumers in general are suspicious of brands that tell them they need something they don’t even understand. The industry has done a terrible job of explaining things such as NFTs, and in 2022 it relied so heavily on phrases such as “web3 enablement” and “blockchain compatibility” which mean precisely zero to almost everyone in its player base. Whenever a company announced its “NFT strategy” to a largely unaware and disinterested community it was muddled and really came across as what it was – chasing revenue opportunities.

And that’s totally fine if the player benefits. But largely they did not, and foisting digital items on players without demonstrating clear benefits was the problem. Of course, a lot of this revenue hunt was prompted by companies seeking to replace declining post-pandemic revenues and the regulatory threat to loot boxes, and this meant that NFTs were hurried out too quickly with a lack of understanding of how to maximise their full potential. But NFTs aren’t going away – they will become pre-eminent it’s just that developers won’t call them NFTs. They will just become the standard for digital items that sit on technology platforms that aren’t called anything they aren’t already called and accepted.

The Oxford word of the year for 2022 was Goblin Mode. What was yours and why?

Web3 and it makes me want to jump out of the nearest window every time someone references it. As least Goblin Mode has a more appealing name.

Without blowing your own trumpet too loudly, what was your highlight of the last year (2022) in terms of the PR campaigns that were waged?

Not strictly PR, but Collider’s Riot campaign for Netflix Arcane was mind-blowingly good. Not only did they win multiple awards for their work, but we were lucky enough to partner with them on parts of the campaign which was an all-round fantastic experience.

What are the PR challenges for the year ahead and how will you be preparing to overcome them?

There are multiple challenges in 2023, the main one sadly being budgetary related. With an unstable and unpredictable economy, investment is either on hold or super slow, client budgets are retracting and that is having a direct impact on business growth and recruitment. This means that we will need to look at alternative revenue streams and routes to success until the industry stabilises. Fortunately there are always opportunities if you look hard enough so, whilst on the one hand we are feeling the squeeze, on the other hand we are looking forward to pulling together as a team and rising to the challenge.

AI is threatening to change the way content is created and received (ChatGPT does a pretty good press release). What are the issues for PR as AI content services become increasingly competent and compelling?

I see AI as presenting a huge opportunity for the PR industry as it takes technology to a whole new level and creates room for growth in terms of a presenting broader set of clients and creating new products and services that both benefit and advance those clients and the industry. For sure there are arguments against AI, such as it will replace the job of copywriters, but on the other hand it has the potential to hugely aid our efforts when it comes to analytics, monitoring, social listening, audience targeting and so on.

In addition, most games companies are seeking to implement AI in both their development process and for player interface, especially where UGC is a feature. This has a huge potential benefit to both the game-making process and the user experience, which bodes well for the companies that do it well to add more value to the industry, more revenue and therefore more opportunities.