It’s a PlayBrain World
It’s been 10 years since I posted anything on this site, and the time feels right to get back to it.
In the last 10 years, my first company, UltraSuperNew, grew and we achieved some amazing results. By 2016 I had dedicated 8 years as the lead agency for Red Bull, long stints with Heineken, Reebok, MINI and amazing projects with Supercell, Electronic Arts and Nike.
In 2016, I felt great about what we had achieved but I had taken that journey as far as I wanted to. I was ready for a new challenge. That challenge was PlayBrain. I sold my share of UltraSuperNew to my partners (who are still carrying the flag valiantly), settled paperwork, and by March had launched the new company focussed on marketing to gamers.
With PlayBrain I had two goals…
Be the best at talking with Gamers
Firstly I wanted to focus on a single audience. After years creating for athletes, musicians, families, party goers, and yes, gamers, I sought focus on a single target in order to know them better.
I grew up being inspired by games, enjoying the narratives that I could be emerged in. Titles such as Myst, Final Fantasy, and Grand Theft Auto, told epic stories over many more hours than film. I was lucky enough to start my career working for an Australian based games company, Brilliant Digital Entertainment. I furthered my journey in gaming with Quake sessions after work and NBA Live with friends, and grew a passion for competitive games. By the time I moved to Japan in 2002, gaming was an established passion that always sat within my approach to the creative process.
During my years with UltraSuperNew, I could see the opportunity for effective games marketing based on a close understanding of the culture around them. Some of my favorite clients to work with were Electronic Arts (Battlefield, FIFA, Need for Speed, SimCity BuildIt), Supercell (launching Clash of Clans), Taito, and Red Bull (launching an esports tournament that ran for 5 years).
With my personal passion for games, the decision to focus on games was an easy one.
By having a singular audience focus, PlayBrain has an advantage over traditional agencies who have broad focus, and this also made us a great place to work for passionate gamers.
Frictionless Media
The second key for PlayBrain was driven from my feelings on the nature of advertising. After working more than 13 years in advertising, I was reaching my limit. No longer did I feel enthused about pushing products in front of people who didn’t want to see them. I was spoilt to be working with great culture brands such as Red Bull and Heineken, but also learned from them that there was another way to communicate about a brand that most of advertising in the world still does not do.
Out of this thinking I began to focus on a simple idea I called “Frictionless Media“. The idea was that brands should offer us value for our attention. Paying advertising fees on platforms should not be enough to earn our audiences attention, something more was necessary. To respect our audience, and to create successful marketing that lasts the test of time, we MUST deliver value.
The idea was to deliver experiences that audiences were seeking, delight them, excite them, inspire them and give them something that makes their lives richer.
So, hows that been going?
It’s been five years since we opened our doors and we have grown to 35 people. We have managed to keep true to our goals, but a lot has changed as well.
One of the biggest revelations we had was that competitive gaming and esports in Japan had been slow to develop. The audience was waiting for esports in Japanese in a quality worth watching. We received opportunity after opportunity to improve esports productions, and it very quickly became a key part of our business. We have now produced esports content for Riot Games, Activision Blizzard, Supercell, CD Projekt Red, Ubisoft, PUBG, Epic Games and more.
We also started to think about projects we do in different ways. In 2019, we began a partnership with Riot Games and Yoshimoto to operate the League of Legends Japan League, sharing the direct costs and revenues of the league. The switch to thinking about ownership and multi-year development of IPs, allows us to focus more about developing the image and messages in what we do.
This growth in focus on esports and IP/product owner mindset, is driving the next stages of our company as we have amazing partners for esports and now are able to introduce fans to products they care about.
A year into the Corona pandemic, we have a lot of growth left to do and a lot of work ahead, but it’s been quite an adventure so far. It’s exciting to see what comes next.
Check out more from PlayBrain at playbrain.jp.
