Gm and welcome to the lobby.

!drops !drops and more !drops. Mountain Dew Gaming makes moves. Rooster Teeth shuts down. OTK signs Media Agency of Record, and Misfits Gaming launches game development arm.

Grab your coffee, ready up, and let’s drop in 🪂
Here’s what we have for you today:

• !drops !drops !drops Deep dive into top esports Twitch channels 🤿  

• MTN DEW Gaming moves annual Q4 campaign to Spring 2024 🥤 

• Warner Bros' Rooster Teeth comes to an end after 21 years 🐓

• OTK signs Integrated Content Agency as Media Agency of Record 📈

• Esports org Misfits Gaming launches game development wing 🚀 

Before we jump in, here’s a few interesting links we enjoyed this week:

• Multiversus is back? & Multiversus x McD’s coming in March?

• Blizzard brings Porsche into Overwatch 2 with a character skin inspired by the all-new Macan Electric

• Fan favorite anime IP, Cowboy Bebop comes to Overwatch 2

• Is Epic Games and Apple battle over iOS app store policies over?

🤿 !drops !drops !drops

“!drops”, “drops?”, “are drops on?”...

If you happened to catch any Madden, War Thunder, or Rocket League streams in the last few months you might have seen that message flooding the chat 😵‍💫

Esports Charts recently released the top esports studio Twitch channels with the more engaging chats, and holding the top 3 spots were EAMaddenNFL, WarThunder_eSports, and RocketLeague.

One key aspect that separated these channels from the rest were that they all had drops enabled (Rocket League is tricky - we’ll get to that).

Throughout January & February, Madden companied their Challenger & Ultimate Bowl tournaments with drops for viewers. These drops were based around Madden Ultimate Team Packs, one of Madden’s most popular modes.

For War Thunder held their “Thunder Cup 2024”, featuring teams battling it out for $5,000. Although the prize pool might be small, War Thunder was able to bring in chatters with their drop system. Rewarding players with cosmetic camos to use in game, along with other rewards.

Rocket League has traditionally had drops on for all of its events, so when drops weren’t enabled for this event viewers were confused asking in chat. Along with usually running drops, the RLCS broadcast heavily engages with Twitch chat, running polls asking who they think will win - that the analyst will then talk about on stream.

👀 Our POV

Drops are an easy way to drive up engagement and should be used by more publishers. It’s a great way to reward your hardcore esports fans as well as bring in fresh eyes from the casual player of your game. By offering double XP, or some cosmetic rewards, casual players of a game could be intrigued to check out the esports broadcast to snag some rewards.

Another note that could be taken is how integrating chat into a run of show is engaging for the viewer. RLCS will simply ask the chat “#G2 OR #SSG” with the results show up on stream seconds later. It’s an engaging way to get people talking and have the viewer feel like they’re apart of the stream.

- Justin Palacios (Private Lobby)

🥤 Mountain Dew Gaming moves annual Q4 retail campaign to Spring 2024

For years now, PepsiCo brand and ever-present gaming CPG Mountain Dew has launched a best-in-class retail program in Q4 to align with the launch of each iteration of Call of Duty. In a move that we can assume is due at least in part by Monster Energy taking over the relationship with the franchise, as well as progress in negotiations and partnership with Xbox, this year Mountain Dew has dropped the MTN DEW Gaming Rewards program at the end of February.  

The process is super simple. As arguably the steward who took “look under the cap” programs mainstream, (did Snapple reeeaaallly have that much impact?) consumers are to buy specially marked 20-oz products from across their portfolio of flavors then access the website linked above, enter the codes they find, earn points, to ultimately redeem those points for cool stuff in either the Rewards Marketplace or the Dew Game Vault. For this campaign, gamers have until January 5, 2025 to participate… marking a massive expansion to their window typically consisting of a few months.

👀 Our POV

The playbook is airtight at this point for Paul and team. However, the point of inspiration that other marketers can take from this is that even when they have fully trained a massive fanbase to expect such an engaging program to launch year after year… they still find ways to build on it. For this iteration in particular, they have offered additional incentive to purchase their customer-specific flavors (200 pts versus 100 pts for Circle K’s Purple Thunder, Casey’s Overdrive and Walmart’s Frostbite) as well as incorporating exclusive collectible merch and apparel from some of their largest talent partners (TimTheTatman x MDG enamel pin set, OpTic x MDG mouse pad, Dew x OpTic bomber jacket).

As someone who participated in launching one of these programs two years ago, a few callouts that put a smile on my face with how damn smart this campaign made nods to legacy campaigns and things that the gang has been building toward for a bit:

• The logo lockup for MTN DEW Gaming is slick. With the transition to a brand vis ID around these programs and initiatives that doesn’t allow any room for misinterpretation between gaming work and broader brand initiatives, it empowers the team to lean even harder into the endemic space with accessories like mouse pads, controller cases, etc.

• One of the enamel pins is a callback to the Baja Blast program with Tim last year where the team released a short-sleeve button up (still one of my favorite “fun” shirts), a cooler, and a few other co-branded products that were available through a campaign with the AAA talent. 

• The volume of requests the team gets for one of the mini fridges they’ve sent to participating influencers on social and otherwise is typically pretty high. Creating a modern design for a mini fridge and offering it in the Marketplace is chef’s kiss.

• The web environment itself, reminiscent of their Q4 program last year that featured in-game content across Halo, Forza and another first-party Xbox title or two, feels like a build on the Game Fuel Battle Pass experience from years ago that was sunset when they evolved that product line.

Lead times involving on-pack elements are typically the biggest hurdle for CPG brands, as they can be 6-9 months or longer, but it’s this kind of longer term thinking and future-proofing that can really drive exponential return on your gaming investment.

Based on the things I want to grab in the Marketplace alone, before we even see our first Dew Game Vault drop, I might be having a Mountain Dew with every meal for the next few months.

- Brandon Painter (Private Lobby)

🐓 Rooster Teeth comes to an end after 21 years

After over twenty years, Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of Rooster Teeth (RT), has shut down the company. Despite being an iconic trailblazer in digital content and culture, RT could not meet financial goals and is being closed after unsuccessful attempts to sell the division. Rooster Teeth’s iconic series, like “RWBY” or “Red vs. Blue,” loom large in the minds of fans across ages. It’s been a rocky decade with RT operating at a loss, but it has never diminished the cultural significance of its work with people around the world. “Red vs. Blue” is even one of the longest-running web series.

Rooster Teeth’s website is an impressive example of the great content people can create when empowered to be creative. It feels similar to DropoutTV, formerly CollegeHumor. Warner Bros. Discovery will look for ways to sell RT’s catalog, such as Gen:Lock, RWBY, and “Red vs. Blue,” and give the IP a new life. Additionally, The Roost Podcast Network will continue while WBD looks for parties interested in acquiring it.

🎉 Celebrating Rooster Teeth’s Accomplishments

Let’s review the impressive achievements that RT made throughout the years!

• Guinness World Records

  • Longest Running Web Series (2012) -  “Red vs. Blue” 

• International Academy of Web Television Awards

  • Best Animated Series (2013-2017) - ‘RWBY” 

• Streamy Awards:

  • Audience Choice: Series of the Year (2014) - "RWBY" 

  • Best Animated Series (2014) - "RWBY" 

  • Best Animated Series (2016) - "RWBY" 

  • Best Ensemble Cast (2018) - "Good Morning from Hell!"

• Webby Awards: 

  • Best Editing (2018) - "The Slow Mo Guys" 

  • Best Web Personality/Host (2018) - "The Slow Mo Guys"

• Crunchyroll Anime Awards: 

  • Best Score (2016) - Jeff Williams for "RWBY Volume 3"

👀 Our POV

Candidly, this sucks big time. Rooster Teeth is a pillar of internet content and culture that defined many peoples’ early experiences with YouTube and gaming content. To see that WBD (the same folks who won’t release “Coyote vs. Acme”) are shuttering Rooster Teeth is a frustrating headline because of how much love we all hold for the people and the content they made. It’s understandable how a company may want to cut loose an asset that’s failed to turn a profit for around 10 years. However, much of Rooster Teeth’s value can’t be expressed on a P&L. It’s a valuable asset and team that WBD was lucky to have.

This closure points to the struggle of monetization that many digital content outlets face and must ultimately overcome. You have to be able to bring money through the door in order to keep pushing content out. It’s a painful reminder that even the most legendary creators aren’t free from economic strain, and we should strive to benefit the creators we love. As creators begin to integrate branded content into their pipeline better, some pressure may be alleviated on this front. However, they must ultimately create diverse revenue streams that don’t solely rely on brand partnerships.
 
- Brendan Valentine (Private Lobby)

📈 OTK signs Media Agency of Record

Integrated Content Agency (ICA) has partnered with gaming & content creator org, OTK Media, as their Media Agency of Record. ICA aims to help OTK sign brand partnerships leveraging OTK’s content and influencer talent.

ICA’s strategy is to treat content like media, promising measurable success for brands through live content. ICA will focus on enhancing OTK's content offerings with guaranteed KPIs and the creation of custom-branded content.

This comes just months after OTK launched their 2024 Content Slate, providing brands with a lookahead at all of the content offerings the brand has available.

👀 Our POV

This is not an entirely unique partnership, other gaming & esports organizations have launched partnerships (official & not) with media agencies with the idea of selling gaming & esports content like traditional media.

However, we’re now in a world where brands have eased off of jersey sponsorships and the “traditional esports partnership” model. The biggest brands activating in the space have really started to test the waters with more custom, brand integrations. Experiences such as large creator-led initiatives like TimTheTatman’s AT&T Roadshow or immersive, branded experiences within Fortnite’s UEFN and Roblox.

With OTK, ICA has an impressive inventory of content in their arsenal. OTK’s 2024 Content Slate is planned out all the way through the end of the year, with additional “Made To Order” programming that can be activated anytime of the year, giving brands plenty of ways to leverage OTK’s inventory for their brand’s campaigns or tentpole moments.

I’m excited to see how much of this inventory OTK and ICA manage to sell-through. This could end up being a case study for the entire industry. We’ll keep an eye on this as the year progresses, stay tuned!

- Zach Eller (Private Lobby)

🚀 Misfits Gaming launches game development wing

Last Week, Misfits Gaming announced its newest game development initiative, “Powered by Play,” in which it said it is “on a mission to carve our legacy through our very own IP.” Details on what they will be making and when we can learn more are limited. Misfits have been testing the waters for a while through their Pixel Playground and Tubnet projects with Karl Jacobs and Tubbo, respectively. These were development projects for Minecraft and Roblox, in which they invited fans to play original games and collaborate on brand projects.

The trend of independent game development is picking up speed quickly. Currently, 100Thieves and Dr. Disrespect are also publicly working on game development projects. Creators and gamers are taking it upon themselves to create the experiences they dream about. A particularly impressive example is BIGMODE, a video game publishing label for indies run by VideoGameDunkey.

⚡ Quick Quotes

The Misfits Gaming brand accounts and founder, Ben Spoont, had the following to say when announcing this new direction.

• “Since founding Misfits in 2016, gaming has always been at the center of our business. While that started in esports (competition-based gaming), over time, we have navigated towards elements of our business that provided advantages and connectivity that mattered to gamers. As we have explored new avenues for value creation and revenue, gaming and our desire to spark joy was ever-present. I am proud to announce our newly refined mission and purpose.” - Ben Spoont, Founder & CEO Misfits Gaming

• “We are thrilled to announce that Misfits Gaming is diving headfirst into the world of game development! Leveraging the power of our media roots, our avid community of gamers, and game production innovations, we're on a mission to redefine what it means to be a modern game studio.” - Misfits Gaming Account

👀 Our POV

It’s really exciting to see creators and gaming teams take on game development. For years, people have ridden the emotional rollercoaster of joy and disappointment when games are released and are finally making their own. The past few years have even colloquially been dubbed the “Age of the Indie” with how many independent titles have succeeded. The recent hype around Lethal Company is the perfect example of someone taking on game dev to make things they think are great. I think independently-led development can pave the way for greater innovation in gameplay, marketing, esports, and games partnerships.

It’s no secret that content creators are an integral part of digital culture, marketing, tastemaking, and creating conversation. If they continue to integrate into the game development world, they could quickly win favor with fans that triple-A studios fail to. Content creators have unique connectivity with their audience that many studios struggle to do without talented community managers. Creators could leverage this connection with audiences to innovate on what branded in-game collaborations look like. Keep a close eye on this space!

- Brendan Valentine (Private Lobby)

💼 Job Board

• Senior Copywriter for Discord (Remote)

• Environment Artist for Midnight Society (Remote)

• Software Engineer Intern for Cloud9 Esports (Los Angeles)

• Global Brand Partnerships Intern at Logitech G (Remote)

• Multiple openings: Community Lead, Graphic Designer, Marketing Producer, and more for 1047 Games (Remote)

🌞 Share of the Week

Highlighting Private Lobby’s own, Brendan Valentine’s work with Utah High School esports through the Ken Garff Esports Spring Celebration LAN!

🤝 Share Private Lobby

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Disclaimer: our views are ours and in no way represent those of our employers.