How Deep Silver won over thousands of content creators with Dead Island 2

The Challenge:

Jorge Tavera is the Global Influencer Strategy Manager at Deep Silver, the AAA publisher within the media company Plaion (formerly Koch Media). He's quite experienced and knows how hard can it be to find, onboard and manage thousands of content creators and streamline these operations.

When you're releasing a highly anticipated title such as Dead Island 2, the level of interest will be extremely high from the get go. However, without the right tools and a platform, this can turn into a daunting task in no time and things can get messy. Especially considering when AAA-tier games can attract over 50k creators at launch, sometimes even more.

This is where Lurkit came in and became an extension of Deep Silver's marketing team. Before joining Lurkit, Deep Silver's creator program was suboptimal, manual and time-consuming, even when dealing with just dozens of creators, let alone hundreds or thousands. The company wanted to onboard thousands of creators in a short time for their game Dead Island 2. They needed a platform that could automate the onboarding process, so they could focus on the content.

"We knew in advance that we wanted to onboard hundreds or even thousands of creators in a very short period of time, both to our creator program and campaigns. The process before was a very manual one. The creator had to fill a form, which would land in an email inbox and then someone in my team had to manually make an evaluation of the creator. When you do that, you realize that you spent a week of work and only onboarded 10 people."

Jorge Tavera, Global Influencer Strategy Manager @Deep Silver

And this is why Deep Silver decided to run its global creator program for Dead Island 2 through Lurkit.

The Solution:

Lurkit's automatic onboarding feature allowed the company to onboard creators quickly and efficiently. Deep Silver could also run game key campaigns integrated into their creator program that they built on Lurkit’s tech. The onboarding process is a crucial part of the creator program, and Deep Silver found Lurkit's automatic onboarding feature to be the key to success. The platform's campaign-based program with clear rewards and its ability to integrate the campaigns and the creator program seamlessly was also a huge plus for the company.

"Overall, automated onboarding was key for us. We wanted to have time to work with the program and not that much on the onboarding process. This would allow us to put time on the content when we would know that the creators are 100% real and at the same time meet our minimum requirements. This is the flexibility that Lurkit allowed."

With Lurkit's expert help, Tavera and his small team managed to onboard thousands of creators without hassle. Much of the hype around the game can be attributed to the 1,200 creators Deep Silver activated through its Creator Program on Lurkit. Deep Silver’s Dead Island 2 has already sold over 2 million copies during the launch window, in less than a month.

"This is where Lurkit has an edge compared to other platforms in the market. We have the vision for it to be a campaign-based program, with clear rewards,"

Lurkit's ability to integrate key campaigns, paid quests and the creator program seamlessly was a huge plus for the company and allowed Deep Silver to build a large creator community. This also means publisher now has a direct line and meaningful connection to thousands of creators for their other upcoming titles, and can launch campaigns right away.

Click the image to check out the Deep Silver Creator Program

The Results

11M

Hours watched on Twitch 30 days after release

22M

Views on YouTube 30 days after release

550k+

Hours watched on Twitch via Lurkit in the first two weeks after release

6,2M

Views on YouTube via Lurkit in the first two weeks after release

#1 Sales

Most sold game in Europe upon release

Top 5

On Twitch during launch weekend

‍

Deep Silver's goal was 250,000 hours watched on Twitch through Lurkit the first month. The company doubled that to 530.000 in the first two weeks of the campaign. For YouTube, their goal was 100.000 views and they got 6.2 million views in the first two weeks.

Unlike manual methods such as spreadsheets or working with agencies, Lurkit streamlines the influencer marketing process by providing a comprehensive, all-in-one platform. It allows publishers to search and filter through a database of thousands of influencers, analyze their performance metrics, and communicate with them directly to negotiate contracts and track campaign progress. This eliminates the need for time-consuming and error-prone manual work, as well as the high costs of working with agencies.

"It is not just about the campaigns, but many creators are reaching out and want to continue playing the game. We now have good relations with all of these creators, and it is all thanks to the creator program we built on Lurkit," says Tavera.

Lurkit allowed Deep Silver to onboard hundreds of creators quickly and efficiently, focus on the content, and run successful campaigns. Deep Silver has been able to build good relationships with content creators, and the company's success on Twitch is a testament to the power of influencer marketing.

How Deep Silver won over thousands of content creators with Dead Island 2

11M hours watched

22M video views

#1 in sales

Company overview

Game overview

Products used

The Challenge:

The Solution:

The Results

11M

22M

550k+

6,2M

#1 Sales

Top 5

How Deep Silver won over thousands of content creators with Dead Island 2

11M hours watched

22M video views

#1 in sales

Company overview

Game overview

Products used

The Challenge:

The Solution:

The Results

11M

22M

550k+

6,2M

#1 Sales

Top 5

Grow your games with the right creators