Brands need to share gaming communities’ motivations

Nick Gadsby

The paper argues that online brand communities often fail because of a false assumption that they develop organically and should be left alone; on the contrary, the most successful resemble hierarchical business organisations and need to be managed like companies.

Brands need to share gaming communities' motivations

Nick Gadsby

Online brand communities have become a buzzword in recent years as companies become more interested in using the internet for commercial gain. But uncertainty remains about the benefits they provide.

A recent report published by Deloitte and Beeline Labs suggests that most of these communities fail. While the precise reasons for these failures are difficult to identify, a fundamental problem is the assumption that communities develop organically and that a hands-off approach to managing them is paramount.

The reality is quite the opposite: communities require a great deal of work and...

WARC subscribers can sign in to keep reading

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands