Instagram Gaming Audience Content Opportunity Analysis™ Q4 2022

Content Opportunity Methodology

1. ‍Measure & Categorize. Sample a large number of social posts to find ones that are significantly outperforming the average.
2. ‍Identify Top Themes. Identify the themes that are resonating most with the audience by sorting the themes by their aggregated performance metrics.‍
3. Identify a Benchmark. Identify content themes that are performing above and under an average benchmark for the industry based on views & engagements.‍
4. Identify Opportunities. Look at the data and find the content themes that are resonating with the audience based on a set of top creators.‍
5. Repeat For Each Platform. Repeat the analysis for every platform that matters to your brand and audience to find platform-specific opportunities.

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Instagram Content Bucket Definitions

• Game Breakdown: Narrated videos that break down the features and story arcs of new and upcoming games. These videos also share background details on the game’s inspiration and creators.
• Game Narrative: Videos in this category highlight the storyline and characters from video games in clips from game cutscenes or during gameplay.
• Game Evolution: Montage-style videos celebrating a popular game's visual changes and updates over the years.
• Cinematics & FOV (Field of View): These videos focus on the setting and animation or the field of view during gameplay. Most videos in this category highlight visual updates to existing games.
• Gaming Humour: Funny, meme-worthy video clips that make analogies between video games and real life.
• Gameplay Clip: Showing viewers the tactical aspects of a video game, what it looks like and how it’s played.
• Gaming News: News and entertainment from the gaming industry about brands, games, and people who make them.
• Player Highlight: Highlighting the personal lives and achievements of individual gamers.
• Group Play: Video snippets of gamers playing multiplayer games and bantering with each other.
• Watchalong: Video clips showing the gameplay and gamer as they play and react to various game types and genres.
• COD Clips: Similar to watchalong videos but specifically featuring COD gameplay.

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Game Breakdown and Game Narrative are extreme performing content opportunities, averaging 3X the views & engagement rate on YouTube.

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Excellent performing content categories in the Gaming space on Instagram include:

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Good performing content opportunities in the Gaming space on Instagram include:

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Substandard performing content for the Gaming space on Instagram include:

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Low performing content for the Gaming space on Instagram include:

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Extreme Performing Segment:

Game Breakdown

‍Narrated videos that break down the features and story arcs of new and upcoming games. These videos also share background details on the game's creators.

Tactics to Implement:

• Closed Caption Narration: Video narration has accompanying subtitles for sound-off viewers
• Complementary Visuals: Game visuals are used to compliment the narration. This adds context to the game explanation and makes the video more compelling while background details are shared verbally. 
• On-screen captions: In addition to subtitles, on-screen captions at the start of the video act as a hook to increase the click rate. Ex. “1st-Person Vampire Hotel Management Sim??”

1.5M  Views

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1.4M Views

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‍Game Narrative

Videos in this category highlight the storyline and characters from video games in clips from game cutscenes (Video 1) or during gameplay (Video 2). These examples also serve a dual purpose in that they highlight unique game elements within the clip.

Tactics to Implement:

• Set The Mood: Both videos show short character interactions but use other elements to provide context on the game’s narrative. The cut scene in the first video has dark lighting and an ominous setting that alludes to the serious tone of the game while the second video uses profanity and humour to make it clear that this is a comedic genre. 
• Cross Posting: Video clips were also shared on Playstation and IGN’s respective TikTok accounts.
• Dual purpose: The videos also serve to highlight unique elements of the game. The first video compares the game visuals on PS4 vs PS5. The second video highlights that the game breaks the 4th wall and acknowledges the audience. 

1.6M Views

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1.2M  Views

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Content Opportunities:

1. Game Evolution

Montage-style videos celebrating a popular game's visual changes and updates over the years. These examples are from Fortnite and Street Fighter. 

Tactics to Implement:

• Specific: These videos look at a single game interaction to pinpoint how it has evolved from its original release up to its present form.
• Animation: The second video below uses motion graphics to show each version of the game in sequential order. The video is timed so that the character appears to be using the Hadouken attack across the clips.
• Audio: The video below shows the evolving visuals of the game by timing clips with the beat of the music.

1.1M  Views

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822K Views

2. Cinematics and FOV (Field of View)

These videos focus on the setting and animation or the field of view during gameplay. Most videos in this category highlight visual updates to existing games. 

Tactics to Implement:

• Setting: To make the graphics the focus, these videos show only the game’s setting and do not include characters or game interactions.
• Advanced graphics: This category acknowledges the advances made to video game graphics. The first video below compares the remade version of “The Last of Us” for PS5 with its previous PS4 graphics. The second video shown below mentions the 3D creation tool Unreal Engine 5
• Sound: The first video below uses quiet, ambient game sounds in the background right uses instrumental background music.

• Duration: 0:14 & 0:55

1M  Views

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625K Views

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3. Gaming Humour

Funny, meme-worthy video clips that make analogies between video games and real life or relate specifically to gamers.

Tactics to Implement:

• Captions: Videos use captions and on screen text to set the context for the comedic value of the videos. The first video shown below is captioned “Dodging that last-minute Friday evening work email”. The second video reads “POV: You come back from mining and see your friends house”.
• Connecting Pop Culture: The second video shown below places character Joe Pesci from Tales from the Crypt in a Minecraft server. In the original episode clip, the character is also reacting to the sight of a house.

888K  Views

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524K Views

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Viral Videos:

These videos were omitted from their content buckets as ‘viral’ outliers for exceeding 3x the views and engagements of their respective benchmarks.

Game Characters

Content: This video features voice actor Makiko Ohmoto, the voice of Super Smash Bro’s Kirby, on stage. Ohmoto gives a Kirby demonstration and the audience applauses.

Hook: The on-screen caption with video context and emojis acts as a hook to increase click rate.

6.8M Views

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Gaming News

Content: A narrated game breakdown for the upcoming game, Squirrel With a Gun. The narration explains the gameplay, game background and its recent virality

Narration with Matching Visuals: The explanation is matched with the best visuals from the game to help viewers understand the premise and gameplay. The video also uses subtitles for those watching without audio. 

2M Views