When it comes to marketing psychology, is your business in the game?

Four years ago, who had heard of the online game Fortnite?

Now, almost every teenager in the UK has played it or still plays it regularly.

It stands head and shoulders above most other online games for its ability to hook the interest of young players

So, how has it done this?

Two words spring to mind – clever marketing.

Its creator Epic Games used key marketing strategies which have made it the go-to game for Generation Z.

They based this marketing on two important psychological pulls...

 1.      Social influence

Our emotions, feelings, and opinions are affected by the people around us.

We want the people we like to like us back, don’t we?

So, when we hear that our friends are playing a fantastic new game, and that they want us to play it with them, why wouldn’t we?

Some people call that peer pressure. Marketers call it word-of-mouth gold.

That’s how Fortnite grew to 125 million players worldwide in its first year.

The marketing team ran with it, putting out press releases about how quickly the game was spreading and how much players loved it.

Eventually, they didn’t need to put those releases out because so many gamers were writing their own blogs about Fortnite.

2.      We love new things

Our human brains are hard-wired to love something new.

Scientists at University College London found a strong connection between getting new things and the sparking up of the reward centres in our brains.

The desire to explore and experience new things is a powerful one for us.

The makers of the game understand this and have incorporated it into their marketing strategy.

They created different seasons where the island changes, new methods of transportation are added, there are new ‘skins’ players can choose, and, often, these changes now lead up to online events where the storyline evolves.

They also preview changes well, stoking up anticipation among game fans.

The take-away...

Fortnite’s clever marketing shows that pulling on the right psychological levers in your marketing can help you super-charge your business growth.

It’s also true that if the product itself, the game, had been clunky to use with a weak storyline, it if was devoid of humour and with terrible graphics, it would never have taken off like it has.

To become a viral success, you must still have a good product which meets your customers’ needs.

Maria Williams is the founder of PR, communications, and content business Words You Can Use.