Gaming & Media
SteelSeries
CAMPAIGN CASE STUDY
THE OPPORTUNITY
Monetize a pre-built audience
SteelSeries is the leading manufacturer of gear and accessories to improve gaming performance. Prior to our involvement, they had acquired Nahimic, an audio driver and app built into the heart of specific laptops to optimize sound experiences. A couple of years later, they came to us for a content strategy and landing page to monetize the relationship with Nahimic’s 7,000,000 end users.
We couldn’t jump straight to monetization, though. First, we needed to do some groundwork to turn around public perceptions of bloatware, particularly in the realm of SEO.
THE CHALLENGE
Overcome misperceptions of bloatware
How do you monetize a relationship with people who think your product is bloatware? SteelSeries faced the challenge of introducing Nahimic to an audience who were unaware they were already users.
Because audio drivers and their companion apps are chosen by the manufacturers of computers, end users can get confused about why the software is on their computer in the first place, assuming the worst — that it is bloatware — or even more problematic, malware.
As a result, before building a relationship with the Nahimic audience, the longstanding perception of bloatware needed triaging and some basic questions needed to be answered. “What is this thing?” and “What is it doing?” To add to that, Nahimic product marketing had been left unattended for a few years, so updating positioning was also necessary.
THE RESEARCH
In search of value and support
To see what we were up against, we began our research gathering online perceptions based on the top search results for “Nahimic.” We found that users were unclear on its value and they had concerns about it affecting performance (i.e. causing lag or crashing). There was a clear demand from users to learn more about Nahimic and its features.
We found the negative feedback was based on a lack of understanding of what Nahimic was or frustration at not finding support resources. Competitor analysis showed others were not doing a better job at offering help, and there was plenty of space for Nahimic to lead in providing accessible how-tos.
Significant traffic to the Nahimic site confirmed that it was indeed worth monetizing with opportunities to convert 121.1K visits per month to hardware purchases. It was also apparent from the audience research that, unsurprisingly, quality audio experiences are a high priority for gamers. The value of Nahimic would resonate — if it was articulated clearly.
TESTING LIMITS
Immersive escape, with a little help
Armed with our findings, we knew what we had to do: introduce Nahimic with clear value. Our leading sales narrative wove the theme of immersion into the copy. Using emotional storytelling and custom photography, we showed how true immersion lets you enter new worlds with different audio profiles for each realm (games, music, movies, chat).
This allowed us to highlight the value of Nahimic’s features and speak to multiple audiences — not just gamers, but creators too. We took the angle that immersive audio experiences are not only about what you hear, but about what you do not hear. Features like the equalizer and microphone effects can make the difference between complete immersion and shattering disruptions. This was also a natural segue to cross-sell SteelSeries headsets and monetize the audience.
With a resource center content strategy in our secondary sales narrative, we made sure to provide easy access to customer support, resources, and an SEO-driven FAQ. We also answered questions of value with social proof from experts and influencers to gain credibility.
WINNING CUSTOMERS
An audience engaged with answers
7,000,000
end users
169,000
page views per month
30,000
MSI conference video views
1,000
software downloads per day
THE MORAL OF THE STORY
Storytelling and support can rebuild relationships
Immersion is a difficult story to tell well. It requires the right continuity of branded narrative and it has to feel seamless.
To achieve this, we recommended a custom photoshoot to capture the immersive nature of Nahimic and provided five custom photos in line with their story. We also recommended giving the audience an opportunity to actually hear the difference with Nahimic with real sound clips designed by our Audio Engineer. Not only did we weave these throughout the page, but we also opened the landing page with a custom video including sound to give users a firsthand experience of product value.
This immersive storytelling paired with comprehensive support provided a strong foundation to address concerns of bloatware, open the audience up to connect deeper with SteelSeries, and ultimately set the stage for future monetization.
“I was pleasantly surprised by One Net’s deep and quick understanding of our brand and our needs. The quality of their work was impeccable. One Net is the first company we will think of for digital marketing services in the future—and the first we recommend to others.”
– Stephanie Yin, Global Marketing Manager B2B2C