Profound Marketing Strategy of Activision Blizzard – With Company Overview

Updated on: Oct 31, 2022
Marketing Startegy of Activision Blizzard - featured image

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In our previous article, we had learnt a great deal about the marketing strategy of a Chinese dairy producer brand called Yili. In this article, we will elaborate on the marketing strategy of the really fascinating brand – Activision Blizzard. It is U.S. Based Video Games company. 

The Objective of this blog is to make you acquainted with the marketing strategy of Activision Blizzard as it is the talk of the town these days due to its acquisition by Microsoft. Microsoft plans to acquire it for $95.00 per share valued at $68.7 billion. 

Marketing is a part of an organization’s DNA that can either make or break it. As clients across the world go advance, marketing has followed them to the digital domain also.

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In this Blog, we will learn in detail about the marketing strategy of Activision blizzard. But before rushing into it let’s discuss what is a marketing strategy and a brief introduction to Activision Blizzard. 

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About Activision Blizzard –

Marketing Strategy of Activision Blizzard - logo

Source – games guides

Activision Blizzard is an American company. It is Santa Monica, a California-based video game company. It was founded in 2008. Currently, Company is a member of the fortune 500 and S&P 500. The company’s goal is to make every day more fun and exciting. In total this company own over 30 IPs. 

Both Activision & Blizzard have separate social media accounts. Activision Blizzard acquired King Digital Entertainment plc. With this acquisition, Activision Blizzard becomes one of the largest game networks in the world. 

Activision Blizzard was founded through the merger of Vivendi Games and Activision Blizzard. Originally Activision was founded in 1979 by David Crane and Alan Miller. They decided to split over creator rights.

By end of the merger, Activision was the senior partner of the arrangement. Activision and Blizzard decided to create separate corporate identities along with independent development and publishing streams. 

On 18 January 2022, Microsoft announced that it would be acquiring Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. It would cost up to approximately $95 per share. With this deal, Microsoft will become the world’s 3rd largest gaming company in terms of revenue. Bobby Kotick will continue his reign as CEO of Activision Blizzard.

By end of the deal, the Activision Blizzard business will report to Phil Spencer, CEO, of Microsoft Gaming. Together Microsoft and Activision Blizzard will provide the ultimate gaming experience for billions of people around the world. 

QUICK STATS ON ACTIVISION BLIZZARD

CEO Bobby Kotick
CMO Fernando Machado
Area Served Across more than 190 nations.
Industry Video games
Revenue 880.3 crores USD (2021)
Vision Strive to make the most fun, thrilling and engaging entertainment experiences for our players, who live in a world with many entertainment options.
Tagline It takes heroes to make heroes.

 

Marketing Strategy Of Activision Blizzard –

Now let’s learn about the marketing strategy of Activision blizzard in detail.

Segmentation, Targeting & Positioning

Segmentation:-

Activision Blizzard uses Geographic Segmentation. Under this, we divide our audience on basis of area, pin code, zip code, city, state, country or continent. This technique is highly successful for this company as in the international market many people have different religions, cultures, lifestyles and beliefs.

 Activision Blizzard utilizes psychographic division to isolate the expected purchasers into various sections in view of – character qualities, purchasing behaviours, utilization assessment, assessment of friendly issues, relaxation exercises, leisure activities, and numerous different aspects.

Targeting:-

The Audience Activision Blizzard targets are young, highly engaged and cord-cutting enthusiasts. Activision Blizzard targets globally. Their games are highly played by gamers and housewives.

Some games like candy crush, farm heroes and pet rescue are highly played by kids between ages 5-16. Over 2/3rd of Moms are gamers. Playing across mobile, tablet and PC. 

Positioning:-

Activision Blizzard position itself as the most epic interactive gaming and entertainment experience on earth immersing players in new, unimagined worlds. They claim their products help build community and create social platforms that unite people. 

Marketing Campaigns 

Activision Blizzard doesn’t have an extraordinary advertisement presence despite the fact that they haven’t directed any sort of mission. They direct no sort of advertisement plan to advance their organisation. They are active on social media platforms.

Activision Blizzard can involve similar promoting strategies as its rivals are utilizing. The promoting effort which they can follow from their rivals is publicizing on TV, sending off notice in papers, sending off a short corporate film, and other showcasing thoughts.

Activision Blizzard can send off such promotions and different media missions to expand its presence in India and other foreign nations.

Social Media Strategy  

In 2022, Activision Blizzard plans to focus on social media strategy to increase its customer base. The social media budget set by Activision blizzard is two hundred thousand dollars which includes platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Tiktok and Instagram.

Let’s take a look at different social media platform reports of Activision Blizzard. The company maintains other accounts and has another type of engagement on a different social media platform. 

Social Media Platform Activision Blizzard King Games
Instagram 1.4 M 851 K 2K (Japan -Based)
Youtube 143 K 437 K 3.25 M
Twitter 2.3 M 1.4 M 114 K
LinkedIn 385 K 777 K 137 K

 

SEO Strategy

marketing strategy of activision blizzard - ubersuggest seo screenshot
Source – UberSuggest

According to SEO positioning, it is said that the number of keywords – under 500 is terrible, over 1000 is great, and 10,000+ is astounding. As we can see that organic search keyword volume is 17,261 and it’s great. That implies the digital marketing of Activision Blizzard is acquiring a lot of insights.

Likewise, the traffic each month is around 582k which is impressive. As monthly visits above 20,000 are amazing.

E-Commerce Strategies  

Activision Blizzard has its own website from which you can install the games under its company. 

Influencer Marketing 

Influencer Marketing is a very powerful tool for marketing. Although Activision Blizzard does not have any strong influencers backing up them. 

In 2022, Activision Blizzard plans to use immersive design, gameplay variety, free to play pricing.  The goal of the marketing team this year will be to push the product through social media marketing.

The company will collaborate with content creators and streamers to hype up its product. They also plan to market it during Blizzcon annual convention. The company has set aside a separate budget for conventions.

The company plans to make endorsements by famous influencers during conventions to push through sales in the coming years. 

Content Marketing 

Activision Blizzard, Inc. declared the launch of a recently made Consumer Products division and the arrangement of veteran Mattel and Disney chief Tim Kilpin as its CEO and president.

The new division will additionally speed up Activision Blizzard’s worldwide development technique by utilizing its iconic content and making new ways for crowds to interface with the Company’s establishments and characters.

Activision Blizzard powerhouse of entertainment content. Its combination of iconic franchises and massive audience reach helps the company reach its potential customers.

The company believes a new division of consumer products will expand and deepen audience engagement with Activision Blizzard’s iconic franchises 

Mobile Apps 

The company has mobile app versions of Call of Duty, Destiny and Skylanders, World of Warcraft, Diablo, Starcraft and Heroes of the Storm, Candy Crush, Pet Rescue and Farm House. The launch of a new Consumer Products division is another strategy adopted by Activision for expansion of competitive gaming and mobile, which will compel franchisees to audiences.

The company decided to elevate our consumer product offering to a level of exceptional quality. They want their games to transform the ways audiences connect with characters they love in their daily lives. 

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Conclusion – What’s unique about the marketing strategy of Activision Blizzard?

Activision is the main overall developer, distributor and publisher of intelligent and attractive amusement products on the control centre, mobile and PC.

Overall gaming market was valued at $ 198 billion in 2021. It is projected to reach $340 billion by 2027. The market is experiencing accelerated growth.

Covid-19 social restrictions paved opportunities for gaming companies to grow as people were forced to resort to the virtual world. Many people passed their time by playing online games. Many people played them as family fun sessions. 

The company should create new games for smartphones. This will allow the company to enter the growing mobile gaming segment. The product should target gamers aged between 18-45 years. The product will generate revenues from in-app purchases and advertising.

As a result, this will also reduce overreliance on PC and gaming console products. Gaming championship popularity, mobile gaming, and youth preference for games should be the focus concerns of Activision Blizzard. 

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Aditya Shastri

Lead Trainer & Head of Learning & Development at IIDE

Leads the Learning & Development segment at IIDE. He is a Content Marketing Expert and has trained 6000+ students and working professionals on various topics of Digital Marketing. He has been a guest speaker at prominent colleges in India including IIMs......[Read full bio]

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