Andrew Chen Unveils Lessons from Gaming: The Power of Community, Creativity, and Storytelling

Andrew Chen Unveils Lessons from Gaming: The Power of Community, Creativity, and Storytelling

New Marketing Channels and Trends for 2024: The Power of Organic Traction and the Law of Shitty Clickthroughs 📈

We're back for Part 2 of our Season 1 Finale with Andrew Chen, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. We hope you've been enjoying "Unsolicited Feedback". We'll be back with Season 2 in just a few weeks!

Do you have feedback for us? Or is there a topic you would like us to cover on the podcast? Let us know HERE!

Also, if you want to join us in discussing our main topic on lessons learned from gaming, please join us HERE on LinkedIn.

📉 The Law of Shitty Clickthroughs 📉

Every channel that performs always degrades over time. It's a harsh reality, but it's true. The more collective volume on a channel, the worse it gets for everyone. It's a tragedy of the commons. A good sign a channel still makes sense to invest in is when you’re seeing a 3:1 LTV:CAC ratio, but Andrew suggests asking yourself if thats a blended or unblended rate? If it's blended, you're at the ceiling. Your next job is to find a new marketing channel, not to squeeze performance out of the existing one. 🧐

📞 Phone Calls? Don't Even Get Me Started 📞

Remember when spam was a novelty? 📧 Click rates were sky-high. Fast forward to today, and we're looking at low single digits. SMS marketing? Same story. 📲

Remember when we used to answer every call? Now, it's more like, "Text me first, then call." Better yet, send a Twitter DM to let me know you've texted to tell me you're calling. Sounds crazy, right? But that's the reality we're living in because that channel became so oversaturated.

📚 If You're Reading About It, It's Probably Too Late 📚

Marketers are always on the hunt for new channels, copying each other, and trying to stay ahead of the curve. But here's the catch - the big companies are always focusing on the big channels. SEO, SEM, referrals, Facebook ads - you name it. So, your edge as a new company? Find the cutting-edge thing that no one else is doing. Sounds simple, right? 🤔

Here's a bitter pill to swallow: by the time you read about a marketing channel or tactic on Twitter, it's probably already been fully utilized. And when companies start writing case studies and creating tools for it? That's when you know it's fully, fully utilized.

🏃‍♀️ The Running Start 🏃‍♀️

Breaking into big channels requires momentum. You need to create that running start to have a chance to jump over it. And that typically requires focusing on non-scalable, unique opportunities that match your product. It's the hand-to-hand combat of marketing that gives you the edge. 🥊

🛡️Defensible Growth Channels Often Mean Going Niche🛡️

To make your growth channel defensible, your product needs to fit the channel in such a way that others can't degrade it as quickly. If someone else sees that you're doing something innovative, they will try to copy it, but at least you have first mover advantage and strong product-channel fit to fend off new entrants.

🎯 The Power of Organic Traction 🎯

As AI is set to drastically increase the amount of content in the world, organic traction is your secret weapon. It's the foundation that allows you to cross the bridge to higher volume channels. Without it, crossing that bridge becomes nearly impossible. Why? Because organic traction creates a hardcore base of people who will come to you, whether you market or not.

It's the positive affinity that makes your messages resonate better on any channel. So, if your early high performing low volume stuff doesn't spur some type of organic spread, you're in for a tough ride on the bigger channels. 🚀

🏰 Building a Brand 🏰

Are you struggling to find a new, untapped channel and feeling the wrath of the Law of Shitty Clickthroughs? The only other remedy here is a compelling narrative. Old-school marketers would call it a brand. In MBA programs, the value of a brand is that you can sell the same product at higher prices. However, in our case, it also means achieving higher click-through rates on the same channel because people find you interesting. 🏰

🎮 Lessons from Gaming: The Power of Community, Creativity, and Storytelling 🎮

Ever wondered what the gaming industry can teach us about growth and product development? 🤔

For our deep-dive topic, we talk to Andrew Chen about the intersection of gaming, AI, and growth. Andrew leads the Gaming vertical for Andreessen Horowitz. Here are some key takeaways:

🔄 The Anti-MVP Approach 🔄

In gaming, the MVP approach doesn't usually work. Often, game studios spend years building, testing, and refining their games before launch. It's a deliberate process that can take several quarters of careful orchestration.

The key benefit of this approach ensures that when the game finally launches, it has a "golden cohort" of players ready to dive in. This contrasts with the tech industry's quick MVP and iteration approach and might be worth considering depending on your product.

🚀 Launching is a Community Effort 🚀

Gaming studios have mastered the art of building anticipation and community before a game even launches. They drip-feed content, engage with creators, and empower their community to share and promote the game. This strategy creates a sense of ownership and excitement among potential players, leading to a successful launch.

Seth Sivak, the co-lead of World of Warcraft at Blizzard, has a case study on this that he shared via A16Z for a game called Spellbreak. First, he got everyone hyped up about the Beta and encouraged them to join a Discord community. This created a community of champions and generated a lot of buzz around the game. Then, during the Beta rollout, Seth armed the Discord with video clips and still images, and encouraged everyone to share the assets to Imgur, Reddit, etc., It took some effort, but it paid off because of the community.

🎨 The Intersection of Culture and Technology 🎨

Gaming excels at combining culture and technology. It's not just about creating a game with cutting-edge tech; it's also about creating an immersive, engaging experience that resonates with players. This blend of creativity and technology is something all industries can learn from.

📚 Storytelling is as Important as Technology 📚

Finally, gaming teaches us the power of storytelling. Games aren't just about gameplay; they're about the stories they tell and the worlds they create. This emphasis on storytelling can be applied to any product or service.

Tech has often been seen as a utility, focusing on efficiency and reducing the number of clicks. But as tech permeates broader culture and society, there's a growing need to combine creativity, storytelling, brand, and entertainment alongside cutting-edge technology.

Think about Slack, Arc, or Superhuman. Their success isn't just about their features and functionality, but also about the story they tell about how you should work. It's not just about the widget you make, but how you should feel when you use the widget. 🧩

So, what can we learn from this? Whether you're in tech, product development, or any other industry, remember the power of community, the importance of storytelling, and the value of deliberate, well-planned launches. Next time you're thinking about growth, why not take a cheat code from the gaming industry's playbook? 🎮 🚀