Case study: how Alternativa Games increased the loyalty of influencers

The material was prepared by Gennady Klyachman, marketing director of the company, and Maxim Khusainov, creative producer of Alternativa Games.

Gennady Klyachman and Maxim Khusainov
The YouTube community of Tanks Online has always been large — many channels, a large audience.

Some channels even exceeded 200 thousand subscribers, which is very good for a local YouTube of one game.

Over time, “Tanks”, like any “elderly” game, has become overgrown with age-related sores. Because of them, at a certain stage, a lot of negativity gathered around the game, and they began to react to the positive with words like: “Sold out!”

In the second half of 2017, the situation escalated to the limit — almost all YouTube channels criticized the game and the employees personally in the most obscene way, while simultaneously advertising illegal “roulette”.

It was necessary to act decisively, half-measures would not have saved.

Then we launched the “YouTuber TO” initiative. This is a program to support user channels on YouTube: authors receive in-game bonuses at the end of each month, which they can spend on themselves or play on channels to attract a new audience.

The measure in the calculations was the views. The more views per month, the more bonuses the author of the channel receives. Views are not chosen by chance — this is the most objective indicator of channel activity. You will say: “So you can wind up the views!” — and you will be right. However, this is easily detected through the SocialBlade service. The “sly ones” are suspended from participating in the program.

There are two restrictions, except for the rules of YouTube itself:

• do not advertise illegal “roulette” and other similar services;
• do not insult the company’s employees personally.

We didn’t force YouTubers to praise us. But the effect of the introduction of the system “turned” the game. The mood on the channels for our game has changed literally in 3-4 months. Someone is still unhappy with the game or updates, but there is no blind hatred anymore.

We offered the most successful channels to conclude a contract that opens up special opportunities. Top authors receive an unlimited number of game bonuses and exclusives: new weapons before release, secret information about updates, and so on. Also, the “special package” implies a monetary reward. At the same time, YouTubers continue to do exactly what they did before. This is how we motivate influencers to new successes.

At the moment, the program has been in existence for a year and a half. All this time we are constantly changing and adjusting something. So, for example, for the convenience of calculations and the issuance of “buns”, we made a special automated website for data collection, which greatly simplified the work of the manager leading the program. Automation rules! In addition, recently we have begun to work more with the authors themselves, to give recommendations for improving content and channel growth.

Here are three rules that will help form a healthy YouTube community around the project:

• Consistency. Clearly write down the rules for the participants and their remuneration. Otherwise, you risk drowning in micromanagement.
• Common sense. Always keep in mind what you are doing YouTube for. This will help you solve controversial situations, and you will also understand in time that it may be worth giving up this idea if there is no result for a long time.
• Interact with your community. YouTube has long ceased to be a platform for posting funny videos. The better and better your communication with your subscribers is built, the greater the return. Also, do not forget that YouTube algorithms like activity under the video.