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Video game streamers and content creators often play a vital role in helping a title have a successful and vibrant community. Not only do they help to popularize games, but they help create the bedrock for long-lasting communities, which allows the title to enjoy a healthy player count even months after its launch.
However, it’s getting harder to make it in the field, and many industry leaders have been vocal about how the scene has become highly competitive in recent years.
In a conversation with Abhishek Mallick of Sportskeeda Esports, Lance “Powerbang” Frisbee, CEO/founder of Aftershock Media Group, opened up about some of the biggest hurdles that content creators face today.
He talked about the importance of community engagement, how he got into the content creator scene, plans for Aftershock Media Group, and more.
Here is an excerpt of the interview.
Lance “Powerbang” Frisbee, CEO/founder, Aftershock Media Group on the content creation industry
Q. Lance, tell us a bit about yourself. From being a graphic designer to a YouTube content creator to founding Aftershock, what has your journey been like in the field of video games?
Lance: I have always craved a creative outlet to build things. Bigger, better, more efficient; that has always been it for me. I started with graphic design early in my gaming days. My clan needed a logo, and just like that, I got Photoshop and figured out how to make one.
I was playing competitive Counter-Strike back in 2004, and your team really wasn’t cool unless you had a data-driven website to tell all 7 of your fans that you stomped the competition in a recent match. YouTube tutorials didn’t exist just yet, so I read some books and learned to code.
I was becoming a productivity monster with all the creative and technical skills I was adding to my toolbox, but how could I channel these into a singular place for maximum benefit? Enter YouTube and Gaming.
After starting a family in 2009, I worked a job at a nuclear site helping to clean up legacy waste from World War 2 weapons production. It paid the bills and provided benefits, but I was looking for a bigger challenge. I was in emergency response, and thankfully, there weren’t many emergencies.
This gave me a lot of time to scratch my competitive gaming itch and get ridiculously good at mobile games. I quickly grew tired of answering the same strategy questions my clanmates would ask me. Hence, I recorded a video tutorial to save time and provide consistent guidance to our clan’s recruits. That video did 1,000 views in the first week. I didn’t even know 1,000 people, so that was a significant “a-ha” moment.
It was time to leverage everything I had learned over the years. I had everything needed to run a solid YouTube channel, and I now had my subject: mobile gaming. After a slow but steady start, things picked up in 2018, and my channel surpassed 1 million subscribers.
With brands regularly reaching out to me to promote games or products, I began to experience a whole new side of the industry: influencer marketing.
I saw an opportunity to create an agency with my creator co-founder, Tim “CWA” Evans, to represent talented content creators and work with game developers more efficiently and effectively than what was standard. In other words, I wanted to build something. Something bigger and better. And Aftershock Media Group was born.
Q. What are your thoughts on the current state of content creation and its role in the broader video games and esports market?
Lance: Content creation is vital to the success of any game community, and creators are the lifeblood of a game’s community. Not only do these individuals help popularize games, but their efforts are the foundation of long-lasting player communities.
Great games can bring new players, but relationships and social interaction sustain gaming communities over time. Through content, brands are built, both on an individual and organizational level. Brand marketers know that content is the single most important driver of brand awareness and brand development.
Q. When it comes to community engagement and generating revenue for the creator, what would you say are some of the key differences between mobile and PC? Which would you say has been a more lucrative platform to make content on?
Lance: Revenue generation is a topic many creators aren’t comfortable speaking about. Yet, creators must recognize the importance of making sure they’re being paid for their work and be strategic about establishing and supporting different revenue streams.
The most significant difference is the preconceived notions about which platform matters in which region. North America, western and northern Europe, and South Korea have disproportionately high ad spending compared to the rest of the world, and it is here that PC gaming thrives.
The audiences are enormous, and there is a real appetite for PC gaming, so content creators will often crowd into PC games. Brazil, India, Southeast Asia, and China are where mobile has taken the reins, and that’s why you see more and more content creators in these regions playing mobile games. Mobile esports events have set viewership records, and raw numbers now surpass those of PC.
So there’s a lot of opportunity for mobile creators with sponsorships and brand deals, but they might not pay as well as the PC-focused options. Viewership in more western countries continues to play catchup, but the gap is closing.
On mobile today, it is far easier to be a big fish in a small pond when compared to PC. I expect this to change in the next 3-5 years.
Q. Talk to us a bit about Aftershock Media Group and some of the visions behind its making. What were some of the biggest hurdles you had to face early on?
Lance: Aftershock Media Group was born via two creators who had a fair bit of experience not only creating content but working with content platforms, working with brand partners, fulfilling sponsorship opportunities, and generally creating lucrative content-based businesses for themselves.
After working with a couple of different agencies, we saw firsthand how one could change our businesses for the better while allowing us to focus on what we did best, which was creating content.
After some time and having others manage us, it was clear that we could create our own processes and develop our own standards to not only better serve our own businesses but to be able to provide for those closest to us.
My co-founder Tim Evans and I were very fortunate to lean on many incredible content creators early on who were our friends. We explained our vision and described how we felt we’d be able to help them substantially increase their revenue and increase their channel’s growth and performance.
It didn’t take long to get a dozen pioneering content creators to join us as the first-ever talent under management.
In AMG’s first year, our biggest challenge was getting brands, game developers, and platform partners to take us seriously as a business and not just the content creators we had become known as.
Through perseverance, hard work, many pitch meetings, and creative idea sessions, we could leverage our good names and track record as creators to give us a shot as a marketing agency. Once we got the opportunity, our partners quickly saw the advantages AMG brought to the table with so much gaming and content experience under our roof.
Q. You have had quite an exciting history with PUBG Mobile, from being a day one player to having your own voice pack in the game. Can you shed some light on some of your best experiences with the game and what made PUBG Mobile special when starting as a content creator?
Lance: PUBG Mobile marked my first official shift in content. I started my content career covering Clash of Clans, and after creating every strategy video under the sun, I felt it was time for a new challenge.
I had been watching livestreams of content creators playing battle royale titles for quite some time, and I thought there was a particular beauty in the simplicity of the storyline.
One hundred players jump into an island. The last one standing wins. Easy to grasp, and if I could find the time in my busy schedule to enjoy a stream and easily understand it without ever playing the game, I immediately knew it could translate well to content.
Then, in March of 2018, PUBG Mobile launched globally, and I downloaded it on the very first day. With the brand power PUBG had on PC, I knew that I could likely pivot my content if I did indeed like the game.
Good news: I loved it. I started making content for PUBG Mobile on the first day and then created daily videos for it. I expected my channel performance to tank for some time, maybe two months, but it never did. The viewership exploded immediately, and I was one of the lucky content creators to be able to ride the wave of new viewership that a new game often brings to a lucky few.
I asked the development team early on if there was any way to work closely with them, and the staff at the time was curious to see what I could do. I worked my tail off and produced regular content, and within a few weeks, they came knocking to collaborate with me on the launch of their official YouTube channel.
I created one of, if not the first, pieces of educational or strategy content on the PUBG Mobile YouTube channel, and it has since amassed nearly 7 million views. It is the single best performing organic piece of content they’ve ever put out.
Fast forward four years and the early contributions to the game, such as community building, producing regular content, building and providing opportunities for many content creators now prevalent in the scene, and helping provide work for over 75 content creators in the space, they’ve honored me by including the Powerbang voice pack available for use inside of the game.
Now, I guess I never need to speak again while playing because I can just use my voice commands. This truly humbles me, and of course, it’s always amazing when someone barks orders at me in-game using my own voice!
Q. What do you feel to be some of the biggest obstacles content creators face today? Do you think most of these issues are region-specific or universal problems that every struggling creator faces?
Lance: I think the biggest challenge of content creation today is the competition. It isn’t the “me vs him” mentality that is so difficult; it’s that when you ask today’s youth what they want to be when they grow up, 3 out of 4 say “a YouTuber.”
The market for content creators is only getting more congested. This means that competition by nature goes up because it’s all about supply and demand. To be successful, you have to do one or more of the following:
- Have more creative and engaging ideas.
- Spend more time creating content.
- Produce better videos.
All of these take a substantial amount of time, and being creative certainly requires talent. More and more, you’re seeing successful creators employing entire teams. Top-tier creators often use editors, thumbnail artists, creative directors, idea people, business managers, and more.
As the content scene becomes more competitive, it means that creators need to invest in some of this help earlier on in the life cycle of their business, typically before they’ve “made it.” Having an editor or a thumbnail artist used to be a sign of “making it.” Now it seems to be required just to compete.
With all of the options available for content and personalities to engage with, it is easy for content creators to fall into depression or anxiety and deal with mental health issues. Burnout is quite frequent. This is one of the topics we try to regularly tackle at Aftershock Media Group with the creators we represent.
How can you stay on top of the game and maintain your sanity? It’s a challenge, not impossible, but really, really hard.
Q. In certain regions, especially in South Asia, content creators often lack proper representation and branding. Talk to us about the importance of these two aspects, especially for enthusiasts new to the field.
Lance: In certain regions, there is much passion and interest in games, but frankly, there is a lack of experience and sophistication on the business front. Having management or representation that brings that experience can help you steer clear of the many parties seeking to take advantage of young or inexperienced creators.
In addition to helping you stay safe and in control, proper representation can make a world of difference to your business. A good agent or manager will see opportunities that you don’t. They’ll understand how to create legitimate partnerships that are effective long-term instead of one-off advertisements.
They can help you craft and create a more compelling brand in this same manner. When you work with a sponsor, is it authentic? Are they a representation of your core values and what you stand for? If so, it becomes easier to work with brands more organically and naturally.
Otherwise, there is a risk of alienating your audience and receiving some negative attention that so many creators fear.
Q. What are your thoughts on content versatility and why a creator should diversify their genre and not just stick to a particular game throughout their career, keeping in mind games often tend to get banned in certain regions.
Lance: Being a versatile creator is the dream. Having fans and audiences be interested in you instead of the game itself is always the goal. It really depends on the skillset a creator brings to the table whether or not this is a viable strategy.
You can be charismatic and engaging and fabulous at a game. Often, you can’t be both. A creator’s strategy should really lean into their strengths and try to mask weaknesses.
If you’re one of the lucky few who can be incredibly charming and funny while slaying a lobby to the maximum, you’ve got a golden ticket. Brands are often built with a common interest. Fans need something to rally around, and that is usually a game.
I believe that sticking with a game is an excellent plan for the large majority of creators because it’s the game itself that fans are rallying around, with the creator as the conduit. There’s a great chance that covering multiple titles could work for those who are incredibly interesting, but it’s all in the execution of a consistent content strategy.
Q. How is Aftershock Media Group helping young talents get a proper footing in the content creation industry?
Lance: At Aftershock Media Group, we take talent management incredibly seriously. In addition to the obvious financial component of sponsorship opportunities and brand deals, we provide talent managers to our creators and do brand development work where we guide growth strategy. We are also exploring business opportunities to take creator brands to the next level, even outside content creation.
Whether we are helping provide opportunities to collaborate with other creators, to work with their favorite brands, or to put our creators on big stages next to names like Dr. Disrespect, Tyler1, or CourageJD, I’m so proud to say that our team truly cares about every single creator we represent.
Q. What’s next for Aftershock? What can fans look forward to in the coming months?
Lance: Aftershock is continuing to recruit amazing and talented content creators. We are expanding into multiple new genres of content. We have begun working with several game developers to build our gaming communities through social marketing, content creation, event production, and creator programs.
We’re incredibly excited to continue creating original events that creators, fans, and esports players consistently love participating in. We’re also taking creator education to the next level. We’ve been working with key clients to provide one of our newest programs — the Creator College.
Experts in content creation, brand development, tech, social media, and many other subjects have come together to help content creators bypass the many mistakes we made when starting. They help creators focus on the best practices and tools they should be focusing on to see success in this competitive industry.
We’re incredibly proud of the product, and more information on this will be rolling out soon!
