As brands go, few are as successful as Penny Arcade. Begun in
1998 as a web comic focused on videogame culture as seen through
the eyes of the writer and artist, it has grown into a cultural
touchstone and an example of how a brand can develop from humble
roots into a true powerhouse.
Penny Arcade began as a comic focused on gaming jokes and little
else. It made humorous references to the difficulties of console
and computer gaming alike, made early commentary on the Mac vs.
PC war and generally was just a sort of in-joke for gamers.
Gaming culture knew about it, but no one else did, and that was
all right.
However, the humor and irony with which they approached their
subject matter touched nerves in certain places. Gamers finally
felt there was a comic for them. It was humorous and said all the
things they had been thinking, so people tuned in.
Now the site handles 2 million unique views a day. Artist Mike
Krahulik and writer Jerry Holkins make their income entirely
Penny Arcade merchandise and revenue. They are entirely
self-sufficient and, by all accounts, are living incredibly
comfortable lives on generous income.
And Penny Arcade is a worldwide brand. Even people only on the
fringe of the gaming world can reference it. People dress up as
Penny Arcade characters at gaming and animation conventions; its
merchandise arm is one of the largest on the web and the comic
makes forays into greater and greater events every year.
The nature of its success also seems to lie not in conscious
efforts to brand, but in the creators adopting a brand based
entirely on what they love: ironic, sarcastic humor. More
importantly, they have kept this love consistent as the brand
moved forward. They love video games and have made these things
the focus. They have developed an identity and kept it without
compromise - an important lesson for us all. In an age when
everyone is rebranding and rebooting and re-reing just about
everything, Penny Arcade serves as an example of how a brand can
pick and stick with an identity and thrive.
Which is not to say they haven't adapted or changed with the
times.
In 2003, noticing their own growing popularity and understanding
the power of leveraging such numbers, Krahulik and Holkins
decided to take a positive step with their earnings. They founded
an incredible new charity known as Child's Play. Child's Play
has a simple premise: Kids love video games, and a child being
sick is terrible. Thus, they call upon their gamer audiences to
donate money that goes toward purchasing games and platforms of
all sorts - video games, consoles, board games, card games - for
children's hospitals across the world.
This is a classic example of using a parent brand's popularity
to drive and promote a new brand. Child's Play would have become
a noble failure if Penny Arcade weren't already a tremendously
popular force in the gaming world. Yet it also feeds into the
popularity of Penny Arcade itself. Major companies such as
Nintendo and Sony now have donated hundreds of consoles and games
to the Child's Play cause
Consider next the success of the dynamic duo's additional
venture, Penny Arcade Expo (PAX). This is a major fan convention
for gamers and social culture adherents. Starting as a relatively
modest, regional convention, PAX has expanded to host the
original West Coast convention as well as a new East Coast
convention. Massive amounts of money change hands at these
events, and they have become major promotional events for gaming
companies. Again, the popularity of Penny Arcade has allowed a
new brand to flourish, while feeding into old brands - the
websites for Child's Play and Penny Arcade receive huge boosts
during PAX events.
The most important lesson, as always, is finding a way to let
people know that you love what you do and that you do it well.
Having a branding campaign is an excellent decision - Holkins and
Krahulik have hired business managers who help them make
decisions about which advertisements to include on their sites.
Yet they focus primarily on talking about games, drawing
excellent comics and bringing together a previously maligned
group - gamers, who have a reputation as antisocial oddities - to
do great things.
They have appealed to their audience's sense of pride. They
reject the concept that gamers can't do good, holding up
Child's Play as proof. They love what they do, and will not
apologize for it. When they succeeded, they did more than simply
sit and draw upon their established success - they used it to
create new places they could succeed.
So the second lesson behind the astounding success of the Penny
Arcade brand is that while doing what you love is important,
it's equally important to find new challenges and new places to
succeed. Rather than simply donate to charities that already
existed, they found a niche that hadn't been filled and created
a charity. If you wish your brand to have any measure of success,
find a new way your brand can challenge itself.
Enzo F. Cesario is an online branding specialist
and co-founder of Brandsplat, a digital content
agency. Brandsplat creates blogs, articles, videos
and social media in the "voice" of our client's
brand. It makes sites more findable and brands more
recognizable. For the free Brandcasting Report go to http://www.BrandSplat.com/ or visit our blog at http://www.iBrandCasting.com/.
