What is your game brands personality?

Have you defined it? You should.

I’m a big believer in giving the games I work on personalities. When my game brand interacts with fans how does it express itself? This is so important for your community team, agency partners and social media folks. 

Sometimes I have seen brand marketers try and relate their game brand to a real person. Usually a celebrity is chosen to approximate how the brand’s personality is expressed. For instance, when I was working on Hearthstone we liked to use Robin Williams as our “game-as-a-person”. He is humorous, original, witty, optimistic (at least on the outside) and fun-loving. All personality traits we wanted imbued into Hearthstone. But this was hard to grasp globally. It seems our counter parts in other territories didn’t really know who Robin Williams was so we needed another method.

Insert Jung-ian brand archetypes! Psychologist Carl Jung coined this term and its associated profiles back in 1919-1920. His work was trying to categorize basic human desires and instincts to profile huma personalities. These desires, he posited, drive our personality traits and how we express ourselves. 

It turns out this work applies to brand personalities incredibly well! Since Jung’s work, marketers and consulting firms have started to apply the 12 archetypes to brands we are familiar with. 

DISNEY -> “The Magician”

NIKE -> “The Hero”

GOOGLE -> “The Sage”

A brand can be more than one but if more than one are required to describe the brand they should be prioritized and almost never should have more than three of the brand is not well enough defined.

Back to Hearthstone, it was easy to prioritize number one for us – THE JESTER! Then we through in a bit of THE CREATOR with just a splash of THE MAGICIAN. 

Brand Archetypes give a really good definition of characteristics, brand voice, brand message and best of all the are more globally understood. 

So what brand archetype would you say fit some of the big games today? What is Fortnite? What is World of Warcraft?

What is Your Game Brand's Personality? Have You Defined It? You Should.

I firmly believe in giving the games I work on distinct personalities. How does your game brand express itself when interacting with fans? This is crucial for your community team, agency partners, and social media professionals to understand.

Often, brand marketers try to relate their game brand to a real person, usually a celebrity, to approximate how the brand’s personality is expressed. For instance, when I was working on Hearthstone, we envisioned Robin Williams as our “game-as-a-person.” He embodies humor, originality, wit, optimism (at least outwardly), and fun-loving traits—all characteristics we wanted to infuse into Hearthstone. However, this approach had limitations, as our counterparts in other regions weren't as familiar with Robin Williams, necessitating a different method.

Enter Jungian brand archetypes! Psychologist Carl Jung introduced these archetypes and associated profiles around 1919-1920. His work aimed to categorize basic human desires and instincts to profile human personalities. Jung suggested that these desires drive our personality traits and modes of expression.

Remarkably, Jung's work applies exceptionally well to brand personalities. Since then, marketers and consulting firms have utilized the 12 archetypes to define well-known brands:

DISNEY -> "The Magician"

NIKE -> "The Hero"

GOOGLE -> "The Sage"

A brand can encompass more than one archetype, but they should be prioritized, and it is advisable not to have more than three if the brand is not sufficiently defined.

For Hearthstone, it was clear that our primary archetype was The Jester. We also incorporated elements of The Creator, with just a touch of The Magician.

Brand archetypes provide a comprehensive definition of characteristics, brand voice, and brand message, and they are more universally understood.

So, which brand archetypes would you assign to some of today's major games? What is Fortnite? What is World of Warcraft?