Azyenberg Group is launching a consulting business to accelerate the growth of game startups via marketing.
The company is unveiling Ayzenberg Accelerate, anchored by fractional consultants with expertise in growth, to grow game studios of any size with better world-class marketing.
Whether you’re an indie developer or a triple-A publisher, Ayzenberg Accelerate will offer full-service fractional marketing tailored to what the client needs. With decades of experience, the team specializes in go-to-market strategy, organic community engagement, social media management, and performance growth campaigns—all backed by Ayzenberg’s 30-plus years of experience and industry leadership.
“We we’ve already launched. We’re already doing business. The website is live. We’re ready to go,” said Steve Fowler, head of games at Ayzenberg Group and one of the leaders on Ayzenberg Accelerate, in an interview with GamesBeat. “Chris and I have been working on this as a specialist division of the shop. It’s 100% focused on video games. And one of the things we’ve been seeing as the industry obviously struggles it that publishers and marketing teams are being asked to do a lot more with a lot less.”
This division is a direct response to that, billing itself as an extension of video game marketing teams. The group’s consultants like Fowler, who has experience marketing at places like Blizzard and Fox, have a lot of experience.
“It’s where we really roll up our sleeves and provide solutions,” Fowler said. “Some might call that fractional marketing as a term, but it’s really kind of customized solutions based on the teams.”
The aim is to expose game companies to Ayzenberg’s creative, media, and influencer expertise so they can help solve the biggest marketing challenges and accelerate games.
Introducing Ayzenberg Accelerate: A division of the Ayzenberg Group
Steve Fowler runs games at Ayzenberg Group and is spearheading Ayzenberg Accelerate.
For over three decades, the Ayzenberg Group has been at the forefront of video game marketing, crafting award-winning campaigns for the biggest names in the industry as well as groundbreaking work for indie studios. Building on that legacy, Ayzenberg Accelerate is a dedicated partner for fractional marketing services designed specifically for game developers and publishers.
The mission is to bridge the gap between creativity and strategy to provide scalable, effective marketing solutions that grow communities, launch games, and accelerate measurable results. It’s like an extension to a studio’s marketing team.
Chris Younger, president of Ayzenberg, said in an interview with GamesBeat, “A major trend we’re seeing in the industry right now is marketing is being redefined as a service offering. We can connect with a marketing executive and say, ‘We can give you some services now.’”
So many developers lack publishers or trying self-publishing. And they’re discovering that they are struggling with marketing — getting games noticed is harder than ever, and discovery is a huge problem, Younger said. Many agencies are waiting for requests, and marketers are waiting for pitches.
“It’s a massive divide in servicing our industry,” Younger said. “One of the business ideas we have is Ayzenberg Accelerate, where we provide that stopgap layer for the companies.”
It’s operating as a consultancy or a project service, where fractional marketing consultants can provide their expertise at the right time when a game company needs it.
There’s a lot of incredible talent out there the marketplace right now, Younger said.
“There are people like Steve and others we want to partner with,” he said. “And developers are trying to get to the market, and they can tap this group. Ayzenberg Accelerate is designed to help really answer the call.”
Ayzenberg Accelerate specializes in acquiring, retaining and monetizing gamers for your game by solving business challenges through a range of services, including:
- Go-to-Market Planning: World-class strategy and execution to bring your game to the global stage and acquire valuable players.
- Organic Community Engagement Programs: Building authentic player connections that foster long-term loyalty.
- Social Media Strategy & Execution: Crafting campaigns that cut through the noise and incentivize sharing.
- Performance Growth Campaigns: Delivering data-driven results to maximize your ROI.
Studios can gain access to the full range of Ayzenberg Group’s resources, including award-winning creative teams, cutting-edge media buying, and deep industry insights. Where the firm differs is in its “roll-up-our-sleeves” approach.
The company said it does the hard work other agencies shy away from like organic community development and data-driven optimization programs. Whether you need high-level strategic direction or hands-on support, the company scales to meet client needs with the expertise of a global agency and the focus of a specialized division.
Three tiers of clients
Chris Younger is president of Ayzenberg Group.
There are multiple ways to work with Ayzenberg Accelerate. Clients can engage through the fractional marketing offering, where game studios can bolt on a team of game industry professionals’ ready on day one to grow the business. Or clients can connect through a project-based offering is similar to Ayzenberg’s core business. Clients define the scope, budget and timeline and the firm delivers.
Ayzenberg Group isn’t providing financial investments for game developers. It did that in the past with A-List Games, but that was impacted by the changes in the market.
Fowler said the targets include indie publishers who are looking to get funded, and where Ayzenberg is helping them is make sure that they have a higher chance of securing funding. That includes tasks like competitive tear downs, go to market, strategy, positioning, audience segmentation, helping them craft their pitch deck, and really how to position the game best to secure funding.
Fowler said Ayzenberg Accelerate worked with a small U.K. indie dev studio Savage Games, which has been a great mod developer for Arma 3. They’re building their first triple-A game and are looking for funding.
“We’re in there helping them in the trenches to secure that funding,” Fowler said
A second tier of clients is in the middle, such as an international development team or publisher that has had success in the past. Neowiz, a South Korean game publisher, is an example of such a firm. Its Lies of P title was a big hit a year and a half ago, and now it’s expanding. It has a small marketing team and Fowler said Ayzenberg Accelerate bolted itself onto the team and extended what they could do in the West.
And at the high end, Ayzenberg Accelerate also helped Warner Bros. Games work with a project, where it was easy to supplement the internal team with external help. At the same time companies are facing these challenges, Ayzenberg Group is also assessing the impact of changes to the game development and marketing process brought about by new AI tools, Younger said. It’s working on AI tools with companies like Soulmates.ai to figure out if audiences are responding to games.
“AI is leveling up people to focus more on areas where their time might become more available, because now they have a better insight or understanding the audience or a measurement value, and then work through that,” Younger said.
“It’s a three pronged approach. These are very talented, agile strike teams. They are, they are supported by a global agency in the Ayzenberg Group,” Younger said. “They’re able to operate at an agile pace and tap into our networks suite of tools, tech and services.”
