Hi-Rez Studios Boosts Player Engagement by 10% with Brevo

In search of the right solution

Hi-Rez Studios is an industry-leading video games developer based in Atlanta, GA, championing the free-to-play games-as-a-service model. On a mission to build and nurture multiplayer gaming experiences, Hi-Rez creates more than beloved games like SMITE and Paladins — the studio prides itself on the communities built around its games.

Hi-Rez Studios previously used two separate solutions for customer relationship management and email marketing. Frustrated with the inefficiencies of switching between tools and in search of a more powerful automation solution, the gaming studio chose Brevo for its ease of use, affordability, and dedicated support. From there, Marketing Specialist Prarthana Ramesh remembers “onboarding was smooth. There was lots of information on how to migrate our data and even tools built into the platform to warm up our new IP address.”

Striking the right chord with Brevo

Hi-Rez’s community management is segmented by game, with different lists and journeys for each. Using Brevo’s API, Hi-Rez pushes in-game data into Brevo to collect players’ email addresses, the last time they played, and their player level. Prarthana explains how this helps “tailor their journey to their user experience. This way, we’re not explaining how the game works to someone who’s already played for a year.” 

Hi-Rez Studios saw its vision for personalized player journeys come to life with Brevo. With game-specific welcome workflows set up, the team set its sights on even more granular personalization: recapping players’ annual stats for the 10th anniversary of Hi-Rez’s flagship game SMITE. Using Brevo to pull player data via the API and route it to a content solution, Hi-Rez sent 113,000 personalized recap videos to players at the end of last year. 

In addition, Hi-Rez started ran its first refer-a-friend campaigns with Brevo. With the help of their Customer Success Manager, the Hi-Rez team designed this campaign to attract new players as well as lapsed/inactive ones. Following a successful trial, the team ran a second version of the campaign which resulted in an impressive 210% increase in new players compared to the first, demonstrating the Hi-Rez community’s eagerness for this type of campaign. 

Boosting player engagement with Brevo

Prarthana explains how optimizing the SMITE welcome flow allowed the team to better understand new player attitudes toward receiving marketing content about the game. “The learnings have helped us to better refine our new player experience strategy for the game.” 

Whether via refer-a-friend-campaigns or personalized onboarding, the team at Hi-Rez Studios counts on Brevo to maintain an active and engaged community of players. Prarthana concludes with, “Brevo has made it easier to engage players. Whether it’s game updates or referral campaigns, players who see the content we make with Brevo have 10% greater engagement with our games.”