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From Times Square to Discord: How Yellow Pike Powers Player Connections
3 Playsin 6 hours
Episode Summary
In this episode of Player Driven, Greg talks with Keith Pape, founder of YellowPike Media, about how to build authentic, lasting connections between studios, players, and communities. Keith shares how YellowPike became known as a gaming marketing agency that thrives on creativity, bold experiential campaigns, and a passion for games.
From Times Square takeovers for Metal Gear to guiding indie studios on their first hires, YellowPike Media focuses on doing the right thing—for clients, communities, and players. If you’re interested in game marketing strategies, community management, or how agencies partner with developers and publishers, this episode is packed with insights.
Key Takeaways
- All-In Culture – Why YellowPike Media avoids rigid roles and builds campaigns through collaboration across trailers, influencers, events, and content.
- Community Managers as Essential Hires – How strong community leads shape player trust and often grow into producers, biz dev, or operations.
- Experiential Marketing Done Right – Lessons from live activations like the Metal Gear Solid Times Square campaign, and how to turn moments into long-tail content.
About YellowPike Media
Founded by Keith Pape, YellowPike Media is a creative gaming marketing agency built by lifelong gamers. With over a decade of experience, the agency has worked with top publishers and indie studios to deliver standout campaigns across influencers, community, live events, and storytelling. Their philosophy is simple: do the right thing, and long-term success follows.
Connect with Keith and YellowPike Media:
- Twitter/X: @YPM_agency
- Instagram: @YPM_agency
- Threads / Bluesky: @YPM_agency
Links & Resources
- Explore more episodes of Player Driven, the podcast about the business of games: playerdriven.io
- Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts
Recommended
Transcript
New Game Excitement and Challenges
00:00:00
Speaker
The problem is like, it's a really good game. And I'm trying to convince my group of friends who I play with. There's about three of us, four of us who buy the game so we could play it. We've been playing Fortnite because there's been nothing. And they're like, right oh, I don't want to leave Fortnite. What's so special about it? like, it's a new game. And come on. Like, it's really different. Yeah, absolutely.
Podcast Introduction and Guest Overview
00:00:20
Speaker
Welcome to Player Driven. Here's what you're about to listen to. Today we are talking to Keith Pape. He is the founder of Yellow Pike Media, and we are talking about all things media. We're gonna talk about the Yellow Pikes all in culture, no rigid rules or silos, learn how everybody gets to experience a little bit of everything and how it's kind of build your own program as you're going.
00:00:40
Speaker
We're going to talk about community at its core and why Yellow Pike encourages studios to build and bring on strong community management and how that focuses and shapes lasting player connections. And then creativity meets integrity.
00:00:52
Speaker
From Times Square takeovers to turning down bad ideas, Yellow Pike is built on passion projects, bold activations, and doing the right thing for the clients in the long run. It's super fun episode with Keith. He is a talker and I hope you guys enjoy episode. If
Yellow Pike Media's Culture and Community
00:01:05
Speaker
you are not following player driven, check out our socials, LinkedIn, Instagram, other ones as well. i don't know. YouTube, check them all out, man. And enjoy the episode.
00:01:15
Speaker
Keith, thank you so much for joining me today. You want to say anything about yourself? Absolutely. There's nothing I enjoy hearing than the sound of my own voice. Both my wives and my ex-wife will, ah will agree to that. So, you know, When you called, I was here to answer. It keeps the team from having me to sit on meetings I'm not invited to. So thanks for distracting me for war for them. they They thank you.
00:01:39
Speaker
Well, perfect. No,
Keith on Podcasting and Meetings
00:01:40
Speaker
and I love it. I mean, we already started our conversation. but we can't help ourselves. No, and the truth is when you talk about what's going on in the gaming industry, there's a lot going on. And i was thinking, how do I want to kick this conversation off? I really like what you guys are doing at Yellow Pag Media. When you go to your website, you see reels of people climbing in gyms and people at Ready or Not who are doing paintball or something across that. And it's like parkour people jumping all over the place. And You know, you started this about 10 years ago at this point, it seems like. It might be even longer than that when I'm thinking I'm trying to do the math in my head on LinkedIn. No, no, This is it. we we're in the minute We're in the middle of year 10. You got
00:02:17
Speaker
That's awesome. And there's so many different ways I want to go. Right? The first one I want to talk about, and maybe I'm not going to start in the right order here, but is, you know, 10 years ago when you looked at how games were marketed, they were not marketed like they are today. Today we have influencers. Today we have content people making content online. You have TikTok videos. You have all these different forms of video, right? And, you know...
00:02:42
Speaker
And maybe we got to start even higher levels. How do you come to create Yellow Pike media? And how do you keep up with these changes and what's going on in the, just the way people consume it?
00:02:53
Speaker
You know, it's, um, So I'll figure out how to which which direction to tackle those all in. Yeah, sorry, it's like 15 questions in one. That's okay. on on It's like on the gaming side, it's a really interesting time because there's things, you know, that there's that saying, what's old is new again. And they say, especially as an adult, never throw away your adult clothes because give it 10 years and they'll be back in fashion again. And everybody
Gaming Industry Changes Over Time
00:03:18
Speaker
starts wearing it. you're like, oh, I got that in the back of my closet somewhere.
00:03:21
Speaker
I can be cool again. You know, I feel like gaming is going through one of those right now. there's there's think There's things that are are different and there's then there's things that are that are the same.
00:03:32
Speaker
Like 10 years ago, we were you we were definitely in the nascent days of early you know influencers way before they were called creators, before it was creator economy. You had really early influence. You had, you know, scene editors and Tobuscus doing his very the very first vlogs. And I, Justine, she was just breaking onto the scene.
00:03:52
Speaker
know, it was early days on that side. But the side that's funny, that's been kind of away and has come back is wanting to do everything in the real world. you know the the vlogs and and doing adventures you know that was kind of the end of uh it was the end of jackass on on tv but but you were seeing you know david dobrik kind of make his way in the world because everything was spoofs and stunts and pranks and and that kind of thing and you're kind of see after that being gone for i really it feels like since
00:04:25
Speaker
probably from 2017. So if we started Yellow Pike in 2016, by 2017, it was already dying down. There wasn't a lot of that, what we now call experiential going on.
00:04:35
Speaker
You know people were like, oh, that's played out. Nobody wants to do that more There's no more ARGs, no more take the community and a creator out out in the world. It was even then going more online. And think COVID even shoved that further in that direction.
00:04:49
Speaker
Or now it's like, ooh, there's nothing we want to do more than than than get outside. You know lots of things have changed with the creator economy. You know lots of things in gaming are like, oh, this, ah you know, Discord and Reddit and so many other, you the platforms have changed where in 2016 we were still going, ooh, let's build our Facebook community. So it's like, you know, now you're like, what the heck?
00:05:13
Speaker
So it it's craziness. But for me, it it was that desire to... and to build something where the question
Solving Client Problems and Flexibility
00:05:23
Speaker
wasn't and and we were just nerds.
00:05:24
Speaker
We were all in nerds who came from advertising but didn't want to go and work on frozen corn dogs and and toilet paper and paper towels. It was like, no, no, we want to do the things that we're really excited about, you know like video games and Dungeons and Dragons and and all that fun stuff.
00:05:44
Speaker
But from the business standpoint, you're asking, well, why'd you guys start this? It's because Working at these big companies, there are everything was always about, well, how are we driving revenue? The video department wanted to know how many more trailers we were getting in. you know The the ah website team wanted to know how many websites we were building for for the games. You talk about something that doesn't happen anymore. They talk about there has to be a separate website for for every game that gets launched, and they had huge budgets behind them that just you know vs doesn't exist anymore.
00:06:14
Speaker
But we were like, yeah And everybody says it's like, oh, what we want to do is we want to solve the client's problem. We want to work in an area that we that we're passionate about, whole bunch of nerds playing video games.
00:06:25
Speaker
But from a business standpoint, we're like, well, how can we solve problems? And everybody got hired on early at Yellow Pike and today. We're like, you can't be precious about what your title is.
00:06:37
Speaker
you know Yes, youre you're an art director. Yes, you're an editor. Yes, you're a writer. Yes, you're a social media strategist.
Role of Community Managers in Gaming
00:06:46
Speaker
you know But what we want to do is be passionate about what we're doing for the client, the games that we're working on.
00:06:52
Speaker
And if we need you to be a a script supervisor or a PA or we need you to help run an event or the influencer team needs three more people because we've got all these people checking into hotels, so we need somebody to stand there and make sure that it all happens.
00:07:06
Speaker
I don't care what that title is and what department you're in. I want everybody to jump in two feet and be excited. And like I just want to do fun stuff. And so that's kind of our that's our ethos around here. It's like, if you're going be here, be excited about doing whatever whatever we're doing and don't worry about, you know, which revenue stream it is and does it meet your department needs. And so we don't do department level, you know, bonuses like, oh, you know, the trailer department brought in all the money this year, so they get the big bonus.
00:07:36
Speaker
ah No, it's ah it's a group effort and everybody's going to be part of it. Yeah, I mean, not to say this term, but it's almost like a family thing. Hey, we're going to cover for you. We got you. I got this covered, right? Like you want to enable a group of individuals to make these decisions without having to go ask someone else. And I think that empowers them to think outside of their normal everyday instances, which is great.
00:07:58
Speaker
And as you're talking, it's like wild sounding, right You talk about, hey, the influencers need these people. Like, are you... finding influencers for these games or at the games hooking you up with the influencers and you're working together with them? like how does that relationship work?
00:08:11
Speaker
You know, it depends on, it depends on the, the studio and the publisher. He's like, everybody's got different levels of expertise. I think in our perfect world, there's always somebody who is like an expert on the dev team or the publisher team that can be our liaison and talk to talk to our most senior person in that group, and then they can talk at the same level. you know they They both are understanding and passionate, and we get to be their fingers and toes and and and come up with new ideas with them, but we're not we're not leading it in a way that that they're not participating on the same level because it's really hard when the brand isn't operating from the same place that you are.
00:08:54
Speaker
So I always want their, whether there's a creative director on the like the trailer team, they want to have somebody on their side who really gets video and trailers and storytelling. And the influencer team, there's a person on the and the influencer or creator department who's on par with our best guy, girl.
00:09:12
Speaker
and And these are talking about things and and be those, those two things make better ideas. It happens where they're like, hey, we're we're a startup. We just, we, We came from the 2023 layoffs.
00:09:23
Speaker
We built this studio because none of us had jobs. So we don't have anybody internally, but, you know, are but you game development people. We're like, yep, we're here for you. We sp supply everything they need and do all that fun and stuff.
00:09:35
Speaker
But we do tell them, hey, as soon as you get to a point, you should bring on at least one person. If the they only do one person, we'll say bring a community person on. These community people are just So well-rounded nowadays, especially, you know, smart ones who've been around for a while, you know, they they understand content and they understand creators and they understand their Reddit and Discord you know and everything everything else. They can kind of
Career Paths for Community Managers
00:10:00
Speaker
play all the roles to a certain level.
00:10:03
Speaker
So it's really helpful to us to have, you know, that stake in the ground on on the other side. But, you know, some of them, ah dear they did. They thought they were going to be at, you know, one of the big three for their entire lives.
00:10:15
Speaker
And suddenly they got laid off, them and, you seven of their buddies. And they're like, well... There's jobs. We might as well make a game, you know. And then they go, hey, we know this guy. or usually A lot of times we know people who are like investors and things like that who used to be heads of marketing or studio heads.
00:10:30
Speaker
And they'll say, hey, the guys at Yellow Pike are really good at this kind of thing. They're smaller so it won't you bust the budget, but they have they everything the big guys need. And that's the that's kind of the the place that we like to sit in the world.
00:10:43
Speaker
you know i love the part you brought up about community managers, which just a community. I think you know my first job out of college was a tier one support for a technology company. And I feel like when you're in that front line role, you learn so much just by the force of everything being on you. And you have no choice other than to either sink or swim. yeah And I think now in the world of technology, it gives us even more power as a community manager. I can be a little more creative using tools like AI to help generate this stuff or doing a line of code. And I think the beauty of a community manager, to your point, they've almost seen it all, right?
Balancing Agency Work with Studio Collaboration
00:11:22
Speaker
And they can understand how to how to connect with people, how to talk with people. And it's something I've been working on and trying to learn how to do as well, but it's...
00:11:30
Speaker
amazes me how much a community manager can juggle in terms of work. And it really sets them up for success. I always tell people, if you get any role at a company, you should start in community because it lets you really learn about everything from there.
00:11:43
Speaker
And then you can decide on what you love and what your passion is. Maybe it's development, maybe it's product, maybe it's something else and you can go that route, but but learn by tackling everything. And that's the best way you can do it. And if you can survive that, you can you can survive anywhere because you're you know you're you're on the front line, know,
00:11:59
Speaker
hearing the best and the worst from the community, but you're also serving the master of the dev team who's passionate about what they're doing and learning how to communicate. And I always say translate. A lot of times it's different languages almost.
00:12:14
Speaker
And being able to survive that, like you said, then you can figure out, is this what want to forever? this just the chaos I love to work in? I'm sure you've seen it. Lots of them end up like becoming producers on the studio side.
00:12:24
Speaker
They find that they had a great time community, but working with the devs, all of a sudden, they're like, no, no, that's right. I love shaping this side of it. And the producer then gets to work with the new community manager and go laugh at them and go, i used to be on your side. understand what you're going through. And once again, it's great at translating it or you move over to you know so operations or bi a lot of work go to biz dev. They're like, oh, I really love the early parts of a game and seen a lot of guys who go from community to biz dev and now they're out in the field finding that next studio finding that next game to for the studio or the publisher to sign because they just like I like that being out in front feeling but I want to do it more one-on-one than with you know 10,000 you know 10 million fans
00:13:10
Speaker
Yeah, and I like when you were talking through, when you talk with your customers, you encourage them to bring on a role like that, right? Obviously, I mean, you don't want to have to do it forever. Maybe you do, but you want to be able to hand this off at some point and say, hey, this is yours now. Like, you got this. You got this under the control, right? and I think when you...
00:13:28
Speaker
tell a studio something like that, they appreciate that because they want to be able to blow, I say blow it up, I meant expand it, right? man Yeah, absolutely. right And I think it's important for you to be able to have a trust relationship like that so that
Ethical Client Relationships
00:13:39
Speaker
next project they bring you back.
00:13:41
Speaker
the yeah And of course, a lot of agency people are worried, well, aren't you giving aren't you giving away you know ah free client? you know they they need you I'm like, I'd rather have them be friends for the next 10 years and come around when when they need us and and help them find that right person. don't know, it's it's just, you know,
00:14:00
Speaker
agency people were what we're best at is where we're in three inches deep and we're a mile wide, you know we're touching just a little bit and do doing so many things, you know, I'm sure most of us have some kind of ADD OCD disorder because we're, you know, working on 10 things at the same time. And, but the guy at the studio, especially is working on one thing. You know, I think about the guys who work, who've worked at rockstar for a decade, you know, and they'll put,
00:14:28
Speaker
make two, maybe three games out in a decade. And they are so deep into their culture and their brand and what they're making because they just, they spend years preparing for that, for that big day. That's a completely different personality and skillset than agency people. And I get the fear from the business side on the agency, like, oh, you know, we've got to keep that billable going. and You got you know, but it just feels like the karma works out in the long run.
00:14:54
Speaker
you just keep on doing right by people, you know, there's good years and there's tough years and that that stuff happens, but I really feel like in the long run, you know, we'll lose business sometimes to what I call shiny objects. You know, it's like squirt. You know, and of a sudden it's like, I see somebody I was pitching and all of sudden they're at, you know, they're at the Tyson, Jake Paul fight. You know, they got flown in from who knows where. And I, know, I see an agency guy sitting next to them in the in the stands while I'm watching on Netflix or whatever. And I'm like,
00:15:25
Speaker
All right. You know, now you hear couple weeks later that you lost the deal. You're like, well, that's going to happen
Managing Client Size Challenges
00:15:29
Speaker
sometimes. You know, sometimes people have that ability and that's what they, that's what they want life. And if that's what they're happy with. But I feel most of the time, if you do good work, that'll come back your way. Maybe it's not all of it. Maybe, maybe that person who, you didn't choose, you refers you to somebody else. I just, I feel like it it all kind of works out. Do, do a good job, treat your people well, treat your clients well.
00:15:52
Speaker
And in the long run, it's like, it's enough. Yeah, I, you know, along the same lines, never burn a bridge. if someone does choose someone else, right? Hey, well, hold on, unless they deserve it.
00:16:03
Speaker
Some bridges need to be burned. You're like, nope, nope. I don't want to be, i don't want crosses. That's called bound. i think my therapist says that's called boundaries. you know well as soon as you go scorched earth and uh little separation is okay we used always and this is before i got into gaming but we used to talk about the concept of firing a client right like sometimes do you have a client that's just so needy it's like you know what this is not worth my time and that's a whole nother conversation right because it's legitimate and sometimes you know it does take too much time i feel like i've heard about this in like uh smaller like when you have a lot of small clients and they all have problems, it's worse than having one big client that has fewer problems, right? So how much can you juggle and how much do you want to put up with before you you feel like it's not worth your time
Personal Life and Work Balance
00:16:45
Speaker
anymore? And that's something people got to decide because your time is valuable.
00:16:48
Speaker
And I know guys who love that. I know guys who own agencies and they love having 37 tiny clients that are just crawling all over them like spider monkeys.
00:16:59
Speaker
And I look at it and go, nope, uh-uh. No way. But they thrive in it. So they're really young. There is a lid for every pot. There's an agency out there who's going to love the work that you're like, no, this just ruins my life. I just can't. I can't deal. I'd rather have my three, four or five clients and and be doing a really great job at them and and be working on that.
00:17:22
Speaker
the The guys who are doing 37 $10,000 projects all year long is just, yeah, that makes gets me the heebie-jeebies. Some people just like to stay up all day long and just... That's it. That's what they love.
00:17:35
Speaker
hey ah Real quick, is that Super Grover behind you in the picture? It is. My wife got that for me. i love it. see I got a... My kids know I love Super Grover. I got a second one here and they just keep buying me Super Grovers. There you go.
00:17:49
Speaker
ah you yeah My daughter, my kids, my daughter's the last one that's that's young, loves to buy that kind of stuff for me. She's like, she finds stuff and and she's like, no this would be perfect for dad. you know am I am part nerd, part child and and something in between.
00:18:06
Speaker
Me too. Sometimes when I do a podcast and someone like with a desk behind me has all the, like, the... I'm so jealous of that. and but My kids my kids are are still young they would come and destroy that. So that that would not that would not be good.
00:18:20
Speaker
you're that You're in that phase where, like, I'm putting all this away until they're a little more trustworthy. Pretty much. And I don't think that time will ever come, but I heard it does come. You'll get
Creative Marketing Event for Metal Gear
00:18:29
Speaker
there. You'll get anxiously waiting. Anxiously, anxiously.
00:18:33
Speaker
um One of the things you did was a Times Square takeover for the game, Ready or Not. I'm curious if it's something we can talk about and how an idea like that actually comes to life because it sounds nu It shows that we've been talking we've been talking way too much. So we did Times Square for Metal Gear and we did we did the experiential part for Ready or Not. So which one which one do we want to do first? Sorry. Okay, let's do Metal Gear Times Square Takeover. there I don't even know how that process begins.
00:19:04
Speaker
You know... It's always random. I don't know what it is. It's never planned out. It's never it's never the, you know, you friends that work like in the non endemic world, the non gaming and they they're talking about like in June, they're working on their their their Christmas stuff. They're working on Christmas campaigns and doing Christmas commercials and trailers.
00:19:23
Speaker
I don't understand those people. if If I do something with more than two weeks notice, it makes me nervous. if I've got to have as short a time as humanly possible. doesn't It doesn't feel like it's almost impossible.
00:19:36
Speaker
I'm not even comfortable taking the job. And that's kind of what happened here is that I was on, we were on a random conversation and we were working with Konami on another project. Um, we worked with the, with the Yu-Gi-Oh team and one of the guys from the core team was, was on the call and we're just chatting. We're catching up. It's just one of those quarterly catch-ups. Make sure everybody's up to speed. Everything everything good. Anybody need anything?
00:19:59
Speaker
you know, the, the silent Hill F guys were talking about, um, they're doing, they're doing a big, uh, experiential piece this weekend. Um, It's like a takeover down Chinatown in Los Angeles.
00:20:10
Speaker
Whole Silent Hill F. It's like, it looks like haven't had a chance to go down yet. It looks like it's an entire, almost like a, you know, like a Halloween maze kind of experience, you know, and they've got this cool thing going on. They're talking about that.
00:20:23
Speaker
And we're just chatting. I think we were chatting even about, rep you know, Ready or Not and some of the things that that we've done. and And the Metal Gear guys are like, you know, we've got this really cool thing that kind of landed in our lap like yesterday.
00:20:36
Speaker
And and we're going to go and we're going to get this really cool opportunity to take over ah Times Square for eight minutes. Right.
00:20:47
Speaker
All right. Very, very specific, you know, and they're like, like, it's gonna be cool. That's all lit up. But what can we do? What you know what what can we come up with?
00:20:58
Speaker
you know We know there's no time. there's no time to do this, then we all laughed. and that's way We all were like, well, we we we have more than two weeks. We're we're actually confused. so Let's see what we can come up with. And so it was fun going you just going back and forth with the team because they just they had something randomly ah fall in their lap.
00:21:16
Speaker
you know, and then they they they said, hey, it looks really cool. Our team's scrambling to go and do something that looks amazing. You know, what what could you guys do to enhance that? You know, we've got, we can scrape a couple pennies together here or there.
00:21:29
Speaker
And so we did, we we looked at it and we looked at the people who are interested we're looking at, you know, what kind of, you know, what kind of chatters there online about a a community in New York that's excited about about the new Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater Delta coming out or Delta steak eater. Sorry.
00:21:45
Speaker
You just too many words in that one. ah And so we just started, you we started talking to some friends, you know, well, who do you know? what are they doing? Who's excited about what? And it all just kind of came together and we started you know just talking to the client like, all right, we've got these three but through three or four folks that are super interested. And they're like you know they're like, oh, I got to bring some friends that come over and we know these guys that they'd show up and and you this could be really cool. And so we just kind of packaged it together and we're like, hey, guys, it really looks like
00:22:17
Speaker
there's a a bunch of people and some with some, you know, nice followings that could, that are totally willing to be there in the moment and see the whole thing kind of light up and catch the reaction of, of everybody in Times Square already. And, you you know, we can do some really fun stuff. And, you the great thing about, about Steak Eater is that, you know, it comes out, you know, Kojima really created him on off like an eighties, like Rambo kind of, kind of character, you know?
00:22:46
Speaker
So, So it's like we bought a bunch of crazy, been the cheapest wigs we could find. It's this cra very kind of almost ah Charlie Sheen, you know, Hot Shots Part Deux look with the headband.
00:22:57
Speaker
You know, we want we wanted the costumes to be the cheapest ones we could find. You know, probably almost, you know, made out of some um materials that aren't healthy for you. You know, we want to really, if you put it on and your eyes don't start watering, we didn't get ones that were cheap enough.
00:23:13
Speaker
And we did, we we we just all, we all bombed out there. You know, there was like, there were like three of us and, you know, eight or 10 other, other folks that, that, that were just super excited and they called their friends and we got a group together and we literally just like got together down the street at the W in New York and just kind of bombed into, into Times Square, know, just a couple minutes before.
00:23:38
Speaker
And of course, you know, these experiential things never go off perfectly. We checked it out earlier in the day and there's like, you know there's a Spider-Man, there's a DJ, you everyone's having a good time and in Times Square.
00:23:51
Speaker
We roll in, there's an anti-Russia Ukraine war protest just starting. And here we are, you know, playing, you know, like your kids playing Cowboys Indians. We're going, big, big, boom, boom, boom, you know, finger, up we're doing finger guns. You know, it's, you know it's the silliness that Metal Gear brings to everything.
00:24:12
Speaker
Right as they're starting an anti-Ukraine war, know, protest, we're like, well, of course. And so we make our way around and everybody was really cool. ah the The guys that were there that were that were there for um supporting yeah Ukraine could see what we were doing. They weren't upset about it We were able to do our thing and have a lot of fun. We hung out with some of those guys afterwards.
00:24:34
Speaker
And it it was just so cool. And the creators we brought and the fans, everybody just kind of ran around and and we ended up getting like 18 minutes or something like, supposed to be like, know, three minutes, everything by five, so rolling off by eight, you'd be completely shut down.
00:24:51
Speaker
it's like 12, 13, 15 minutes. And they just kept on like ramp up the energy. And we just kept rolling and it creates an amazing content. We, know, the client was great. The, the, the folks that we brought in just had so much fun and they were just totally into it.
00:25:07
Speaker
So it's like, sometimes you just, you know, see what works out. And, For every one of those, there's three or four where they're like, hey, you have an idea and we try something and you get really close and you can't just quite pull it off. You can't get all that the brand and everybody to kind of align. but But this one did and it was just it was great all over the place.
00:25:28
Speaker
What do you do with that content? Is that type of content reused afterwards? Are they posting it online? Is it kind of a one hitter, one and done? ah It's We've gotten really good over the years trying to make sure to get as much content out of something as possible. So like the creators and the fans were all doing Instagram lives and they were doing stories and everything all the way from the prep rolling up to when it went live.
00:25:56
Speaker
And then we had primary cameras capturing it so they could really focus on just having a good time. And then that evening, we distributed all that out to everybody that was there, um you know, it They did stories everything before, during, after, and then we give them the hard pieces that we shot, and then they go and they do some long-form
Content Creation from Events
00:26:16
Speaker
stuff for their channels, and then they provide us all their primary pieces,
00:26:22
Speaker
And then we put a ah big one big editor editorial piece together for the client who can then go and use it even for like it's already at launch day. You use it for like accolade pieces or if it's up for game of the year, this is assets you can use there. or The next time a DLC comes out, now you can sprinkle in some of this to,
00:26:42
Speaker
to the the know the the dlc campaign because you've got you know footage into the the brands have gotten really smart of let's make sure to get as much use out of out of every piece and hopefully you know it has that longer tail cool i have more questions on that but usually about halfway through which i think we're past to into a fireball round where i'm just gonna oh questions that's your way super simple questions just hit me with your best answer uh what do you have for breakfast Every day it's a protein shake and oatmeal.
00:27:14
Speaker
All right. And if you, i don't know if we were recording yet, but Keith hit the gym early and had the whole gym to himself today. So it was a good day for that protein shake. There you go. Dream vacation.
00:27:26
Speaker
Any island in the Caribbean. I love a, ah you know, ah I run around like a crazy man. So when it's time to turn off, I try to find secluded islands, white sandy beaches and sit there and do absolutely nothing and let it all go.
00:27:42
Speaker
Beautiful. What is the last game you played? ah oo I was just playing. My wife was doing something last night wasn't interested in. So I fired up a magic gathering arena and I kind of played a couple of,
00:27:58
Speaker
couple rounds of of arena. All right. You're a card guy. I'm getting there. My daughter moved out, went to college. She's the last one home. So now it's like, oh, I have free time again. So how do I start wrapping this up? And, you know, we're talking about Battlefield 6 is going to be hot on the list for this weekend. The first weekend I've got for a while that's completely free.
00:28:19
Speaker
I know. I can't wait for my friends to be like, why didn't you tell me about Battlefield 6? Last either show or movie you watched?
00:28:30
Speaker
Ooh, um... We just started watching what's called with Jason Bateman and Jude Law Black Rabbit. Black Rabbit is what we're kind of, we just we just started this this week and my wife and I just finished the Netflix movie with Charlie Hunnam, Murderer, the story of Ed Geiger, Guger.
00:28:55
Speaker
All right. but Whatever it's called. Okay. Some mass murdering fuckhead. I don't know. He's of those guys. um All right. That's it. Easy enough. way Way to complete the hot seat.
00:29:06
Speaker
um But you did bring up something during that that I wanted to ask you, as you know, on the Caribbean island when you're relaxing is ah if you're not at the Caribbean, how do you disconnect? How do you turn your brain off? What is your go to method of just saying and need to decompress?
00:29:23
Speaker
I don't take my phone with me to the gym or on runs or on if I just go for a walk. I've learned to leave to leave it behind.
00:29:34
Speaker
I will put it, i like, if I go to the gym, I'll leave it in the car. So that if there's an emergency or something like that, ah there's a phone nearby that, you know, I can tell the staff, hey, my phone's in there. You can contact my wife or when I get back.
00:29:46
Speaker
But while I'm doing my activity, there's no phone. I'm just working out. I'm just running. I'm just walking to just even give me that, that 35, 45 minutes of ah disconnection It wasn't easy when I started, but but I'm glad I did it now. No, there was a few weeks ago I looked at my wife and I was just like, I've been on screens for 95% of my day.
00:30:10
Speaker
i woke up and I was on my phone. I went downstairs and I played a little Xbox. I'm in front of my computer. the end of the day, I'm back. I'm like, this isn't healthy. I need to find a way to like... stop being in front of your computer. And it's very hard to disconnect, especially when you're, like I'm trying to build up a brand right now, right? Like, i don't how do I keep on top of that? But i think the pros of disconnecting will outweigh the pros of not disconnecting.
Personal Growth and Business Ethics
00:30:31
Speaker
And and it's it's uncomfortable at first.
00:30:33
Speaker
The first time I like went for a walk or went to the gym and didn't have my phone to check in between sets or something like that, you feel a little twitchy. And, you know, but over time, i knew it was good for me. And it just took commitment, little discipline to to stick with it.
00:30:48
Speaker
Maybe it was just too much pre-workout beforehand gave you that jitter. well Both can be true at the same time. That's fair. um I'm really curious. ah and you know You went through the story with Konami. Have you ever had an idea you were talking to with a client and you're just like, what are you thinking? like Is there anything that was just so far out there that you couldn't wrap your head around it? You don't have to go into details. um um Oh, yeah. All the time.
00:31:10
Speaker
it It happens all the time where a crazy idea comes up and you're just like, that doesn't match your brand or, or yes, it's, it's a crazy idea, but it's not going to get, it's not going to give you any benefits that you want.
00:31:24
Speaker
you know, it's, it's a crazy idea for a crazy idea sake. And it's like, it's off brand or it's simply not going to move the needle. You're, you're going be upset when, when the fans don't react positively to this.
00:31:38
Speaker
And, and you, and sometimes you, you have those open conversations and it works. And sometimes they're telling you, tell you, uh, be a good soldier and and march forward. And you're like, all right, but I'm gonna write this down.
00:31:50
Speaker
So when I get blamed for this later, could say, did try to. So sometimes that works out. Sometimes, you I've been fired over those things.
00:32:00
Speaker
It's like, when it when it goes bad, they're like like, why'd you let me do that? I'm like, I didn't. Here's the documentation. Lies, you're fired. Don't show that to anybody. And you're under NDA, so you can't tell anybody about it. So it happens.
00:32:14
Speaker
i I find that fascinating and no doubt that that happens. Right. ah And I'm curious, you know, a lot of brands have big eyes and like, again, I'm looking at player driven, how I want to build it out. And I go in some direction i'm like, oh, that's not right anymore. Right.
00:32:31
Speaker
um Are there any big learnings you've had over the years for yourself that says, hey, I immediately recognize this or or I guess some of the key takeaways that you've mentally learned? Yeah.
00:32:42
Speaker
Absolutely. i And it really is. Go into it with, I want to solve their problem. i want to to to be useful and helpful and and help them go forward. And if you go in with that mindset and and something and then your you know your spidey senses say there's something wrong, just say something.
00:33:07
Speaker
yeah people are People are too worried about the money. And yes, we we have to pay our bills and provide for our families and all that kind of thing. But I really do believe that that doing the right thing will pay off in the long run.
00:33:20
Speaker
and And sometimes we you know we' we're told we're crazy and we're dismissed. And I'm like, but I feel better that I said something. you know yeah That's what my biggest learning is being the willingness to walk away. People used to talk about the power of no, you know,
00:33:37
Speaker
And sometimes it's known and they're like, ooh, you're teasing me now. Okay, you want more money? I'm like, no, I'm telling you, no, no, nomi no means no. and And I really, if you can do it more times than not, you'll actually end ahead.
00:33:52
Speaker
I think do the right thing is going be the theme of this episode, right? I think good people, you know, sometimes they go, they get put through shit, right? But I think at the end of the day, if you're a good person, people will recognize that and maybe they won't be able to make a deal with you, but they'll recommend you to a friend or a friend of a friend, right? And i think i think being a good person in any industry, no matter what you do, goes a long way and there's not enough people that are good people out there. i think a lot of people are just trying to get their way to go through, right. Or, or get their agenda put through. And it's just like, I think they're scared.
00:34:26
Speaker
I think ah they're good. They're good people who are fearful of the material things that make the world go around that they won't have enough. If they, if they don't, if they don't just bend that, they yeah they won't, they won't have enough. And that, that fear is, is rolling and it's tough.
00:34:45
Speaker
It's, it's hard to, to face those fears. yeah I think you see it in gaming, especially when it comes to things like loot boxes. Do we keep putting monetization strategies in there? What type of monetization strategies in there? FOMO and stuff like that. As a gamer, it's just a lot of pressure at times. It's like, oh all right, well, I got 80 hours to complete this mission or else I'm not going to be able to go back and play it again. and Or you could pay for this pass and get it extended. and I think people play on the fears of others to go I don't know. Just get their things done. The DICE and Battlefield team put something out about three months ago, I think during the closed beta.
00:35:23
Speaker
They said, we want to make sure everybody understands. We won't be doing skins. We won't be doing gimmicks. we We've learned from our our mistakes in the past. We're going to make this Battlefield the way that Battlefield players want it to be.
00:35:36
Speaker
going to stop chasing the trends. They're like, we fell into that. and and And the players told us they didn't like it. So this time you're going to get you know the the pure Battlefield experience and we're going to stop you know not being real with ourselves.
00:35:51
Speaker
and And so far, it it seems like they're going with it. It's early days. so we'll It is early days. i
Daily Responsibilities at Yellow Pike
00:35:57
Speaker
don't want to get too excited yet, but it is a fun game. I'm curious for you, Keith, kind of what is your day to day, like as the founder of the studio, right? well What do you do on a daily basis? What skills do you tap into?
00:36:11
Speaker
um I kind of have three sides to my world. On one side, i i love the business to development. i love I love bringing in new clients. I love bringing in new opportunities. I like that that biz dev side of the business.
00:36:25
Speaker
So that's that's my most fun part. Then my my least fun part is the business operations side. Having sit down and look at financial reports and and okay how are we scaling and what do the numbers look like? How much money is in there in the savings account? yeah What are the staff billing ratios looking like? Those are the kind things that make me go, bleh. But they're an important part of part of my job And then and then the the part that's almost as fun as BizDev is every once in a while, they they unlock my office door and allow me out. They they they roll me out in a wheelchair where I'm securely chained down, and they let me go to a meeting, and they're like, all right, old guy, we've got our ideas.
00:37:12
Speaker
We want you just shit on all of our ideas and tell us how they're not going to work. I'm like, yes, I get to just crap on all their hard work. which is what they say, I think I'm giving wisdom, I'm providing my years of experience.
00:37:27
Speaker
They describe it as shitting on everything, but. It is. I try to explain it, but it is fun to be, to be part of the process and and still be able to go in there and say, here's what I've seen over the years. I've seen this brand, you know, over almost 20 years now, and here's what's consistent about their, their brand rules or what's worked in the past and things like that. And they'll go, sometimes they ignore it. they're like, no, it's a new day. We're going to do something different.
00:37:51
Speaker
Sometimes like, okay, good point. And they will tweak something to help it fit. you know the brand voice a a little bit better. So every once in a while, I get to participate on that kind of thing. And then very quickly shuffled me back out. They're like, please stop talking.
00:38:05
Speaker
lock the
Keeping Up with Industry Trends
00:38:06
Speaker
door throw away it back time you know time is this valuable commodity that we can't control right and i think i at least noticed i guess we're in two different stages your kids are moving out my kids are here so you're getting some of that back now but how do you find yourself continuing to keep up with what trends are popular how things work when we have such a finite available amount of time um I absolutely rely on ah on the staff, and we we try to set up a really fun environment in the office, and
00:38:41
Speaker
And we hire people who have a diverse interest in different kinds of games they play and, and being in different stages of life. And really sometimes you just, you just roll your, your, your chair out to, to the bullpen where when people are chatting and they, and they're talking about this new game and what, how Steam Next Fest went. And they they were playing, you know, they're playing this game this weekend, or they they played Liza P and then they went and played another Soulslike game and how did it compare and,
00:39:10
Speaker
And I just try to absorb. my My wife calls me the king of useless facts because i'm I'm really good at absorbing just the high level and try to kind of connect the dots over time. So like I said, I don't have deep knowledge in any of it, but try to go and pay attention and understand the trends. And honestly, that's what I use, um, packs and, and gamescom and, and all those kinds of things for, I walk through the trade halls and watch the booths and watch the kids and everybody playing the games and doing the demos and, and,
00:39:45
Speaker
A lot of people go in there and they're like trying to find a marketing person to talk to. I'm in that portion just trying to understand. Are they having fun when they're in line? I listen to what they're complaining about, what they like. And, you know, why are the booze like this this year? And why? Why did they give away these goodies and not those? And I just try to use my my time to just kind of absorb just the highlights.
00:40:10
Speaker
I mean, that's how we met at PAX, and I appreciate that. I think that's important to understand kind of how the community reacts to this type of content as well, right?
Preparing for TwitchCon and Networking
00:40:17
Speaker
And you see what works and what doesn't work. And I worry about it for my staff while you're thinking about what your question was.
00:40:23
Speaker
I try to find ways to make sure everybody gets to a show every year. but you you sweet You sit in your own echo chamber of the agency, and if you if you don't get out there and get to get on the floor TwitchCon, get on the so on the floor at PAX, something like that,
00:40:39
Speaker
you're You're only getting other people's information. You're watching the, you a YouTuber you know that or someone on Twitch who was at PAX and you're getting their experience, but you're not getting to kind of add it to your own.
00:40:51
Speaker
know, you see with your own eyes, hearing it with your own ears does just make a difference. You do have TwitchCon coming up. So how do you prepare when you're about to go to a conference? What's your kind of mental exercises that you're going to do before before heading out there?
00:41:05
Speaker
I am horrendous stalker. I am on every piece of social media, no longer enjoying any of the content, and I'm just trying to find somebody who's going to give me a hint. They're going to show up, and I hunt them down like dogs until they agree to meet with me.
00:41:21
Speaker
That's... a that because That's the dirty side of the business is you're like, and they're like, where did you come from? ooh, you mistakenly mentioned something on social media. Now I know you're going to be there.
00:41:32
Speaker
Fascinating. That's what it is. It it is. it's a That's the grind part of it where you have to go and and dig through and because you've you Part of my primary job is is making sure to meet with people and you got to figure out how they're there. And I'm not one of those that has a sales pipeline software and it blasts out and collects up or a whole sales team that's feeding me leads.
00:41:54
Speaker
I only know how to do it my way, which is chat with people, talk, see who's going to go there, set up meetings, use my Calendly, you know. I certainly don't go to parties until 2 a.m. m anymore. yeah i'm I'm in bed by 10 o'clock, so I've got to be really efficient between 8 a.m.
00:42:11
Speaker
and 10 p.m.
00:42:14
Speaker
I think that's part of the beauty of being in an industry where we have lots of introverts is that you know you can be a talker. And if you're a schmoozer and you know how to bring up conversation, and you can talk about the latest games you've seen at Gamescom or GDC or stuff. right Then you become the guy that everyone wants to talk to because you know what's going on. You know the trends in the industry and you kind of just build your relationship and your network from there. And i think it's really ah kind of... I think it's more the black. card at the at the bar that they really care about they're like hey i'll i'll put up with listening to you talk as long as the drinks keep on showing up it's a win-win for everyone especially the bar exactly um did i have one more question about twitchcon i don't know is there anything you want to talk about twitchcon or uh i'm excited we're doing some fun stuff some the team's going to be down there we we're we're uh
00:43:03
Speaker
We're partnering with ah with lurk it again they've been really good partners of ours and we're gonna we're gonna help them out with some. ah ah Some some developers that they're working with and throw a fun party and we're gonna go see some friends I got some friends who are we're also launching games that we're not working on but i'm gonna go and try to support them so.
00:43:21
Speaker
i don't know i think twitch comes twitch comes fun I think it's it's a really cool event you get to be done San Diego like comic con. but with like you know a third the number of people. So it's not ab it's like it's fun, it's energetic, but it's not the madhouse that San Diego Comic-Con is.
00:43:38
Speaker
All right. We'll put it on the list of cons for me to go to for next year. There you um Keith, I think that's all I have for you today. Can you let us know where we can find you or Yellow Pike Media?
00:43:49
Speaker
Yep, absolutely. We're on everything, threads, blue sky, X, Instagram, and um most of them, it's YPM underscore agency. And just ah look for this ugly mug is Keith paper, KD paper on all those same platforms. And I'm always trolling around somewhere.
00:44:08
Speaker
Awesome. Well, we will have links to all of Keith's information as well as yellow pike media's information as well. Keith, I really can't thank you enough for ah for being here, having this conversation. Like you said, I think we could talk about this stuff forever.
00:44:21
Speaker
um I do hope you have a great TwitchCon, and I hope you have a great rest of your day. and don't actually I'll send you all the pictures and collect up some swag and send to your way. Awesome. Thank you so much.