Why Ronnie2K Is The Prototype For Reimagining Influencer Marketing – Forbes

Vogue Business declared that the Instagram era of influencer brands is over. The consequence of this sunsetting is said to have made way for a new period of influencer engagement, one that meets the expectations of consumers who have seemingly grown weary of overly manicured brand-influencer partnerships. This new era apparently favors more organic pairings between brands and influencers that appear to be more authentic and less manufactured.

The success of Crocs and Stanley’s influencer campaign has piqued the curiosity of marketers and encouraged them to venture into these new waters. The possibility of what can happen when ordinary people with extraordinary follower counts encourage others to buy your products is just too tempting to resist, even if it requires new thinking and skills.

Be that as it may, influencers—regardless of their veneer—can potentially provide a level of context and credence that most brands can rarely achieve on their own. In an era when consumers crave authenticity and relevance from brands, this level of understanding between brands, influencers, and consumers is invaluable. Now, imagine if this kind of proximity lived within the walls of your organization as opposed to the confines of an outsourced arrangement. Few exemplify this unique alchemy more than 2K Games and its Digital Marketing Director, Ronnie Singh—better known as Ronnie2K, the face of 2K.

During my interview with Ronnie, I found that neither his official title nor his colloquial moniker fully captures his contribution to 2K. His role transcends the traditional conventions of marketing and sits at the crosshairs of sports, gaming, music, and fashion—embedding 2K into the heterogeneous cultural spaces of the community of gamers who flock to its games.

“2K sits at the intersection of these evolving spaces; that’s why my role has evolved over the years,” Ronnie explained. What started as a niche basketball video game has ventured into a world of culture production that is consumed by over 30 million players around the world. This meteoric rise directly results from 2 K’s cultural fluency, thanks to Ronnie’s instinctively anthropological approach to understanding the cultural exchange between these converging spaces. An avid gamer and sports fan himself, Ronnie 2K has cultivated an intimate knowledge of basketball fandom and a deep understanding of the many expectations that constitute what it means to be a part of this community.

“You have to authentically live and breathe those things every day—my love for fashion and music—they were there right at the same time as when I started at 2K,” he says. This immersion allows him to organically identify the community’s cultural characteristics—with all their dynamism—and codify them into gameplay experiences and marketing communications activities.

From collaborating with clothing brands for in-game apparel integrations to facilitating music releases, NBA 2K has become a platform for discovery—not merely a video game. It’s an artifact of cultural relevance that serves as a marketplace of ideas where cultural characteristics are confirmed, introduced, negotiated, and constructed through the media text that is mediated in-game and across social networking platforms. And in this enterprise of exchanges that 2K has created, Ronnie, in many ways, serves as the chief culture officer (to borrow the moniker from my friend and anthropologist, Grant McCracken)—ensuring that the ideas represented in the game are representative of the community’s folkways and morays.

This depth of contextual knowledge and subsequent credence is the holy grail for influencer relationships. The days of employing influencers merely for their media reach are diminishing. The real value comes from the cultural currency embedded in the output of content creators and community facilitators who engage with brands with shared interests—not just ones with deep pockets. That’s where the good stuff happens and where this new era of influencer marketing is headed.

Fortunately for 2K, it seems as though the brand has had a sixteen-year head-start because that’s exactly what Ronnie brings to the brand—cultural intimacy.

Achieving this level of understanding and proximity is no small feat; it requires diligence and commitment. Ronnie attends product launches, forges relationships with cultural producers (athletes, musicians, you name it), and proactively engages players of all skill levels to inform various aspects surrounding the game. This is an anthropological undertaking—albeit instinctive—that consists of all the many diverse social actors that make up the 2K flywheel and drive its commercial success.

This kind of role in an organization may seem unconventional for a company, but it pays dividends. By centering the voice of the culture in which the company wishes to engage directly inside the organization’s walls, not an outsourced resource, 2K avoids potential missteps that plague inauthentic marketing efforts that tend to repeal savvy consumers. “I think that’s why this approach has worked for us…our influencers talk about our game without any push from us because it reflects who they are—it feels real,” Ronnie affirms. An influencer campaign with anything less increasingly feels hollow.

For brands seeking to maximize their influencer endeavors in an ever-evolving cultural landscape, 2K provides a masterclass. By empowering Ronnie within the brand and integrating his understanding in the workstream, harnessing cultural insights becomes more than a marketing tactic; it becomes a way of operating that permeates the entire organization. The importance of this distinction cannot be overstated.

There’s an adage that says, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast,” which means that no matter how well-planned a strategy might be, it’s only as good as our understanding of the people we’re trying to move (external culture) and the company’s ability to execute against it (internal culture). You need both—the external cultural knowledge and the internal cultural knowhow. One without the other just won’t do.

The future of influencer marketing leans toward external cultural knowledge, but the success of this future state is only possible with internal ability. If we see influencers and creators as partners, not hired guns, then we, too, will be able to tap into the value that Ronnie provides 2K and benefit from the cultural tailwinds that come from it’s integration.

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