“One advice from us: don’t be afraid to initiate dialogue”
ATMOSFERA on making the brand visible in the competitive industry, cultivating trust within the team, and finding its unique voice
Chatting with the team of ATMOSFERA about the gambling industry is always eye-opening, as well as inspiring. Our first conversation with the company’s CEO Yury Ermantraut, where he candidly talked about ATMOSFERA’s debut proved just that — it is a new era in iGaming, and brands are ready to pave the way to open and inclusive dialogue between developers, casinos, players, and media.
In our second sit down with the company, its PR Manager Alena Zharkovskaya raises important topics of being a newbie to the online casino industry, finding the brand’s unique voice, gaining recognition, and cultivating trust among employees and partners. This is a noteworthy read for anyone who always wanted an exclusive backstage tour of game development.
How challenging was it for the company to establish communication and to become visible to the media when it was still a very new and unknown developer?
To build any process from scratch is always exciting. Challenges inspire giving you the opportunity to think out of the box. A strategy to create a successful PR in a company has the same rules as for presenting yourself. First, you must clearly understand the company's USP, what interesting things you can share, and what you can do to catch an eye on the media. Our company’s USP includes experience in creating studios and developing games, a team where everyone is a professional in their field, has a strong expert background, and is open to sharing information. We immediately decided that we want to tell the world more about our experiences, insights, and the benefits of making the right decisions such as creating a hybrid system of remote work. We thought in detail, what would be interesting for the media and their audience to find out about us. We began to make inquiries and evolve further this communication.
What were the strategic steps that ATMOSFERA took to generate interest in the community and media for the brand, and what were the initial responses from the community?
Even though we were new players on the market, in terms of PR strategy, we immediately decided to work from the opposite. Being a new company does not always mean that you are inexperienced, we already had a great practice and were ready to show it. We started by filling our social networks with relevant content, making posts about the company, products and studios. We prepared a whole block of posts about the company, which includes the presentation of all our games, new partnerships, introducing a new rubric "A word from the CEO" to immerse everyone in the company’s atmosphere. We were immediately ready to talk about trends around the industry and the creation of a company in general, to show more backstage processes, talk about all the ups & downs, share unique content including our experience and vision.
“Being a new company does not always mean that you are inexperienced, we already had a great practice and were ready to show it”
The first and important step that we took was publishing in the media with the aim of getting to know each other, where the main goal was to tell more about ourselves and show our willingness to cooperate. Further, we focused on what would be interesting to see in the media for each specific audience. The voice of the company and the first ambassador became our CEO Yury Ermantraut. The media engagement strategy was to initiate relevant topics for interviews based on our experience and potentially raise the talkability about the company. We had something to talk about the first steps of the company, finding a unique voice, attracting partners, the idea and processes of creating products, development plans. It should be noted that we also spoke quite frankly about the difficulties the company faced during the lockdown and the pandemic, how a new format of remote work was created, allowing a big breakthrough in the speed of completing tasks. The perception of gambling in Russia and in the world was also one of the most important topics for us, which we tried to reveal in detail.
To be honest, almost a year ago we did not have a large budget for PR but it couldn’t stop us. I can say that we were greeted very warmly. From the very beginning, most of the media partners were already open for cooperation with us. We are very grateful to them and appreciate our friendship.
Certainly, it takes time and effort. In addition to the annual plan, which includes basic things, it is also important to have a creative component. A PR strategy should make everyone understand who you are, what is your company's voice, mission, awareness of where you are going and how you want to be perceived. To raise brand recognition, relationships with the media are important, especially personal contact. One advice from us: don’t be afraid to initiate a dialogue. Internally, as a team we sketched out the image of the company. This was the first vector of development of the PR strategy version 1.0.
“Everyone's voice is very important, everyone has the opportunity to speak out and defend their position, this is how the company becomes a team”
We know how thorough the hiring process at ATMOSFERA is. What are the strategies that the company applies to make its employees feel valued and willing to become brand’s ambassadors?
Intercom PR is rarely talked about, but it is the key to create a brand appearance. Everyone's voice is very important, everyone can speak out and defend their position, this is how the company becomes a team.
We try to cultivate with partners and our employees a habit for sharing expertise. We are proud of what everyone does, and we like that our employees feel not only the company's success but their personal as well. Recently, the studio director has also become our brand ambassador and gave an interview with an exclusive tour behind the scenes of creating a live studio and about ATMOSFERA's methods of hiring and training the game presenters. New articles from our key managers about business development and HR in our company are coming soon.
Also, in ATMOSFERA, special attention is paid to internal brand awareness. We have a few channels through which we transmit industry and internal company news where we can always discuss the latest events, what articles were published about ATMOSFERA, what ups & downs there are.
Why do you think applying PR within the company is as important as building strategic connections with the media and partners outside the company?
Each team member is a face and potentially, an ambassador of the company. What is said inside about the company can both elevate and harm the brand. We must not forget that one member of a team can become a source of communication risk. To prevent unwanted consequences for the company it is vital to share both achievements and losses, maintain one information field, talk more about inside updates, and always provide the opportunity to voice the opinion not only internally but publicly as well. This is what works for us and makes us a team and what is laid down as the basis of the corporate culture of the ATMOSFERA.
If there was one thing PR-wise that you would have done differently when the company was new to the industry, what would it be?
When no one knows you, it is always difficult to take the first step and decide what you should do at first. From the start for newcomers, it is important to say hi to everyone and to be open to everything new.
“If we started now, we would be even bolder”
I can say that if we started now, we would be even bolder. It's important to be courageous. At the first stage of creating a PR strategy, we were faced with thoughts which stopped us: we thought in advance that large media might not be interested in us, believed that it was too early to actively develop social networks, as well as to participate in large industry events around the world. My answer now is it's never too early. It is important to maintain your energy and speed and be adequately ambitious.
