4.1 2nd Wave

Diversity among content creators

Interview with Jennifer Olschowski, artist and campaign manager at 2nd Wave

They broadcast gameplay in exciting let’s plays and live streams, captivating a diverse audience of millions: content creators have long been a crucial pillar of the games community. In this interview, Jennifer Olschowski, artist and campaign manager at the artist management agency 2nd Wave, explains why promoting female talent is so important and how it can best be done.

1. With Girls Crew, you’ve set up a programme to promote young female content creators in the games industry. What’s the aim of this programme and who is it intended to reach?

If you look at the top 30 Twitch channels in Germany, you realise that most of these are still run by creators who present as male. But the game community is incredibly diverse, and it naturally includes a lot of female content creators. However, breaking into the creator sector still poses extra challenges for female talent. The hurdles they face often include slower initial growth in reach, as well as insecurities about starting out as a creator. So, many female creators hesitate to take the big steps. Yet their strong, distinctive perspectives and the diversity they bring to the table are an extremely important part of games culture. This is exactly where Girls Crew comes in. We want to offer female-presenting talent who are striving for careers as content creators in the game sector all the benefits of comprehensive management – including the chance to collaborate with major brands on cool projects. We want to show them that they can realise their dream of a career as a full-time content creator, and that we’ll help to make this possible. We also want to encourage the games industry more broadly to think outside the box and provide opportunities for creators with a smaller reach. In the first two years of our talent development programme, we’ve succeeded in helping nearly half of the 20 creators we’ve worked with achieve a reach large enough to make a living from it. We’re proud that we’re also now able to realise larger and profitable projects with them.
The purpose of Girls Crew is, first and foremost, to promote talent. We see the early and sustainable development of promising young content creators as a huge opportunity to grow together and at the same time to counter the imbalance in the representation of female versus male creators of game content.

2. What specific areas does the programme cover?

We support the creators in setting up a structure for their channels and advise them on which content can be placed most effectively on which platform. When they bring us their format ideas, our whole team helps them to formulate, structure and implement these, as well as to find the right cooperation partners. We also offer the creators regular update calls to discuss topics and campaigns in more depth, or simply to lend them a sympathetic ear and assist them with daily challenges. In addition, we help them in networking with other creators and producing joint content, which in turn promotes dialogue among them.

3. Why is diversity and the representation of diverse talent important in the creator area?

Because our world is very diverse, and this diversity deserves to be seen in all its facets. When creators from different backgrounds and walks of life share their perspectives and stream their content together live, we all benefit. It generates greater understanding and stronger bonds in the communities and, above all, a lot more fun and shared enjoyment around games. Diversity promotes creativity through different perspectives, and it ensures that more and more people see themselves in the media and platforms they frequently consume. We’re always happy to provide entertainment – but we’re only truly satisfied when we can offer a stage to as many positive voices in our society as possible. Because the best content is created where diversity is truly lived.

4. How does this benefit the games community?

Thanks to the diversity of the creators and the support that we and the cooperating companies provide them with, many viewers find a new ‘community home’. This diversity and the variety of perspectives it offers allow anyone to find a channel or personality that appeals to them. Past prejudices notwithstanding, female creators, just like their male counterparts, are active in wide-ranging game genres – from indie games and point-and-click to shooter and horror games. And that means that every viewer can find their own ideal content, along with a community that reflects their own interests and perspectives.

5. And what are the advantages for companies and brands that work with female creators?

Aspiring female creators are highly motivated and usually have close bonds with an active, cohesive community of people with whom they discover and explore game worlds. Along with the game content and gameplay, there is often a particularly creative aspect in the foreground. This can be expressed through everything from personalised streaming overlays to active participation in cosplay. And there’s another element that shouldn’t be overlooked: the closeness of the community encourages viewers to support and watch (new) content and placements. As a result, the reach of five smaller creators is usually greater than that of a single larger one, and five different communities are involved instead of just one. An example of this is an earlier joint Girls Crew game project in which five creators collected a total of over 1.5 million impressions in three months.

6. What tips do you have for aspiring female creators?

Try out new things, and don’t hide. Make the content that you enjoy and that makes you stand out! Network, support each other, exchange ideas. And very importantly: apply to creator and artist management agencies. I’ve heard from so many female creators that they held back from sending out applications because they thought they were too small to be profitable for an agency. But here, too, as is so often the case: nothing ventured, nothing gained!

7. What advice would you give to companies seeking to focus more strongly on working with up-and-coming talent?

Think outside the box and dare to invest in diverse talent that may not yet have a wide reach. This won’t just help you to find new, motivated faces for your campaign – it’ll allow you to tap into completely new communities and benefit from the combined reach of multiple creators rather than just one. By collaborating with aspiring female creators, you’ll also be setting an important example for more diversity in games and for female empowerment. We’re thrilled about the successful implementation of the Girls Crew talent development programme over the last two-plus years. It’s become an integral part of our everyday life. And we’re excited to be working with a lot of companies who now directly reference the Girls Crew creators in their inquiries. By promoting female talent at an early stage, companies don’t just signal a visible and tangible commitment to diversity and female empowerment – they also profit from the early brand loyalty of the creators and their communities. When a brand has an early association with a channel or a creator, it benefits from extremely high identification potential and enjoys tremendous trust over time. And it even gains a special ‘coolness’ factor – because, after all, it was the brand that believed in this talent right from the start!