From campaigns to trust: what direct-to-consumer really means for marketing

Welcome to The Business of Games Podcast, powered by Xsolla.In this episode, hosts Chris Hewish and Lia Ballentine explore one of the most consequential shifts in modern game marketing: what happens when studios stop renting attention and start owning the relationship.Direct-to-consumer strategies are often framed around economics: margins, platform fees, and monetization control. But the deeper change shows up somewhere else entirely. When studios own player identity, communication, and data, marketing stops being a function optimized for scale and becomes something responsible for trust, relevance, and long-term engagement.To explore that shift, Chris and Lia draw from conversations with two leaders navigating it firsthand: David Pava, Senior Director of Marketing for World of Tanks Modern Armor at Wargaming, who has spent years building direct relationships with millions of players across PlayStation and Xbox, and Mac Marshall, a seasoned marketing and brand leader with experience across some of the industry's most recognized names, including Activision Blizzard and Turtle Beach.Together, they unpack how direct-to-consumer changes the role of marketing from campaign-driven acquisition to audience-first relationship building and explore what it actually takes to make that shift stick.You'll hear how owned channels change the weight of every message a studio sends; why data and segmentation have moved from strategic advantage to operational expectation; how AI accelerates whatever system you already have in place (for better or worse); and why monetization, in a direct relationship model, can no longer be separated from brand and trust.The through-line is simple: in a direct-to-consumer world, marketing isn't just how players find your game. It's how they come to trust it, stay connected to it, and choose to invest in it over time.Let's get into it.For more insights and resources, visit xsolla.com/podcast. Want to join the conversation? Follow and comment on our LinkedIn page at The Business of Games Podcast. That’s where we’ll be sharing updates, highlights, and continuing the discussion. And don’t forget to subscribe, rate, review, and share the podcast with friends who want to learn more about the business of games.