Coinciding with the release of its brand new game titled ‘The Flinstones’, Blueprint Gaming reveals all about its strategy of leveraging household brands to produce engaging slot titles. Talking exclusively to CasinoBeats, Lauren Bradley, Head of Commercial at Blueprint Gaming explains why the supplier’s licensed content is a “labour of love” and outlines why those titles are so popular among players.
CasinoBeats: Why do you think that licensed or branded igaming titles are so popular with players across global markets?
Lauren Bradley: Brands resonate with all audiences and brand recognition influences all types of consumers. This is equally evident within gaming. When we develop a new branded slot we always consider the target audience and the market dynamics. Our latest release, The Flintstones, as a ‘60s cartoon invokes familiarity and nostalgia amongst the target audience of that time.
We work with partners worldwide licencing IPs for different territories and the recognition of whichever brand we choose is a key part of the selection process. The other thing to consider is we always give due consideration to our company culture by selecting brand partners who are aligned with Blueprint’s identity.
We look to work with brands that have a fun and niche appeal such as, such as ted™, The Goonies™ and Rick and Morty™, we combine those brands with engaging features and mechanics that we think will make the most of that IP.
CB: What makes Blueprint Gaming so adept at leveraging branded and licensed content to create igaming titles?
LB: We genuinely love the brands that we work with. The game creation in every individual game is a labour of love and you see that in the output of the games we develop.
The longevity of the relationships we enjoy with IP owners is underpinned by our talent in matching their brand to the right game mechanics – it would never be enough to simply take an existing game and attach a brand on top of it, hoping that will work – our success is built on strategically developing games using our decades of industry experience.
We love the challenge of taking a brand and applying suitable mechanics. It’s important to consider what that brand represents before we can turn it into a game. We’ve historically done that extremely well and it has been a contributor to why branded games have been so successful for Blueprint.
CB: What types of branded content work best in your experience? What types of brands and licences do you look for when generating ideas for new games?
LB: We have been working with brands for a long time and we find the most successful brands are those which have a strong narrative we can build into the games. These games tend to have characters, settings and adventures that are already hugely popular and can draw upon existing themes, soundtracks and speech clips. It’s that which then gives us so much to get our teeth into in the development stage.
Game show titles also provide great entertainment and engagement for our customers. The Deal or No Deal™ games are a great example of a game that has been successful in this space. Having a brand that is already a game in itself is a great starting point. It allows us to play with the game format, take it into a new dimension and create a new variant for it. We are part of the entertainment industry, so we try to select brands that exhibit those qualities.
CB: Blueprint Gaming has just launched a new title based around The Flintstones™ licence. Tell our readers about this game and what makes the brand so special.
LB: The Flintstones™ is built on a proven mechanic gaining huge traction in multiple markets and the international recognition of the brand from the initial game launch has been exciting. We have seen players enjoying the journey of unlocking modifiers in the base game along with an additional free spins round and we have brought that and more to this game. For the first time, Blueprint has introduced a Super Free Spins round in The Flintstones™, which requires players to complete the trail in the base game to unlock. We believe the new modifiers and Super Free Spins round will strongly resonate with players who are enjoying playing our cash-collect games.
We’ve woven that into the classic, loved theme that has been so popular for decades globally and the result is a game that really pops with colour and fun.
CB: Obtaining licences can often be a costly endeavour so how do you ensure that a game based on a brand can deliver a healthy ROI?
LB: This comes from experience. There is a risk-reward to every decision in the slot-building game, and sometimes we need to decline popular brands which we don’t believe will translate into a successful game.
It’s key to make sure that we give the brand the best possible chance with the best game style and features. That’s how we’ve approached all of our previous games and they have been largely successful!
We take what we know players love in previous games and we adapt and modify them bringing in new elements like Super Free Spins round in The Flintstones™ whilst integrating that with IP branding, colours, animations, sounds and characters.
CB: What have been some of Blueprint Gaming’s most popular branded titles and how have you managed to achieve success with those games?
LB: When you have a brand that works, it opens itself up to making many more iterations to suit all types of player demographics. This allows us to curate a game family where we can make the most of its enduring charms and popularity. We’re fortunate enough to be able to build upon successful brands like this, adapting branded games with alternative mechanics such as Megaways and Jackpot King.
Prime examples of this are The Goonies™, ted™, and Deal or No Deal™ – games that continue to prove their quality and depth. We have another Rick and Morty™ title due out in Q3 too – Rick and Morty™ Strike Back which we’ll talk more about as the launch approaches, but they are such rich themes with an incredible amount of lore that we can dig into to ensure that new iterations have the same pull for fans as the originals.
It also allows us to develop branded content into new product launches. We’ll be adapting some of our most successful branded titles for our new Rapid Fire Jackpots system which we’re incredibly excited about.
CB: Where do you see the licensed content space going in the next few years? What types of brands and licences do you see becoming popular?
LB: There’s more opportunity and availability now than there’s ever been before. As media has evolved, and we’ve seen the rise of streaming platforms, consumers have access to much more content and that opens up licensing opportunities too.
More nuanced branded content from the likes of YouTube, for example, is a growing space – look at what some of the Youtubers biggest are doing now with their spin-off businesses and even sporting competitions. There are so many more creators and content you can collaborate with but the core of what works remains very much the same – you have to make sure the partnership suits all parties and in a regulated gaming market it is important to ensure that our brand alliances are relevant and continue to reflect our USP.
Blueprint will continue to sign new brand deals for licensed IP providing we can find the right fit for us and that we can stay true to our core values. We’ve done that again with The Flintstones™ and you’ll see the same attention to detail in our upcoming games throughout the rest of the year.
