Being authentic often requires breaking the rules. For Disobey, a self-described “no-bullsh*t games marketing agency,” that’s just everyday business. Since its founding in 2019, the UK-based agency has earned a reputation for redefining authentic marketing, which emphasizes transparency and honesty, building trust with clients and consumers, and aligning a brand’s values with its actions.

“At Disobey, we believe in the power of authenticity, openness, & real connections. Whether it’s between the audience and brand, game, or publisher, creating those genuine relationships is key. That’s why we founded Disobey—to revolutionise how brands interact on social, making sure every fan feels seen and appreciated, turning them into engaged superfans.”, said Katja Schreiber, CEO at Disobey. “We steer clear of the bland, corporate approach. Instead, we focus on relatable, emotive content that speaks the language of the community, building trust through meaningful interactions. We take pride in setting higher standards in our industry & creating work that makes us & our clients proud.”

An X post from Disobey celebrating Pride Month in 2024

While Disobey has an ongoing “mission to shake up the gaming industry for the better,” they also need to show clients that its bold and unconventional approaches are indeed delivering quantifiable results. For this, Disobey relies on tools in the Sprout Social platform, which it uses to track social media content performance and manage communities effectively while monitoring competitors and conversations, and staying on top of trends.

Social moves fast, but we move even faster. We’re huge fans of Sprout’s Social Listening tool, and with it, we’re on top of the gaming industry 24/7. We’ve set up a variety of Listening topics to track gaming accounts—monitoring what they’re posting, how they’re reacting to trends and what conversations are sparking excitement. We also use this to track discussions around competing games and anything else we need to stay informed on. This way, we always stay ahead of the curve and know exactly what resonates with players at all times.
Kat Schrieber
CEO

Tracking and demonstrating the ROI of social media with Sprout’s Reporting

Disobey partners with some of the world’s biggest game publishers, developers and brands—including Square Enix, Humble Bundle and NVIDIA — to deliver impactful influencer campaigns and scroll-stopping social content that drives engagement and results. From open-world adventures and RPGs to sims and puzzles, Disobey crafts strategies that elevate brand presence, captivate audiences and fuel community growth.

Core to Disobey’s social media management services is the agency’s focus on blending paid social with organic content to help its clients foster online communities while building brand awareness to ensure their games get seen.

“We’ve championed the power of organic social since day one. At Disobey, we believe strong organic content is key to captivating players, driving them back into the game and reaching new audiences. We create superfans through strong community management and that’s another reason why we love Sprout—it helps us keep a pulse on our communities, fostering deep connections and turning casual scrollers into dedicated fans.” said Schreiber.

To date, the agency has created well over 10,000 social media posts and has sent nearly 100,000 messages through Sprout Social to engage the various communities they manage at scale. Disobey’s collaborations with over 2,000 influencers have generated more than 100 million impressions. And on social media overall, the agency’s work for its gaming clients has generated over 400 million organic impressions.

A TikTok post from Humble Games promoting Billie Bust Up

Although Disobey consistently delivers strong results, some gaming brands may struggle to recognize the immediate value of organic social media and community-building efforts, as ROI can be more challenging to measure on a day-to-day basis.

“We’re always refining our approach to help clients fully understand the unique advantages of social media and why it matters,” said Schreiber. “Many recognise the value, but it can sometimes be challenging to directly tie organic efforts to immediate financial metrics like sales. That’s where paid media makes it much clearer. On organic, our focus is on showing how long-term community and brand building creates sustainable growth, brand loyalty and deeper connections that ultimately drive results”.

When it comes to demonstrating ROI, Disobey benefits from the wealth of tools, like Reporting, that Sprout Social offers, which help the social team track and illustrate how and why their social media efforts are meeting clients’ goals. “Having solid data to back up your work and clearly show clients the impact you’re making is absolutely essential,” said Rachel Drever, Marketing Executive. “It helps that Sprout also presents the data in an easy, digestible way.”

Sprout’s reporting tools are incredibly powerful. I’m constantly diving into the data to see what’s working and what’s not, allowing us to tweak and optimise our content and community management strategies quickly. It’s all about staying agile and responsive to what the audience needs.
Rachel Drever
Marketing Executive

Focusing on accessibility and inclusiveness in community-building—with help from Sprout

Accessibility and inclusiveness are key to community-building success and thus are a significant focus for the social team at Disobey. “At Disobey, we’re leading the charge in building kind, inclusive communities that are accessible by default. This approach broadens our clients’ audience by reaching often-overlooked markets and reinforces their commitment to inclusivity for all community members. Accessible, inclusive content is at the heart of building strong connections with our communities,” said Drever. “This is a key focus for us, and our team values Sprout’s accessibility features, which help us ensure our content is inclusive for everyone. We consistently stay up to date with new tools and standardise these features across our work to guarantee accessibility.“

A sample Disobey X post in the Sprout platform, with its associated alt text

Schreiber and Drever agree that the social team at Disobey could not manage the thriving communities they build for gaming clients as efficiently as they do today without Sprout.

“As an agency managing many different clients across all major social media platforms and sending thousands of community messages every month, we heavily rely on Sprout Social to streamline our operations. It saves us time and enables us to consistently deliver the results our clients expect—all in one hub! Approvals are seamless, feedback is easy and the range of tools like Reporting and the Smart Inbox is a godsend. We absolutely love it,” said Drever.

“Without Sprout to efficiently filter inbound messages, we couldn’t support our communities day-to-day in the way we do. The Smart Inbox, Tagging and reporting tools are crucial to how we operate. Thanks to Sprout, we can build engaged communities, learn from our content and ultimately meet our clients’ goals more effectively.”

Sprout’s tagging capabilities are fantastic. This is not something you can do natively on platforms. So having that feature, whether it’s in the Smart Inbox or when publishing—like tagging before a post goes live or using the automated rules to help filter through the noise—is incredible. It really helps with reporting and I love it.
Rachel Drever
Marketing Executive

To find out how Sprout Social can support your agency’s efforts to help clients build engaged online communities and achieve social media ROI, request your free demo today.