Mobile games have been a hit for a long time, but why do some stand out from the rest? Advertising, creation of creative ideas, but also some challenges in the world of mobile games were discussed at the panel “Mobile gaming advertising – Is data killing creativity?”, moderated by Sanja Lalević, head of global META education, HTTPOOL. Marketing experts from the mobile game industry, Andrej Kugonič, marketing director at NORDEUS; and Ramiz Trtovac, head of user acquisition at Two Desperados; as well as Petar Jevtić, META regional client partner, took part in the panel.
Gaming companies are special in that their marketing takes place in a completely different way from the standard. What is particularly interesting is that this innovative approach can be equally applied to other industries. Namely, gaming companies use a large amount of data to create different variations of creative solutions in order to gain a better position on the market and encourage greater user conversion.
“In the gaming industry, there are two key elements of marketing – the creative part and data. Last year we had 400 different creative ideas that we tested and only a small percentage, between 1-5%, of them were successful. Additionally, the principle for those 400 creative solutions is such that 80% of them make minimal changes to already winning solutions in order to add a little freshness to something that’s already excellent. The remaining 20% refers to completely new ideas and visuals, but they are also quite risky,” Andrej Kugovtić pointed out.
In other words, creating a creative solution is a complex process and sometimes the success and popularity of the game depends on the details. That is why so many different solutions and variations are made.
“One variation would be if, for example, one ball has some colourful lines and text, and the other does not. A lot of details are changed in that variation in order to make a perfect creative solution,” Ramiz Trtovac.
The aspect that will further boost success, in addition to the popularity of the mobile game, is the image of the company itself. However, in the gaming industry, company branding is only just beginning.
“At Nordeus, we’ve begun investing a lot of attention in building our brand because it can also result in better business. That’s why we chose José Mourinho to become our brand ambassador and we made some fun videos with him to attract the attention of our users. Also, we try to be more innovative, more creative, and with this very concept we want to gain positive reactions, PR, etc. This has helped us to maintain the lead position in the region,” said Andrej Kugovtić.
“Our biggest focus was on performance, but we are slowly turning to activities that will help us build an image. We are currently in the process of defining how we will brand ourselves – through games or through the company. Regardless of which path we choose, the conclusion is the same – it is very important to work on branding,” added Ramiz Trtovac.
Marketing in the gaming industry is subject to many challenges such as the large amount of data and details, depending on different metrics such as the number of downloads per thousand users or in-game purchases. Nevertheless, creativity is crucial. Therefore, the panel concluded that this large amount of data does not kill creativity, but that, with a good knowledge of the industry, trends and your own users, it is necessary to use it in the right way in order to create the best solution that will encourage conversion, improve the company brand and thus create a sustainable business in the gaming industry.
