The Methodology of Advertising Niche Games? Advertising Analysis of Interactive Otome Games
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At present, the market of otome games has become one of the hottest fields that cannot be ignored in gaming industry. In recent years, publishers in mounting numbers have entered the otome games to share a piece of pie of that potential market. The benefits of the field have also witnessed on-going spurts as the market potential continues to be tapped.
In the huge otome gaming market, there is one type of game that rely little on operating skills and gameplay strategies. The target group is relatively small, but the hit product, only by content output, can harvest tens of millions of users and high turnover. And that is interactive otome games.
Based on the mobile advertising intelligence tracked for last 30 days, App Growing Global released “The Methodology of Advertising Niche Games? Advertising Analysis of Interactive Otome Games”. The statistical area covers 42 countries/regions and the data covers 19 global mobile advertising platforms.
01
Overall Advertising Trends
According to the advertising ranking for last year, we can tell that most of these games are advertising in Europe and America. The United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Germany are major markets.
maybe: Interactive Stories, the №1. player on the list, has more than several times of advertising sets than the second place. This game seems to be different from other games in the choice of advertising area. However, if you take a closer look, the main area is still in Asian countries where English is mainly spoken. Considering that its publisher Cinamon Games is from South Korean, the difference in advertising strategy is easy to comprehend.
At the same time, there are three games under Chinese developers on the list: Moments: Choose Your Story from Koram Games, Chapters: Interactive Stories from Crazy Maple Studio of COL Group, and Romance Fate : Stories and Choices from HIGGS.
02
Advertising Strategy
2.1 Moments: Choose Your Story
IOS and Android versions of Moments: Choose Your Story were launched in April and May 2018 separately. The latest version was updated on May 8 on Google Play and May 14 on iOS.
According to data from App Growing Global, the advertising trends of both ends of Moments: Choose Your Story are basically the same. The peak advertising period occurs in August to December last year. The highest single-day advertising volume exceeded 1.4k sets, and then it begins to slow down and gradually declines to a lower level. But in April and late May this year, there are two small increases in advertising. On the whole, the fluctuation of the advertising level changes with the pace of the version update.
On the other hand, Moments: Choose Your Story has maintained average daily new advertisements within 80 sets for the most of the time. The daily output of new creative, however, is pale in comparison with its advertisement number.
The main advertising channels of Moments: Choose Your Story are Facebook’s major platforms. The advertising format is mainly In- Feed advertising, and the creatives are more shown as videos.
This set of “big platform + In-Feed video advertising” mode is a typical strategy aiming at quality users in Europe and America, and it also caters to the game’s high dependence on in-app purchasing. Users from these platforms have a strong purchasing power and willingness, and are more likely to pay for stories of quality.
2.2 Chapters: Interactive Stories
Chapters: Interactive Stories was released in 2017 by Crazy Maple Studio of COL Group. After its publishment, it performed very well in overseas markets and once became the top 3 interactive story game in the United States. The game also showed a great potential in money-magneting.
Since July last year, a frequent advertising performance has been seen in Chapters: Interactive Stories, but the average daily advertising volume stayed low. For most of the time, the advertising level of Google Play version is around 200 sets/day, while that of iOS version is relatively lower, fluctuating around 150 sets/day.
The advertising strategy of Chapters: Interactive Stories is similar to that of Moments: Choose Your Story. Both take Facebook’s platforms as the main channels and focus on In-Feed video advertisements.
However, comparing the creative format, we can find that the proportion of images and web creatives in Chapters: Interactive Stories is higher.
It is easy to tell that due to the high overlap of target users, the strategies of such games, in terms of advertising channels and creative types, tend to be homogeneous. As a result, creative content is of more and more importance.
03
Analysis of Top-advertising Gaming Creatives
Without common gaming features such as strategy, battle, and competition, interactive mobile games rely more on high-quality story to attract and retain users. Therefore, most of the advertisements for such games tend to show their wonderful storylines.
In addition, otome game players are demanding for character personality, role interaction, and emotional immersion. Therefore, advertising creatives designed for character display are also widely used.
3.1 maybe: Interactive Stories
As mentioned above, maybe: Interactive Stories is an interactive otome game that focuses on the Asian regions. Its publisher Cinamon Games is from South Korea, so the advertisement has distinct Japanese and Korean characteristics. Not only is the character style of the game inclined to a soft and aesthetic style, but the ads presented more love-related content.
Creative 1:
Creative 2:
Creative 3:
3.2 Episode-Choose Your Story
Episode-Choose Your Story was released at the end of December 2013. It was a very niche game at that time. Through the constant operation and development, it entered the Top 20 iOS App on Revenue in the United States in November 2015, and gradually gained public popularity and acceptance. To this date, it is still a well-known interactive otome game.
Episode-Choose Your Story focuses on the European, American and Australian markets. In order to cater for the local culture, the advertisement is more shown in a European and American style. Its content is more realistic, and the character display is more exaggerated. Apart from romance, there are also many life stories in the ads. In addition, it cooperates with KOL to film reaction creatives to further enhance the promotion and interactivity.
Creative 1:
Creative 2:
Creative 3:
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*The above-related advertising creatives are sourced from App Growing Global, which are only used for research and analysis. All Rights Reserved.
