"In 2021, the sales revenue of China's self-developed games in overseas markets reached 18.013 billion US dollars, an increase of 2.563 billion US dollars over 2020, an increase of 16.59% year-on-year; the number of countries and regions involved in going overseas has increased significantly, and the types of products are more diverse." Self-developed games are constantly expanding into emerging markets. This set of data comes from the "2021 China Game Industry Report" released at the china game industry annual meeting not long ago, and this eye-catching report card shows that the trend of Chinese games going to sea has become a reality.
In the process of becoming a "superior student" of China's Internet sea track, Chinese game owners have also touched the reef and made difficulties, especially in the past 2021, the hot events and topics in the game industry and the field of going to sea not only pose challenges to developers, but also require marketers to think deeply: How can we help Chinese game owners achieve overseas breakthroughs more efficiently?
With this question in mind, Moby Dick went out to sea to have a conversation with Xue Yu, vice president of longtu game marketing, and Ashley, national business development director of The Trade Desk. Longtu Games is a powerful game developer and operating publisher in China, and Cuiyi is the world's leading advertising technology company. Under the change of the industry, development and publicity can not only show their strengths, but also organically combine, and use targeted "play" to face the pain points of Chinese games going to sea.
Hot spot one: is the tightening of the version number happy or worried? Positive energy leads to improved quality
From July 22, 2021 to the end of 2021, the number of domestic online game versions issued by the State Press and Publication Administration will still be 0. It should be known that in 2017, the number of Chinese game version numbers issued was 9368 games, and the cumulative number of domestic and imported online game versions issued in 2018 was 2064, behind such an "abrupt end" is the explosive growth of games, and the social responsibilities given by game companies are increasing. Under the "Online Game Positive Energy Leadership Program" to be implemented by the State Press and Publication Administration, temporary rest will help to standardize the game to promote the creation of more excellent original games with good themes, good creativity and high quality.
However, no version number means no legal identity, which is undoubtedly an obstacle for some developers who have tight inventory of version numbers. In this regard, Xue Yu believes that the national regulatory version releases a benign signal, which is a good thing for the development of the game industry. "The version number restriction will push the industry to the direction of 'game quality', and the overall quality of the game will be greatly improved." Developers can have a longer time to precipitate themselves, improve their comprehensive strength, show the highest level with a limited number of places, and create game works that are more in line with the development of the times, which is also the development trend of the industry that the country hopes to see. At the same time, this policy also provides a positive driving force for Chinese games to go global, "because our games are more and more exquisite, and our competitiveness overseas will also increase." ”
Hot Spot 2: Where to find new opportunities to go to sea? Channel content has opportunities
From channels to content, both respondents believe there is "still an opportunity."
China's State Press and Publication Administration plans to implement the "Online Game Positive Energy Leadership Plan" this year, in which we not only see the pace of Chinese games firmly "going out", but also see keywords such as "Chinese characteristics, Chinese spirit, and Chinese story". The post-90s and post-00s have very strong national self-confidence and cultural self-confidence, so from the perspective of cultural output, Xue Yu believes that games can become a member of the vanguard of cultural seas, and there are huge opportunities and room for growth. In his words: "Chinese games have only just begun." ”
CTV big screen marketing
So how can the overseas game brands that are gradually in a good situation do a good job in marketing and get more overseas growth opportunities? Ashley pointed out that the changes in the behavior and habits of overseas consumers under the epidemic are also having an impact on overseas marketing methods. In particular, outdoor travel has decreased, and the time spent watching smart large screens at home has increased significantly. "We recommend that game advertisers should actively integrate smart big-screen channels in their marketing activities, seize consumers' attention on smart big-screens, and provide a stronger growth engine for overseas businesses."
Xue Yu added, "When we do new product publicity in China, in addition to mainstream platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou, we also consider channels such as Zhihu and Douban, which are relatively niche but have a relatively good user conversion effect. Analogy to overseas markets, especially in the slightly niche markets such as Brazil and Mexico, we need to find local Zhihu and Douban, know which channels can help products quickly localize, and combine game publicity with local culture, user preferences, etc., to promote the conversion effect. "In terms of content, taking European and American countries as an example, local users attach great importance to social responsibility, so game developers can promote positive energy content related to corporate and social responsibility through some mainstream news media, actively connect with vulnerable groups in society, and feed back to society. Products that can eat a whole cake horizontally do not exist. Xue Yu said.
Hot spot three: difficult to buy, high cost? To break the circle, it is even more necessary to cooperate with each other
With the more mature advertising platform system and algorithm, the difficulty of buying volume is no longer at the operational level, but mainly lies in the accuracy of "quantity". Although the epidemic has made more and more people choose games as a way of entertainment, "buff" such as longer consumption time and enhanced use of users may not necessarily be equivalent to effective reach. Under the epidemic, it is difficult for game developers and publicity personnel to personally go to the target market, and Xue Yu believes that this will lead to developers lacking "body feeling" in the market, and it is difficult to deeply analyze and digest the data in the publicity stage, thus bringing some uncertainty to the development of a truly effective distribution strategy.
Ashley suggested that developers can first find some new data indicators horizontally, such as evaluating from the CPI, ROAS, ROI and other levels, and have overall expectations and control over the results of the purchase. The second is the strategic level, according to the customs and customs of different countries and regions, consumer needs and other differences, to determine where the appeal point of a product to meet is. More importantly, game manufacturers should have a sense of "breaking the circle" in the marketing process, for example, when promoting a strategy game, in addition to showing its core SLG gameplay, Cuiyi will recommend mining other hobbies of such gamers to see if there is a high degree of overlap between groups.
Cui Yi once combined an SLG game marketing campaign with the American Collegiate Basketball League, and achieved good results. Ashley said that similar games with male users as the main audience can also ask sports stars to do cross-border cooperation when promoting, and similarly, women-oriented games can also consider idols that female users like to do cross-border cooperation.
When it comes to "high costs," Ashley argues that marketing budgets may not be enough no matter how much, and gamers and marketers should consider how to do a good marketing funnel when budgets are limited. Here, she particularly emphasized the idea of "synergy between product and effect", so that brand building and marketing effects go hand in hand. For example, a game can do content-oriented publicity through social media, smart big screens and other channels in the early stage of going global, allowing users to "plant grass" on the brand first, establish a good brand impression, and lay the foundation for subsequent advertising campaigns to achieve business growth more efficiently.
Hot spot four: understand the portrait of overseas players, strategic layout segmentation marketing
Although the epidemic has limited developers' experience on the front line of the market, they have never slackened in understanding user preferences. In the dialogue, Xue Yu also shared the user characteristics of several key markets.
Source: ESA: Video Game Industry Report 2021
The first is the U.S. market, where there are already nearly 227 million video gamers in the U.S., according to the 2021 Game Industry Profile released by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), including many "hardcore" users who prefer strategy games. Xue Yu said that the preferences of the American player group are polarized, they favor SLG games at the same time as the casual game, two different styles of game categories have a market in the United States, that is, to do a good job of segmentation marketing.
According to a latest survey of U.S. gamers, players prefer different types of games on different devices, such as action/adventure games are the most popular among game console gamers, while strategy games are more popular with mobile and tablet users; for new games, 70% of respondents said they would prefer to try games that they have heard of but have not actually played. In addition to games, watching TV and reading are the two most popular preferences of American game users surveyed, which also provides direction and ideas for segmented marketing.
In the Japanese market, where the game industry is also developed, compared to the PvP model, users prefer games that can be played with peace of mind, and the willingness to pay is higher; and in Southeast Asia, due to the user's mobile phone configuration is generally low, it is difficult to promote those mobile games with higher performance requirements, so if the developer is targeting Southeast Asia, Xue Yu recommends trying small package cards and board games. Only by understanding these market characteristics can we carry out targeted delivery and marketing.
Hotspot five: The game life cycle is shortened, ip is the "panacea"?
At present, the shortening of the game life cycle, the gradual decline in player stickiness have brought greater pressure to research and development, marketing, a careless, a well-built work will become a loss-making transaction, the reason, the guest believes that it is seriously related to the homogenization of the current game industry, and the "IP medicine" that is hyped by the industry is actually a double-edged sword, not a panacea.
On the one hand, IP will naturally attract the first loyal users, but after attracting a large number of users, whether the product can take over this IP is another problem. At present, many game manufacturers are subject to the overall research and development strength, the restoration of IP will deviate, and this deviation will affect the user's expectations of IP, but may lead to the shortening of a product life cycle, or even disappear in the market within one or two months. On the other hand, many IP parties have super high or even harsh requirements for game cooperation, such as some Japanese IP parties have too strong awareness of the protection of their own IP, resulting in manufacturers facing huge resistance when productizing and gamifying IP, and R&D parties and publishers will also face problems such as cost, efficiency, and revenue.
However, with the increase of Chinese cultural self-confidence and output, more game developers have tried to create their own IP than with foreign IP, integrate culture into the game system, and strengthen their own IP attributes. At a specific level, the production of IP content can be divided into two parts: in-game and out-of-game. Inside the game, developers can constantly introduce new characters and new plots, and launch sequels after the IP has developed to a certain scale; outside the game, they can also enhance the stickiness between players and the game IP by launching fan stories and peripheral goods. Xue Yu believes that if a product wants to do more long- to do things to the brand, not only let players like the game, but also love the brand outside the game, and the distinctive cultural attributes can help enhance this "love" and enhance the stickiness of overseas players.
Ashley also mentioned that in the past, when developers made a game, they would consider whether to make a theme song for the game, but now they should think about doing several songs, because the theme song of the game is a way to show IP attributes outside the gameplay to attract users.
Plants vs. Zombies game peripherals
Hotspot 6: Metacosmity - Games empower innovation in traditional industries
Xue Yu said that the meta-universe is analyzed and analyzed, and games are the closest industry to this concept. "The metaverse is actually divided into two layers, the first layer is how to create a virtual world, and basically all games meet this definition. The second layer is how to develop a general rule within the game world, which is actually what we think of as the open world in the game. Many game manufacturers have created a very beautiful open world, which has laid a good foundation for the development of the meta-universe. At present, the basic practices of the game industry are already empowering innovation for traditional industries such as FMCG, durable goods, and automobiles, such as the virtual beauty blogger "Liu Yexi", who came out of Douyin, has only released 5 videos and has gained nearly 8.37 million fans.
In addition, Huaxizi, Watsons and other brands have launched their own avatars, using such a virtual image as an endorsement may become a new idea of brand marketing in the future, after all, there is an unpredictable risk of "collapsing houses" by asking live stars to be spokespersons.
Combining avatars with traditional industries can also make brands more interesting and younger, and they can also create a closer connection with users in operation, which can not only empower traditional industries, but also help the game industry to practice social responsibility. Ashley also looks forward to the future through the connection within the metaverse, with the purpose of using avatars to experience various cultures and understand the market.