The two-dimensional war chess, in December, suddenly formed a trend of "three divisions" - Xinding VS Zilong VS scattered explosion, we have analyzed the first two games before.
Yesterday, the last two-dimensional mobile game of this year, "Girls' Frontline 2: Chasing and Release" was officially launched. The game was controversial in previous tests, ranking 2nd on the iOS free list and 28th on the best-selling list on the day of launch.
As an "old two-dimensional" manufacturer, what kind of actions did Scatterblast have for the promotion and release of "Girls Frontline 2: Chasing Release"? What kind of marketing ideas did it show behind it?
Today, DataEye Research Institute will talk about this product.
1. Market performance
【Facts & Figures】
On August 13, the official announcement reached 4 million reservations, and as of the afternoon of December 20, more than 4.75 million people had made reservations.
On December 21, after the game was launched, it ranked 2nd on the iOS free list (the first place was "Yuan Dream Star"), and the game reached 28th on the best-selling list on the best-selling list. For reference, "Sword of the Lily of the Valley" ranked 12th on the best-selling list on the first day, and "Ganglan" ranked 52nd.
【DataEye Research Institute Viewpoint】
Judging from the data performance on the first day of launch, "Girls' Frontline 2: Chasing Release" performed well in the market as an IP sequel product.
The second place on the iOS free list, DataEye Research Institute speculated that there are two reasons: there were many controversial points during the test of "Girls' Frontline 2: Pursuit", and there is an "Girls' Frontline" IP, players will play with a "melon-eating" and "curious" mentality.
However, the performance of the best-selling list is decent, and the previous "controversial incident" has caused damage to the brand reputation, and players will have worries and concerns about recharging, and will feel that "it may not be worth charging, it is better to charge other second games, or "Shaoqian 1". In addition, the second dimension is not the type of first-day rush, so you need to slowly experience the content and slowly fall in love with the characters. Therefore, the performance of the best-selling list is expected to have room for improvement.
However, the current TapTap score of the game is only 5.6 points, and the previous work is as high as 8.4 points, indicating that the two works have diverged in terms of user reputation.
Specifically, judging from player reviews, "Young Front 2":
Excellent: Focusing on art, the modeling and image quality are leading in the industry, the lighting modeling based on the PBR principle is pleasing to the eye, the model is highly refined, and the UI is concise and the function division is clear.
Disadvantages: The cultivation system is too complex, the benefits are few, the difficulty of the main line level and the core resource level is unreasonable, and the plan uses numerical strength to dissuade players;
It is not difficult to see that the project team has invested heavily in art, but it is not too eye-catching in marketing and plot planning, which is inevitably criticized by netizens - the longboard is very long, but the short board...
The launch time is late and does not take advantage. The last "two-dimensional" of this year arrived late at the end of December, and it was postponed. Although the painting style of the three war chess games is different, the online games are all concentrated at the end of the year, and the three "niche categories" will inevitably be diverted to grab a few players. And the previous two games have performed well in the market, and at present, there is a lot of pressure on the follow-up of "Girls Frontline 2: Chasing".
Second, buy volume delivery
【Facts & Figures】
(1) Delivery volume & delivery trend
DataEye-ADX delivery data shows that "Girls' Frontline 2: Pursuit" began to test materials in September this year. At the end of September, before and after the unlimited billing deletion test, the amount of advertising began to increase, with an average of more than 1,000 sets of materials per day, and this stage lasted for about 10 days.
After that, the average daily delivery was maintained at about 100 groups. Until the outbreak of the game's launch, the number of materials for "Girls' Frontline 2: Chasing and Playing" soared significantly, including 6,529 sets of materials on the day before the launch, and more than 8,000 sets of materials on the day of launch (as of 15 p.m.).
(2) Copywriting for purchases
The project team of "Girls' Frontline 2: Chasing and Release" behaved routinely in terms of buying copywriting, mainly showing three ideas:
The first is to emphasize the game setting in "Girls' Frontline" and the game IP through keywords such as "tactical humanoid squad", "commander", and "sequel";
the second is to display "3D", "high quality", "two-dimensional chess", etc., emphasizing the product painting style and gameplay;
The third is the welfare selling point based on game benefits such as "exclusive gifts" and "ten consecutive draws".
(3) TOP50 efficient material creative performance
DataEye Research Institute has sorted out the top 50 high-efficiency materials of "Girls' Frontline 2: Chasing and Playing", and among the creative forms of their delivery materials, "tactical humanoid display" and "game plot interpretation" account for a relatively high proportion, with the two accounting for 60% of the total. "High-quality promotional videos" accounted for 16%, and "high-burning mixed editing" and "game records" accounted for a low proportion, 14% and 10% respectively.
Specifically, the "tactical humanoid display" of the efficient materials of "Girls' Frontline 2: Pursuit" mainly shows the modeling (such as faces) + real textures of costumes of two-dimensional beautiful girls, and focuses on the art rendering style under the combination of PBR+NPR technology.
"High-burn mixed editing" This type of material is mainly displayed in the form of BGM on the editing screen.
【DataEye Research Institute Viewpoint】
From the perspective of the pace of delivery: important nodes have increased delivery, and daily delivery efforts are not large. Before and after the unlimited billing deletion test and before the public beta, the amount of advertising will be increased, and the daily advertising volume will not be large. At present, two two-dimensional war chess products have been launched on the market recently, "Girls Frontline 2" has no first-mover advantage, and "war chess" is already a niche way to play, and it is not easy to convert users from other products.
From the perspective of material creativity: highlight IP and art, and expect to model characters with unique quality to attract people. Material creativity, the "Girls Frontline 2" project team focuses on highlighting the characters with "two-dimensional art style" materials, and intuitively shows the core charm of the characters with animation, including character background, personality characteristics, action Xi, etc. It is speculated that the project team hopes to grab the track through art, and at the same time show the sense of product quality and strengthen the IP of "Girls Frontline".
Overall, the overall focus of the material is on game art, focusing on shaping IP and fierce battles of characters. On the one hand, the material creativity is no longer limited to "welfare", "actual record" and other content, but through the game plot, tactical humanoid display portrays the character of the character, and shows the product quality and style - the conventional way of playing the second game.
But on the other hand, the difference in the creativity of "Girls' Frontline" is not large, and taking modeling to "bring effect with quality" will also cause some problems, if the material is also made more brand, "PV sense", the rhythm is slower, and "see the two-dimensional beautiful girl again" will also cause aesthetic fatigue to players, after all, the so-called art and quality sense are at a higher level, and then improved, the perception of the audience's senses is limited. In contrast, Zilong's "Ganglan" shows mecha equipment, and Xindong's "Sword of the Lily of the Valley" shows pixel style with nostalgic elements, which is obviously differentiated.
3. Social media communication
【Facts & Figures】
DataEye Research Institute observed that "Girls' Frontline 2: Chasing and Playing" does not have many actions on the communication side, mainly around station B, Weibo, Douyin and other platforms for brand promotion, and most of its popularity is brought by events such as "Minotaur Plot", "Qiong Jiu" plot, and "Hard Disk Emptying" in the game test.
In addition, the DataEye Research Institute observed that the project team of "Girls' Frontline 2: Chasing and Release" also opened an account on Douyin, but the content was basic.
(1) Warm-up of daily activities
1. Cooperate with Shanghai Academy of Aerospace Technology to launch cooperative PV.
In May this year, it confirmed the linkage with the Shanghai Academy of Aerospace Technology, and released the first cooperative PV in July, inviting players to "explore the mysteries of the universe" together.
2. Start the second creation collection activity
During July and October, two fan-drawing solicitation activities were opened on Station B and Weibo, and for the original fan-drawing works of the characters that appeared in the fire test and gravity test, the outstanding works can be rewarded in cash + in kind.
3. Offline trial activities
In December, players were recruited in Shanghai for offline trials, and during the event, the main creators of the game also came to the game trial site and exchanged ideas about the optimization content proposed by players.
(2) The CEO responds to the test questions
After the gravity test, in the face of a large number of players' feedback and heated discussions, CEO Yu Zhong directly appeared in person to apologize, and made a commitment to modify, saying that he would optimize and improve the rest room, plot and other aspects with more feedback. On the set day, the interview video of the main creative team will be released, responding to the problems exposed in the previous test one by one.
(3) Douyin effect master
DataEye-ADX talent marketing data shows that "Girls Frontline 2: Chasing Release" has opened Douyin effect-based talent marketing early, and the cooperation is dominated by waist and tail talents, with the tail fans of 0-10w fans accounting for more than 8 percent, and the proportion of mid-waist talents of 10-50w fans is about 1 percent.
It has not entered the "Douyin Game Publisher Program", nor has it launched brand tasks on the topic content (the previous two two-dimensional war chess mobile games "Sword of the Lily of the Valley" and "Ganglan" have related actions), but at present, #Girls' Frontline 2: Chasing Douyin topics has accumulated more than 60 million views.
(4) Public beta preview live broadcasts and Weibo topics
At 19:00 on the evening of December 20th, the project team opened the preview of the public beta live broadcast on multiple platforms such as Station B, Douyin, and Douyu, explaining the details of game optimization, as well as humanoid music radio, humanoid small theater and other content.
In addition, DataEye Research Institute noticed that the project team also put the topic promotion hot search of #Girl's Frontline 2 Chase 1221 Public Beta # and #少前2的美术卷疯了 on Weibo. And cooperated with a small number of cosers to publish imitation makeup content.
【DataEye Research Institute Viewpoint】
On the whole, the performance of the communication side of "Shaoqian 2" is decent, mainly focusing on the production of official content. Disclose the production content of character PV, game world view, character skills, gameplay and other elements, and release it on multiple platforms to highlight the high quality and style of the product. The cuteness and sexiness of the "two-dimensional painting style" and the military violence of "writing a sense of substance" can be contrasted and integrated. Not only in games, but also in advertising/creatives, this combination has been extended.
On the one hand, as a waist two-dimensional enterprise, scatterblast cannot be compared with large manufacturers such as miHoYo and Tencent, and it has not been fully rolled out on the whole network at the communication level, and there are not too many "kitkat lewd skills". More exposure is through its own official media platform. The content is more about quality and detail. It was obvious that I wanted to make a "beautiful" work of art. However, the marketing is more conventional, and there are some negative events in word-of-mouth, and the artwork may be reduced to "small but beautiful".
On the other hand, "Girls' Frontline" has been online for 7 years, and its game IP has also accumulated a wave of fans, and CEO Yu Zhong himself is also one of the very few producers who have popularity and can become the spokesperson of the game brand in the second game circle. These eventually translated into the attention of "Young Front 2".
Recently, "Yuan Meng" was launched, which grabbed a lot of traffic and exposure, and "Girls Frontline 2: Chasing" has modified the launch time, and players need to be informed through large-scale warm-up, but from the perspective of publicity effect, it has not been too wide out of the circle.
Unfortunately, I can be more sincere and don't know how to communicate. The negative events before the game are basically known to players, which is unavoidable. In fact, during the public beta, the producer can respond comprehensively to the live broadcast or do a "most sincere live broadcast in the ACG circle", or give "the most sincere public beta benefits this year", etc., to turn the crisis into an opportunity and reflect sincerity. If you have a stronger ability to grasp public opinion (like NetEase), you can also use these stalks to ridicule yourself, and then establish a persona to actively communicate how to avoid similar situations. But the project team seems to understand the product but not public relations, and understand publicity but not communication. You must know that the Internet has a memory, and if you show sincerity, users will forgive brands and IPs. If the estrangement is not eliminated, it will really separate people's hearts.
Fourth, the sequel of the two-dimensional IP, the results are differentiated?
"Girls' Frontline 2: Chasing and Release" is a typical sequel to the IP of Shanghai Second Game.
If "Honkai Iron" continues "Honkai Impact 3" and is a successful case of both commercial and word-of-mouth harvests, then "Young Men 2" may be commercially expected to continue the success of the previous work, but it may also become a "case of word-of-mouth collapse"?
Next year, Shanghai ACG IP sequels will be launched one after another, as shown below. The sequel to the two-dimensional IP, the results or towards differentiation?
From an industry perspective, the success of the game industry is often "discontinuous", and there is no IP that can guarantee 100% success, only a business model that can improve the success rate. Judging from the previous series of product and content problems in "Shaoqian 2", the internal operation of the enterprise may not have a business model that can replicate the success of the past. The team placed a lot of emphasis on the product art, especially the modeling UI, but the product was not as prominent as its predecessor in other aspects (especially the story), and it was decent in terms of marketing.
From the perspective of the track: First, the success of "Genshin Impact" and "Crashing Iron" has formed two mountains in the two-dimensional/content-oriented game, and there are very few second games that have been run out this year. Even if there is a differentiated subdivision track - war chess, there is also a first-mover advantage of "Ganglan". Second, the traditional two-dimensional, has moved towards the content of the game, no longer limited to beautiful girls, love, college, magic, guns and other elements, "Shaoqian 2" This node is still the art quality of military beautiful girls + volumes, traditional and classic, but slightly lacking breakthroughs and surprises. The future is not an extension of the past.
From the perspective of IP: The IP of "Girls' Frontline" has been an IP for 7 years, and it has been blessed with a classic nostalgic halo, and it should have good potential energy. Huge arithmetic data shows the situation of the Douyin Composite Index since the beginning of this year:
(1) In August, "Girls' Frontline" and "Call of Duty" linked;
(2) In October, during the test of "Girls' Frontline 2", some netizens found that its game uninstaller uninstalled the 300G files stored in the E disk directly with the game files.
As soon as this outrageous news came out, many good netizens participated in the verification of this outrageous rumor. Soon the results came out – it was real, and it was 100% triggered. In a word, it can be summarized as: put it in the D drive to delete the D drive, and put it in the E drive to delete the E drive.
The entire IP was a bit deserted in the first half of this year. The IP of "Girls' Frontline" seems to need to work harder to build IP content and maintain IP popularity. On the contrary, there is a lot of problem with word-of-mouth - the recent incident out of the circle turned out to be such outrageous things as "cleaning up the master" and "cuckolding". This will make old IP fans angry. The discussion of negative events is itself UGC content. Girls' frontline IP urgently needs to re-examine its UGC content ecology.
The content industry has a strong "discontinuity", typically, such as sequels to movies, which are often inferior to their predecessors. In order to maintain the popularity of IP, it is necessary to continuously produce high-quality content, and secondly, it is necessary to break the circle strategically, especially some "non-traditional and unique play" (as mentioned above, sincere communication), word-of-mouth not only comes from art and gameplay, but also "old and professional" also need to beware of working behind closed doors and ignoring the real changes in players and the environment.
The two-dimensional chess track is somewhat "afraid of deep alleys due to the aroma of wine", and word of mouth and style are very important. The harshness of the players of the second game track, even if the long board is long, if there are one or two short boards, it will pull down the brand potential energy.