Game marketing is getting more and more involved, and the linkage of celebrities, intangible cultural heritage and restaurants, etc., seems to be just a routine operation now, but there are also some games that have stepped out of their own marketing differentiation track, and proved with events and data that players and people outside the circle are also willing to pay for it.
On April 2, the mobile game "Ark of Tomorrow" under Eagle Horn officially released the activity information of the 2024 Synesthesia of Music and Rhythm - No Waves, and announced the announcement of the event of a music-themed performance in Shanghai during the May Day period.
Tickets are sold on the Damai app, with tickets ranging from 480 yuan to 1,480 yuan, and once the tickets are pre-sold, it is estimated that nearly 30,000 tickets for different dates and performances will be sold out almost instantly.
Eagle Point holds a "Synesthesia" music performance with different themes in early May every year, and has been held for four times from 2021 to the upcoming "Synesthesia in May this year".
A music performance held by a game company has made people who like games, music, and "double kitchens" fall into a frenzy, and every performance in Shanghai is sold out immediately after the ticket is sold, and the performance site is almost full of seats, and the praise is rave reviews.
However, as far as the official public disclosure is concerned, in terms of the sales amount of tickets for the previous sessions of "Synesthesia", each session of the performance is basically in a situation where it is beyond its means, not to mention that the stage investment cost of each session of the performance is constantly increasing.
"Ark of Tomorrow" is obviously a two-dimensional tower defense strategy mobile game, why is Eagle Horn keen to hold concerts for this game? What kind of marketing know-how and secrets are behind this seemingly "unprofessional" means?
"What kind of company is Eagle Point?" "First of all, exclude game companies. ”
The importance of offline events to game brand marketing and community building is self-evident, and most game companies usually only stay offline to participate in comic book booths and various events. "Tomorrow's Ark" has taken a different path by holding concerts.
In May 2019, the strategy independently developed by Eagle Horn Network opened the public beta for the real-time strategy tower defense game "Ark of Tomorrow". At that time, the mobile game market was very hot, "Glory of Kings" and "Onmyoji" were gaining momentum, and there were also a number of mobile games on the market such as "Blue Route" and "Girls' Frontline".
When Eagle Point Network was working on "Ark of Tomorrow", it also created the music brand "Siren Records-MSR", which included various character EPs, event EPs, theme songs and other music, and has included 184 albums and 552 singles since the game was launched.
Siren Records is a music marketing concept attached to "Ark of Tomorrow", and it is also the first domestic mobile game to systematically produce and include mini albums and EPs in the game.
Compared with well-known concerts such as "Genshin Impact" and "Honor of Kings", which are more inclined to live music performances by the public, "Synesthesia of Music" is more of a "small circle performance assembly" for the player group.
Take the performance of "Synesthesia of Music and Rhythm - Secret Letter of the Foolish Night" in 2023 as an example. The opening music is the theme music of "The Fool", which was composed against the background of the popular limited-time event of the same name in the game, "The Fool", accompanied by the large-scale "Fool" ship set props on the stage to sail in the lighthouse and the stormy waves, the strong visual and auditory experience drives the emotions of the audience, and the audience can't help but sing in chorus.
The four consecutive sessions of the synesthesia performance, with the participation of multiple music festival organizations such as the Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra, Jin Haiyin ® Symphony Orchestra, and the Band of the Dead and singers and musicians, the emotional appeal brought by Eagle Corner's excellent ACG stage performance and professional and wonderful music performances have harvested the hearts of a large number of people who love two-dimensional culture and music, and its 2023 "Synesthesia of Music and Rhythm - Secret Letter of the Foolish Night" performance won the 2023 Hollywood "Best Visual Media Live Concert" award.
Eagle Horn off the beaten path
In China, in addition to "Ark of Tomorrow", mobile games such as "Genshin Impact" and "Honor of Kings" are also studying marketing concerts and other activities.
Most of the album recordings of "Genshin Impact" are recorded live by large symphony orchestras, and offline symphony concerts and other music performances will be held from time to time.
"Glory of Kings" is the concert of "game IP" to the public. As early as 2017, at the opening ceremony of the KPL ("Honor of Kings" e-sports project) finals, a game music performance by the symphony orchestra was arranged.
"Honor of Kings" also tends to explore traditional cultural fields such as Chinese music. In May 2020, "Honor of Kings" collaborated with renowned composer Tan Dun to create a game-themed symphony, restoring the five lost musical instruments in the Dunhuang murals, and allowing players and audiences to also get in touch with and experience the traditional charm of Chinese music.
But "Tomorrow's Ark" has gone out of its own music marketing path.
The repertoire arrangement of each session of "Synesthesia", each of which is almost familiar to players in their daily play, and this design also makes "Synesthesia Music" closer to players than other game music performances, and can gain a deeper sense of identity from players.
The wonderful Live2D and laser performances at the performance site, coupled with the musical appeal brought by the Dolby sound around the venue, the audience seems to be able to really see the image of the two-dimensional characters playing music on the screen breaking the dimensional wall and being vividly displayed in front of them.
Rather than saying that the purpose of "synesthesia of music and rhythm" is to attract traffic and audiences outside the circle, it is better to say that it is purely pleasing existing gamers, and its large number of IP content output, the IP publicity value it provides, is far lower than the emotional value it simply provides to players, which is why it can be the only one in the domestic game concert.
As far as the performance is concerned, the audience is not so much to see the performance, but more like they are gathered purely for the purpose of communication and games. Before and after the performance, as well as during the intermission, players could be seen gathering everywhere in the venue, discussing the game content and plot with each other, or directly starting to draw the card to "Ouqi".
Ark of Tomorrow players who are willing to pay
You know, if you succeed in a game of a certain scale, you will basically have a community, that is, users in various online communities and social media. In addition to attracting new players, the most significant role of game companies in various marketing methods is to provide a common hot topic and social vitality for their player community.
(Eagle Corner's player forum, Morikorjima)
Game manufacturers are actively breaking the circle, and audiences with different preferences are attracted and accommodated into the same community, and the community is growing stronger. The various marketing methods of manufacturers that have successfully broken the dimensional wall have also continuously strengthened the stickiness and consumption desire of players in the community.
And unlike music performances such as "Genshin Impact" and "Honor of Kings", "Ark of Tomorrow" goes to an extreme, "Synesthesia of Music and Rhythm" is more like a pure "player's carnival" than a musical performance that is appreciated by both the elegant and the vulgar, and its performance is also more like a magnifying glass of the IP of "Ark of Tomorrow", which contains most of the output of IP content.
Compared with the drainage and circle-breaking effects of music marketing in the conventional game industry, this kind of music performance with a large number of output game IP content has a more significant effect of providing a platform for gamers with social needs and adding a high degree of vitality to the game community.
For example, in May 21, a drunk "Ark of Tomorrow" player published a series of "drunk truth", linked to the news of Japan's nuclear sewage at that time, he expressed his concern about the characters living in the sea in the game, and consumed passionately, recharging and spending nearly 3,000 yuan in the game. As soon as the video was released, it rushed to the top of the B station list, with more than 30 million views.
("Two Bread Sandwich Cheese" classic chant)
We can also get a glimpse of the leopard from this incident, and see the high cohesion and activity of the community of "Ark of Tomorrow" players, as well as its strong willingness to consume.
(Around May 1, 2023 is the performance period of "Tomorrow's Ark" "Synesthesia", and it will be held at the same time as the anniversary event.
Wonderful live performances, the transmission of music culture, and excellent user emotional experience...... For a variety of reasons, the "Synesthesia of Rhythm" performance has become an excellent marketing case in the industry.
Users in the game industry have a very high willingness to pay, and through offline music performances and other channels, they provide users with an entrance to emotional consumption, and at the same time, the "broken window" effect of game manufacturers having the courage to break the circle of music performances makes the entire player community more united and stable. This is undoubtedly a positive cycle that all game companies are looking forward to.
Compared with foreign countries, the music marketing of domestic games is still in its early stage, and there is still huge potential and mining value. And "Ark of Tomorrow" is on this basis, out of the path that peers have never imagined, with its purity and sincerity, firmly locked the hearts of players.
At the commercial level, the behavior of "synesthesia in music and rhythm" is undoubtedly at the bottom, but the marketing model of such game companies and gamers to entertain themselves is also constantly demonstrating its potential long-term resilience.