There is such a game that is as unstoppable as "Sheep", and even more addictive, it is "Catch the Big Goose".
Recently, TOP Jun found a familiar figure in the mini-game "Catching the Big Goose" - Yuanqi Forest.
Catch a goose in the vitality of the forest sparkling water
In recent years, the increasingly popular mini games have brought more opportunities for brand placement, and today we will walk into the world of catching big geese with TOP Jun to see what other possible marketing methods there are for mini games?
What is catching a goose?
Let's take a look at the gameplay of "Catch the Big Goose" first.
"Catching the Big Goose" is similar to "Sheep is a Sheep", both of which belong to the three-dimensional match-3 game in the WeChat mini program. In 2022, "Sheep is a Sheep", which is low to get started and difficult to clear the customs, will become popular, bringing this kind of unstoppable match-3 mini-game to the public eye, and "Catching the Big Goose" has upgraded the gameplay on the basis of "Sheep is a Sheep".
Players can click on three identical items in a specific [Shopping Basket] or [Pot] to eliminate them, and all items will be cleared after they are eliminated. It is worth noting that in catching the goose, players can change the order of stacking items by shaking their mobile phones, thereby increasing the probability of clearing the level, and this kind of gameplay similar to "flipping the pot" also enhances the 3D interactivity of the game.
Players catch big geese and are addicted
Image source: Weibo netizen @森桃沢
In addition, if the player fails to clear the level, he will receive a "provocation" from the goose, which successfully arouses the player's desire to challenge. As a result, this game is widely popular with WeChat users due to gameplay upgrades and emotional stimulation.
The theme of "Catch the Big Goose" is different every day, including scenes such as beauty market, vegetable and fruit market, barbecue stands, supermarkets and antique markets, among which the items that need to be eliminated are also commonly used by people in their daily lives, which gives the opportunity for brand placement.
"Catching the Big Goose" × the vitality forest
Make effective associations in the game
On April 26, Genki Forest cooperated with the official announcement of the Big Goose Catching Mini Game to insert Genki Forest White Peach flavored sparkling water into the "Sunday Barbecue Restaurant" on April 28 and May 4, revealing the product as a part of catching the big goose.
Genki Forest cooperates with catching geese
But this is only part of the cooperation, Yuanqi Forest and Alien Electrolyte Water are also participating in the "Reading China" public library project together with the Catch a Big Goose game.
"All the people catch geese and build a library together" activity
A limited-time event was launched in the game to build a library, and goose friends participated in the game of "catching big geese" and reached the final donation in the form of full server points. After the goose friends of the whole server have achieved the achievement of points, the library will be donated to the children in poor areas by the official and Yuanqi Forest brands.
In-game event page
The cooperation between Genki Forest and "Catching the Big Goose" chose the barbecue stand, which is a game scene that is very suitable for the product. Let the goose friends strengthen the product awareness in the game, form an effective association between barbecue and Yuanqi Forest, and also establish a brand image in public welfare activities, which can be described as killing three birds with one stone.
Old wine in new bottles
A guide to match-3 games
According to the statistics from April 15th to April 21st intercepted by the game teahouse, on the WeChat mini game platform and the Douyin mini game platform, Lanfei Mutual Entertainment's elimination game "Catch the Big Goose" won the top spot for many weeks.
Mini-game rankings
Source: Game Teahouse
Founded in 2007, Blue Fly Interactive Entertainment once dominated the Apple App Store with "Eliminate the Virus" and "Bit Squad". After switching to the mini program game, the current income of catching the goose has not been disclosed, but as of 16:00 on the press day, more than 6.61 million people have participated in the game, and the number of people is still rising.
According to Zhang Jiaxu, founder of Jianyou Technology, at the 2022 Game Industry Annual Conference, the game "Sheep is a Sheep" quickly exploded, and the DAU changed from 100 to 1 million in less than 2 weeks. It is reported that the initial cost of its game was only 500,000, and now its revenue has exceeded 100 million.
In this speech, the 4 points mentioned by Zhang Jiaxu are in line with the explosive logic of these two match-3 games.
First of all, the product does not have too much advertising space, and the game experience is cool enough, which greatly increases the possibility of the game being fissioned through social communication;
The second is the sense of glory that ordinary people need, which can be recognized by the social circle through a small game, which is extremely attractive to most people as the core users of non-traditional games;
The third is social fairness, everyone has the possibility to clear the level through their own efforts, and the simplicity of operation and the randomness of the game make the game experience more balanced;
Last but not least, mini games are getting more and more attention, and Douyin, WeChat, Weibo, and Xiaohongshu are all good ways to spread social fission.
Small games, big futures
Mini marketing ideas?
According to the 2024Q1 WeChat Mini Game Data Report released by DataEye, the monthly active scale of WeChat Mini Games reached 755 million in February 2024, an increase of more than 20% month-on-month, a new high in the past year, and higher than that of the mobile game APP industry.
Source: DataEye Game Watch
Judging from the content announced by the platform where game enthusiasts of all sizes gather, mini games also have great prospects for development.
Recently, Xue Feidan, a WeChat mini game team, delivered a keynote speech "Ecological Development and Content Observation", in which he mentioned that from the perspective of user stickiness, the average user time has reached 60 minutes in the IAA market, and the retention of active 7 days has reached more than 60%;
Douyin also continues to make efforts in this track. At the recently held "2024 Massive Engine Douyin IAA Mini Game Ecological Conference" with the theme of "Smart Gaming Breaks the Waves, Inspires the Future", it was mentioned that there are two completely different development directions in the game industry market in the stock era, on the one hand, it is a high-quality masterpiece, and on the other hand, it is a mini game that focuses on emotional release.
On the two major platforms of WeChat and Douyin, various products have been launched on the platform side to help mini games land and convert, and new players usually enter the game through search portals and friend recommendations. So what are the new business opportunities for this form of game, which is closely related to platform ecology and social monetization, in the future?
It is understood that the monetization methods of Mini Programs are currently mainly divided into three categories: IAP (in-app purchase payment), IAA (advertising monetization), and IAP+IAA (hybrid monetization). The advertising slots supported by Mini Game traffic owners include: banner ads, rewarded ads, interstitial ads, video roll ads, video ads, native template ads, and cover ads.
However, for small games such as "Sheep a Sheep" and "Catch a Big Goose", which have not obtained a version number, the monetization channels currently only have advertising monetization, and focus on rewarded advertising, allowing players to watch advertisements in order to obtain game rewards.
However, the linkage between "Catch the Big Goose" and the Genki Forest this time has opened the door to a new world for the monetization of mini games.
Mini Program games are more social, emotionally arousing players, and younger. For brands, which can make consumers impress in games, how can mini program games be a marketing idea with small volume and big gains?