supercharging word of mouth: best practices in mobile virality

Supercharging word of mouth Jussi Laakkonen, Applifier

Atomic Hot Links

Oberazzi

How do players discover games?

Lydia Mann

What’s the role of

word of mouth?

questions million dollar

AMagill

The Bees

Survey 1800 responses

Mainstream users

US adults

62% male

38% female

64% 18-29 years

26% 30-39 years

10% 40+

Favorite game genres

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1-5 games / month 1-3 hours / week

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10%

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50% Games downloaded / month Hours played / week

For the last five games you’ve downloaded, what was highly influential in your decisions?

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20%

40%

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120%

Word of mouth, social media

App Store TV, Youtube, web sites, print or other

media

Advertising

EEDAR: Social plays part in 70% of mobile game discovery, October 2012

0% 5%

10% 15%

20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%

h"p://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/178516/Research_How_mobile_players_find_new_games_to_play.phpB

Nielsen: Word of mouth equal to App Store, Q3 / 2011

h"p://www.businessinsider.com/searchCisCtheCbiggestCdriverCofCappCdiscoveryC2012C8B

Word of mouth App Store

YoonhoChoi

App Store

68%: “Easy to find games on the App Store”

6%

26%

34%

34%

How do you rate the App Store for finding games?

Extremely di!cult

Somewhat di!cult

Easy to find a game I’d like to download

Easy to find any game I want to find

Reviews ! decision to download

For the last five games you’ve downloaded, what was highly influential in your decisions?

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User reviews Featured Top list Search result

App stores are good enough.

App Store Optimization. Test keywords, names, icons, screenshots

Ask users to review you. Target users likely to rate you highly.

Read your reviews. Fix issues.

Word of mouth

“Hey, you got to play this game. Watch this!”

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Hearing from a friend, family

Seeing gameplay

Facebook post

Tweet Shared screenshot

Fan videos

In person Online

For the last five games you’ve downloaded, what was highly influential in your decisions?

Opportunity

Which of the following features are important while playing? Part 1

Extremely important Somewhat important Not important

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Retention

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Which of the following features are important while playing? Part 2

Extremely important Somewhat important Not important

Viral growth

Playing together Sharing

Viral growth through

invites

Viral growth through

shared content

Playing together Sharing

Viral growth through

invites

Playing together

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Easy to invite friends Playing with real friends Playing with non-friends

Playing with real friends nearly 2 x more important than with non-friends

Extremely important Somewhat important Not important

Which of the following features are important while playing?

34% 44% 24%

But >60% prefer nicknames over real identity

21%

Real identity (e.g. login with Facebook)

19% Nick name + stylized photo that masks my real identity 43%

Nick name + avatar (e.g. game character)

17%

No identity even if it means friends can’t find me

How do you want to appear to others when you play?

Still, everyone is on Facebook

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Which social networks have you used in the last week?

And fairly few use social gaming services

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100%

Which mobile game services have you used?

Your Contacts are your real friends.

Fairly few games leverage Contacts, while all social services do.

Go with nicknames or partial identity (e.g. “Jussi L”)

Don’t force FB login.

Demonstrate fun first, then upsell Facebook connect to play with friends

Incentivize FB connect (questionable, but works)

“We never spam your friends”

De-emphasize or even avoid FB in core and mid-core games

Viral growth through

shared content

Sharing

1% Create

9% Curate

90% Consume

Viral growth through

shared content

Sharing

1% Create

9% Curate

90% Consume

10-20% rank sharing extremely important

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100%

Sharing tips, helping others

Sharing achievements

Sharing screenshots

Sharing video replays

Broadcasting my game

Extremely important Somewhat important Not important

Which of the following features are important while playing?

Sharers

Sharers play more

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Games downloaded / month Hours played / week

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All respondents Sharing is extremely important

Sharers buy in-app purchases

All respondents Sharing is extremely important

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Did you purchase a mobile game in last 30 days?

Sharers are more social. Part 1

All respondents Sharing is extremely important

Which of the following features are extremely important while playing?

0%

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60%

70%

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90%

100%

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Sharers are more social. Part 2

All respondents Sharing is extremely important

Which of the following features are extremely important while playing?

Sharers more likely to find games through WoM, advertisements, media

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20%

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120%

140%

Word of mouth, social media

App Store TV, Youtube, web sites, print or other

media

Advertising

All respondents Sharing is extremely important

For the last five games you’ve downloaded, what was highly influential in your decisions?

Remember this?

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40%

Hearing from a friend, family

Seeing gameplay

Facebook post

Tweet Shared screenshot

Fan videos

In person Online

For the last five games you’ve downloaded, what was highly influential in your decisions?

Opportunity

WoM: Sharers find games more often online than in-person

All respondents Sharing is extremely important

For the last five games you’ve downloaded, what was highly influential in your decisions?

00%

10%

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Hearing from a friend, family

Seeing gameplay

Facebook post

Tweet Shared screenshot

Fan videos

Share from the game

Social media

Try a new game

Sharers

Get engaged

What type of sharing is most influential?

It’s like snake, but you fight monsters. Swipe to steer your snake made of heroes you level

up, kill the baddies and don’t hit anything!

SHARED WITH

>65% of all players, >80% of sharers watch game videos

All respondents Sharing is extremely important

What types of game-related videos did you watch last week?

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Videos drive installs, decision making and referral

All respondents Sharing is extremely important

What actions have you taken after watching game related video?

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You share if you care. Tap into emotions.

Show, don’t tell ! screenshots, video.

Automatic screenshots, instant replays ! just share!

Sharing is self-reinforcing

Build social features to attract & retain Sharers

Sharers play & pay and get your more users. You want them.

Word of Mouth & App Store

Reviews are crucial

Play with real friends

Sharers are your best users

In-person WoM ! Online Sharing

www.everyplay.com

jussi@everyplay.com @jussil