Mobile gaming marketing doesn't work at all

The head of Natural Motion (CSR Racing games, My Horse, etc.) Thorsten Reil at the Game Horizon conference said yesterday that marketing and PR campaigns in general do not affect the number of downloads of mobile games. In the course of his speech, he said that marketing of games in the traditional sense of the word is generally useless.

“We learned the hard way that marketing had to be rethought. I think that it does not work at all, ”Reil told the audience.

“In big games, even if you launch a separate, well-executed PR campaign, it gives nothing, absolutely nothing. The number of downloads is so great that those that fall on PR become just noise. ”
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“You can say that maybe campaigns will help start and launch a viral distribution. But if we had PR, we didn’t have it - we didn’t feel any difference This does not mean that PR is generally useless - for the company, it definitely plays a role in the search for employees. But I see that more and more PR agencies involved in the promotion of games for the iPhone, understand that they generally have no effect on the progress of the game in terms of the number of downloads, ”he added.

There are more successful ways to attract game users in app stores, Reil says. In the most successful game of the company, My Horse, which received more than 11 million downloads, the main emphasis was placed on the design, which caught the eye of the user.

“There are better ways to market games and attract users. Some, for example, are using the App Store. We understood that the name of the game is extremely important from the point of view of detection, ”he noted (however, Apple understands this, and literally in past days began changing the search in the App Store , moving away from keywords and titles)

Natural Motion tests on "several million" users in search of the right name and icon. “The icon is your packaging,” he says. "You can simply double the number of downloads by selecting the right one."

And viral marketing is not dead yet, Reil shares, users still want to show their new applications and games to friends. Console developers with experience in developing cool games have a distinct advantage here, he added.

“You can get viral advertising with mobile devices like in the good old days. People go to the pub and, if they really like it, show your game to friends. Often because of the beautiful graphics. here we have great opportunities. We always want to surprise people. Be it a traditional gamer or a casual player, they always want to show what's on their phone. ”