Playing dumb: an effective marketing strategy for brain teaser games?
When you sell a cognitive-based game, the best way to market is by provoking potential players’ pride.
I have always been a free-to-play (F2P) mobile gamer all my life. The games installed on my phone are all for recreation only; never once did I aim to be a top player, winning each player versus player (PVP) battle or be on the global top list. Aside from the absence of a competitive bone in my body, I know that material sacrifice is needed to get the strongest equipment for my characters. Since I’d rather use the money for many other things, I become acquainted with advertisements to get extra pulls or summons.
After months of observation, I noticed that most of the ads are using the same strategy despite selling different games. That is, by tugging on viewers' intellect. My first encounter with this type of ad was Playrix’s Homescapes. With more than 11 million downloads across Google Playstore and Apple Store, it’s undoubtedly one of the most popular Match 3 games on mobile devices. However, the game’s ad is different: it shows a problem-solving game, where the players have to pick the right solution for the main character Austin when facing a variety of household problems, from a pipe leak to a burned house.
The ad always ends in failure, no matter how easy the puzzle is.
There are interactive ads, where viewers can “play” the game during the 30 seconds ad. But the Homescapes ad, along with one for its sequel Gardenscapes, are not; despite its illusion of interactivity. Viewers can only agonise in the virtual players’ foolish decisions and witness poor Austin suffers yet another calamity. The impatient ones would try to click on the right option only to find themselves directed to the game’s install page. But even if they decide to download the game, they will still encounter ads for other games using the same tactic.
Aside from Homescapes and Gardenscapes, I found that other Match 3 games like Project Makeover and Evony run similar ads. Even worse, Evony’s ad shows a real human getting desperate due to his numerous failures despite overly simple problems.
Capturing the right market
Most game ads I have seen tend to show off the magnificent gameplay and sophisticated features, trying to hook viewers. So, this particular tactic of constantly showing failures leaves me confused. Does it really work? What type of gamers is it most effective on?
Each gamer has different motivations and interests, which subsequently affect their game choice. Based on a wide range of players, market data provider Game Refinery identified eight-player archetypes and motivational drivers, and feature preferences. Even though the dataset aims to help developers build an engaging game, but it can also help in marketing.
According to the archetypes, Match 3 and puzzle games are popular with players in the “Thinker” category. These players enjoy “brain teasers or other cognitive challenges” which will give them a huge sense of accomplishment when succeeded. Assuming that these people pride themselves on their intelligence, the playing dumb strategy could work well.
First, it tickles the sense of superiority inside these players by continuously choosing the wrong option when the right one is obvious. Viewers might think that “I’m smarter than whoever is playing this!” Second, the incompetency would trigger the viewers to take matters into their own hands, leading them to click and get redirected to the game’s landing page. If lucky, the viewer will download the game to see how challenging it actually is.
Even though I personally think it’s a great marketing strategy, I’m not sure how effective it actually is. There’s also the problem of the game being different from what it’s advertised as. Homescapes and Gardenscapes are Match 3 games, which are not portrayed in the advertisements although it’s said to be the mini-games. Why the need to present the mini-games instead of the actual gameplay?
I uninstalled the games after downloading them as they didn’t live up to my expectation. At least, it reminds me that I should pay more attention to the details provided on the games’ page.
