On the importance of taking good positions.

Text/Isaac

Although the version number started to be reissued a few months ago, its irregularity coupled with the overall downturn in the market still did not break the dull status quo.

In the first half of this year, the financial reports of game companies can more or less reflect this "chill". Declining revenue seems to have become the norm for most Chinese companies. For example, in the first half of the year, IGG's revenue was 2.185 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 23.2%; China Mobile Games' revenue was 1.233 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 43.45%; Celadon Games' revenue was 268 million yuan. , down 64.9% year-on-year…and even the leading manufacturers may not be able to maintain stable growth.

The data in this year's industry report also echoes: in the first half of the year, China's game market sales revenue decreased by 1.8% year-on-year to 147.789 billion yuan; as of July, there was still no improvement – revenue fell by 15.12% year-on-year and 7.14% month-on-month to 20.808 billion yuan. . Compared with previous years, when products were springing up like mushrooms and the number of users surged, this year's game industry seemed a bit deserted even during the bustling summer season.

The report pointed out that in the current environment, the public's willingness to spend on entertainment and even games is declining, and there was a lack of influential new game products launched in the first half of this year, which failed to bring about an increase in consumption. Under this situation, the thinking of many manufacturers has gradually become clear: on the one hand, they are cutting down on marginal businesses and low-certainty projects, and continuing to reduce costs and increase efficiency; on the other hand, they are opening up resources – either vigorously developing overseas business, or building on existing projects. Looking for a breaking point in the stock.

Over time, the gaming industry has changed somewhat in terms of operations. This change is called "from large-scale publicity to refined operations, from short-term buying to long-term operations" – in human terms, it means that we must not only survive in the protracted war, but also spend money wisely. Try to make big waves at key nodes. Can this kind of "want it all" requirement really be realized in this environment? You may not think that a few years ago, someone proposed a solution that is now widely used.

01

Position management: the cold winter in the industry

"Version answer"?

Whether you are an operator or not, you have probably been exposed to the so-called "position management". Position management is easy to understand, that is, the official establishes a corporate account on the platform as a brand position, and uses the content to attract core users. For example, some snack brands have attracted core users into fan groups, and through private domain communication, the repurchase rate has exceeded 60%.

Over time, this idea gradually spread to various fields and almost became a default rule. For example, the accounts of various anchors will have recorded videos of live broadcasts, or sliced ​​videos of wonderful moments. The position management of game projects also has its own set of logic. Many products are even years away from being launched, and they begin to establish official accounts on major platforms and communities for regular publicity.

"Black Myth: Wukong" releases two videos every year

It can also be regarded as an example

Why is everyone doing this? Because it is really useful – huge engine data shows that enterprise accounts operating on Douyin have an average number of fans 593.7% higher, average playback volume 650% higher, and average interaction than enterprise accounts not operating on the battlefield. The volume is 11.6 times higher. Although the number of fans cannot be directly equated with the number of users, the positive impact on game operations must be considerable if the data is so much higher.

On the other hand, the official position is also a cornerstone for launching various gameplays on the platform and realizing global operations. Putting aside the subject matter and quality of the game itself, by doing a good job in the "latitude and longitude" of marketing position management, it is possible to achieve the "long-term + explosive" goal mentioned above from different angles. The longitude and latitude here can be understood as deepening and broadening – deepening means increasing the number of users and activity, and broadening means broadening the position's products, diverting traffic to each other, and forming a complete link to guide fans to join the position.

Gathering fans through excellent content can not only improve player retention, but also give you a greater chance of getting out of the game. This has been proven by many products. And only by forming a position can the various gameplay methods on the platform have room to play, allowing different projects to achieve "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea". But having said that, what methods should be used in position management at different times? How to verify the value of long-term operation? On Douyin, there are some related cases worth mentioning.

02

in the gaming industry

How to play?

To talk about cases in this regard, we have to mention the global operating brand launched by Juju Engine in the game industry. The giant engine has divided it into four lines. We have previously introduced the relevant cases of its live broadcast line and market line, and the launch case of another large promotion line can develop gameplay for different operating stages and categories of games. Test out different long-term operating effects.

For example, "Sea of ​​Dawn", which was launched in open beta on all platforms on July 28, has cooperated with Douyin Challenge and Xigua Video Carnival "Xigua PLAY". At the important juncture of the public beta, they mainly promoted it from three perspectives: advertising, content, and position. I believe everyone knows that advertising is the placement of resources such as pages, pages, and products.

In terms of content, they launched the Douyin topic #The Extraordinary Adventure of Dawn Sea, guided the creation of PUGC in conjunction with the national effect task, and also embedded a large amount of content from different angles on both Douyin and Xigua Video to increase popularity. Combined with the official promotional video produced in cooperation with Depp and Hollywood's first-line team, the game has achieved good brand reputation among both core users and general user circles.

Of course, whether it is advertising or content, users will eventually be directed to the official account. On the one hand, the content in the camp can allow fans to settle down and become core users; on the other hand, users who jump to the camp through links, tasks and topics will also interact with the game through light tasks and other methods. Within 5 days of the launch of "Sea of ​​Dawn", more than 16,000 users completed downloads through light tasks alone.

In the end, input from three different angles will form a wheel effect, promoting and transforming each other. Data shows that the Douyin search index of the keyword "Sea of ​​Dawn" on the day of the public beta was more than 86 times that of July 20, and the Douyin comprehensive index was more than 146 times that of July 20.

Another similar case is "Swordsman World 3" launched by Xishanju in public beta on August 10. Among the big promotions of this game, the viewing task-Mai Xufang mode has performed well. Maixufang can be understood as the official using a main account to connect and broadcast other live broadcast rooms in the form of a program list, thereby strengthening and enriching its own live broadcast content, or flexibly matching the live broadcast lineup to create a better atmosphere.

In this process, the viewing tasks shared by multiple live broadcast rooms will guide all viewers to interact (such as continuing to watch, follow, download, and send comments with keywords) through cash-out benefits. This will affect the battlefield and the game. conversions are helpful. Data shows that within half a day of the live broadcast party of "Jianxia World 3" on August 12, more than 54,000 people participated in the task, more than 34,000 new and old users followed the official account, and more than 26,000 users completed the download.

In addition to some of the above operations, they also have some targeted customized gameplay, such as launching customized beauty special effects stickers under topics, which not only enhances fun, interactivity and submission quality, but also achieves fission through topics and jump links. And in the future, it can also provide a theoretical basis for subsequent operating strategies through data analysis of submitted users and inference of user portraits of the game itself.

Of course, the significance of a big push is not only the momentum itself, but review and tuning are also critical parts. At this stage, Judao Engine will think about many questions, such as what kind of game population ecology does the delivery data reflect? How to improve in the future? One of the analysis methods is the game O5A model mentioned before – dividing users into five stages with different levels of entry into the game to formulate countermeasures.

In addition to the big promotion line, there is also a node line under the label, which specifically launches marketing activities for popular periods such as summer and National Day. Even though the number of new products is not as large as in previous years, the summer season is still a must-have period for major manufacturers. After all, during this explosive period when young users are active and growing, both the game market and content platforms will usher in prime time. Therefore, the platform launched the Summer Tour Season, a summer activity for S+ games.

To put it simply, Douyin introduces game manufacturers from multiple categories such as chess and card, RPG, competition, and leisure. Starting from the positions of their respective projects, it combines expert recruitment + live performances, topic submissions and other customized gameplay to link the matrix of game content creators. , launched a platform-level game promotion event during the summer, with the overall network exposure estimated to be as high as 6.6 billion.

For a first-of-its-kind event of this level, Summer Travel Season has put a lot of effort into interaction and resource bonuses. For example, there are rare resources across the platform such as message drop-down on the second floor, information push, and live broadcast gameplay that promotes on-screen interaction. At the same time, other customized gameplay such as watching and broadcasting tasks are also available. For those manufacturers and projects that are not yet able to fully invest in long-term cooperation on the platform, this kind of operation to borrow a wave of momentum at key nodes may be very cost-effective for them.

03

Conclusion

In general, Putaojun believes that this kind of operating idea may become the norm in the future. No matter when the gaming industry picks up, the era of big announcements and mindless purchases has passed. Instead, they are becoming more and more refined in content and operations – but having said that, it is not yet completely "rolled up", so as long as the position is well established, most projects can be completed through operations. Let yourself live longer and stronger.

When the protracted war begins, the system for measuring value changes. Those practices that were more radical in the past may become less frequent, and long-term value will be brought to the table, even affecting R&D decisions at the beginning. It is foreseeable that it will be difficult to do better and better if the operation is unstructured. You must have your own set of logic.

From a platform perspective, we can also see that, combined with proven position operations in other industries, they have developed a complete set of "all-domain operations" solutions, and almost every advancement will have a solution for the gaming industry. Customized gameplay (such as small handles, hanging chains, etc.). Of course, this will expand the possibilities for content consumption, but many teams have also opened up new marketing models.

In today's situation where everyone is looking for a way out in many ways, cooperation, exploration, and mutual benefit with the platform will probably be a very important part of the long-term battle.

Game Grape Recruitment Content Editor,