The Big Catch – Unlock New Audiences with Motivational-led Creative

a great uh presentation coming up in a similar but but but uh slightly different uh area we're talking to linda barry uh from facebook gaming the big catch we've gone from we've gone from uh chess to fishing which is uh which is great that's good i love all these analogies that's a beautiful graphic as well linda how are you lovely to see linda that's a lovely background you yeah you've got you've got a nice uh bit of the garden in there going on lovely lovely day today i had to be able to see it properly now that's better isn't it that's much better i i sense from your accent that you're based in ireland i am i'm in county wicklow in ireland lovely and how are you doing over the house what's it like over there at the moment um well we're all craving the businesses to open and get back to life but um it's as you say it's a beautiful day and i'm surrounded by the countryside so i can't complain too much can i know

fantastic well we will it will all is happening we've got to be patient it's happening steadily but uh but yes no hopefully sooner or later we'll all be back face to face and able to share a glass of something um are you are you how are you doing are you about ready to to launch in i'm ready to go yep will you have a lot to talk about your time so just take your time and do it it's not your thoughts so i'm gonna just disappear here if you need me at all just i'll pop back in um but yeah otherwise i'll leave it to you to kind of uh to tell us about the big catch for gaming rupert okay cool well first of all hello everybody and thanks very much for joining me in this session okay so in this deck we're confident you're going to learn why growing audiences is such a big opportunity and we'll discuss how to build motivation-led creatives to unlock these new audiences i'm covering a lot in 20 minutes so i'll also leave you with a follow-up on all that's been presented here as well as how to measure and iterate towards efficiency so fingers crossed this deck will work

let's get to it okay so we see the general state of the gaming industry and it's clear that most companies are targeting their campaigns to the same types of audience this behavior ends up slowing their growth since with time it gets harder for these ads to convert the same people also the creative approaches are usually the same all based on game play with little to no consideration to what these players are actually motivated by we understand why this happens and now not only is there an opportunity to reach a larger pool of players but by doing these titles can go back to growing as we see everybody is a gamer 86 percent of internet users play mobile games and 80 of the people that are not labeled as gamers are in fact playing games on their phones this alone will tell you to change strategies to target more than gamers but there's more gaming audiences are diverse and growing with the pandemic we've seen an influx of new mobile gamers across the world consistent in all regions we call them

late adopter gamers and according to the survey they're here to stay just to illustrate we've seen a 12 percent increase in the u.s gaming population 18 in the united kingdom and 22 in korea so it's clear that one creative approach can't possibly resonate with so many different types of people this now large pond of gamers is more diverse than the cliches and they're lured by a broad spectrum of motivations fifty percent of us mobile gamers established and recent adopters are women 43 of established mobile gamers are 45 or older 39 of recent adopters are 34 or younger and 36 of established gamers play up to five times a week it's time to re-look at who a gamer is who do you think about when you're building your creatives globally nearly a third of mobile gamers are 45 or older the very stereotypical 16 to 24 age

group represents a mere 14.2 percent of mobile games women play more and more often their sessions last 25 percent longer than for men and 43 percent of women play more than five times a week while the same behavior makes for 38 of men and they're also spending a little more 4.5 percent of women spend in-game while 3.3 percent of men do okay so by now we're pretty clear that this pond is large and diverse so what motivates them well people play games for many reasons to relieve stress to pass time feel accomplished defeat others get dazzled by uniqueness or simply immerse themselves in a world or character there are many different motivations and sameness is definitely not one but 56 percent of players say nearly all or many of the ads they see are repetitive when building ads do you think about what people look for or do you focus on showing the game regardless of who will play it are you thinking about who who to build

for and what is the best creative approach for your game and your audience because there's no one-size-fits-all how we will get to answers is by experimenting with a range of motivation layer creative and broad targeting to expand your pond and lower more fish experimentation is key to understanding what your audiences are motivated by and what aspects of your game are more appealing to them so but it's not a guessing game and help is on the way experimentation is an ongoing process to learn what works and why and to help you incorporate new audiences and practices into your business activity we start by asking which motivations your game can best speak to this is a key step as it's reflecting on what the game is really about what's different and unique and what's really not that different than what competitors are doing it's looking at the current approach to creative and seeing new possibilities that might appeal to new groups of

people with your new motivation led creative at hand you'll learn which worked best to catch new audiences when broadly targeted if you don't allow new players to be exposed to the new creatives you won't be able to learn what is motivating them and also won't be able to refine the creative approach to continue to reach these new types of players and this step leads to the next adapt where you'll keep iterating the creatives based on the learnings and optimize them towards efficiency this is probably the most important step on the performance side knowing that a new group of people are motivated by something you are not exploring until now it's only the beginning of a journey to mature finesse and optimize the creative approach message and execution it might look like the way you already work or a whole new way of working but the important thing is that we've proven that doing this works big catch creative converted new audiences in a hundred percent of our tests

proof that creative has material impact on user acquisition and audience expansion and more than being sure that motivation led creatives can unlock new audiences we learned that leveraging gamer motivations when making ads will also drive higher user value and higher ads quality scores which means your ad will perform better in the auction if it's a higher quality ads with a lower quality rank ranking tend to cost more which may reduce distribution of the ads and lead to fewer results okay so now we know that there's a huge opportunity in expanding audiences to grow your business that gaming audiences are diverse and growing and that gamers have higher expectations responding to motivations and rejecting repetition we understand that to break through advertisers can follow the framework and build motivation led creative test in a broad environment learn who's responding to untapped aspects of your game and then continue to iterate for efficiency

so now we'll dive into each step of this framework starting by taking a look at how to build motivation led creative let's start with some foundations motivations are about the player what does a player look for in a game what makes this player pick one game instead of another similar one for example is it the fact that it's more customizable or maybe it's more social regardless of the game some people like more customizable games while others like more social on the other side gameplay is about the game and players connect to a game because of how its objectives motivate them to play how does winning feel is there a game mode where the player gets to arrange strategize in their own way and feel accomplished there are endless types of gameplays and players are motivated by a number of different triggers so to make this a little easier we've identified eight motivations that cover most types of players and game genres but

don't worry and don't get stuck on them they're thought starters to get things moving there might be motivations that really don't matter for your game and that's fine there's others to pick from but we'll dive into these and i'll do a little exercise with them also so here are the eight we have self-expression social connection progression expertise discovery power escapism and relaxation so let's double click into each of these self-expression so some games will allow players to express their creativity and identity and some players are really motivated by making that game a bit more their own we're talking about the gameplay that allows creative expression personalization or customization think about killing out your car or choosing your own style of clothes or even building your character from scratch and for us to start landing this idea of motivation and gameplay think about it this way a player might not love airplane games but the fact that this one allows them

to choose and customize their plane might be the factor for a new player to get excited about it and that's the logic and as research confirms 46 of new players in the us and we've consistently seen this everywhere else say they play to express something about themselves these four examples are from four very different games that are all leveraging self-expression in their own way look at how the ad leads with the motivation and how the messages are clearly talking about so let's look at the next one social connection social connection appeals to players who want to connect and bond with old or new friends 44 of new gamers in the us play to connect with people they already know so look at gameplay that have friends in the mix it could be clans or teams one-on-one competitions or collaborations just by looking at these thumbnails in these examples you can see that one leverages beating your friends while the other invites you to join a guild

different genres and different takes on social connection but again clearly illustrating that this gameplay is connected to the motivation now we're looking at progression talking about players who take pride in building managing and improving things in a game they feel good with building completing and accomplishing 43 of established gamers in the us say they play to feel accomplished and this is a powerful trigger so think about game play to match the motivation look for the ones about building cities farms or villages or that the character revolves while continuously finding new challenges or exploring new maps and journeys with expertise the motivation is a bit similar to progression because it relates to feeling accomplished but this goes deeper this is for players who want to develop an ability to do something exceptionally well it's not about winning but crushing it based on how great they are these conclude gameplay that focus on

overcoming a challenge solving a puzzle excelling in speed accuracy getting like all stars and 100 in it and so on next we have discovery these are players who love to learn and discover new things within a game and like and many are like this 46 of mobile gamers in the us say they play to be dazzled by something unique so think about game play with big maps and multiple worlds games with side quests enigmas invitations hidden objects it's all about the thrill of finding and discovering i've only three more to go power power appeals to people who want to feel victorious in fact 45 of new gamers in the us say they play to defeat so think about game play that allows players to become emperors queens rulers or bosses gameplay that lets the player take objectives and territories from others and allows you to control and command is about bringing the player the power they

don't have in real life escapism talks to players who seek distraction and relief from the day-to-day realities for instance 46 of new gamers in the u.s say they play to immerse themselves in a character or world so look for the extraordinary gameplay like role playing fantasy sports alternative worlds non-humanized characters wild adventures some days we all wish we could be someone else and these games are the way to do it the last one is relaxation players who want to kill time be entertained and relax not really worry about points levels and leaderboards 62 percent of established mobile gamers in the us play to relieve stress we're talking about gameplay like puzzles cards and stress-free dynamics like repetition slower paced play or simple soothing sights and sounds and i hope you spotted that some of these get the same titles across multiple motivations are the same

and that's the intention the game has many different gameplays and making ads to highlight different gameplay for different types of players is the main pillar of an audience expansion strategy it's like using different baits to lower different types of fish so before we move on to the next step in our framework let's take time to do this exercise it's meant to explore which baits you already have in your games bait box and then choose the strongest ones so you map out every one of your game's gameplay against eight gamer motivations and it's okay if your game doesn't have anything for example like relaxation it's an exercise of self-knowledge so as an example we're going to look at how we've done this with hope with hotel empire a hotel empire is a simulation game where you build your own hotel empire and become a tourism tycoon you start running a small hotel and work hard to make your business grow

improves it you improve every detail and transform your your small hotel into a five-star resort so listing everything there's probably more than what we're seeing here but remember nobody knows your game more than you do allow yourself to be surprised reflect on the approach you've been using in your bau activity are you exploring the full potential of your game and are you making an effort to appeal to people that are motivated by different things okay now you have a long list against eight motivations you go and prioritize four motivations that feel the strongest go beyond the obvious or core game play remember the people are motivated by different aspects in the game and an overlooked gameplay could be a very efficient base for your fishing session okay it's time to look at how we make these creatives and leverage motivations and gameplay so the goal is to very clearly connect gameplay and motivation

let's take a moment to look at the examples on the right even without playing the videos you can visually see and read the differences in them my cafe is a game about creating and managing your restaurant and interacting with customers to learn what motivates different fish you need different types of bait so let's just continue back to that exercise for a minute you've prioritized four motivations out of eight and next you know while first period of ads connect engagement play and motivations and let's look ahead and then dive into our list of creative considerations to help you with your building so this is our hotel our empire made their assets they went for power relaxation self-expression and social connection the message have a look at the message the copy the call to action they've selected the most different aspects of their game

and played with it these ads are also great mobile first examples each one is the recommended four by five ratio 15 seconds in length and sometimes they're using split screens and not depending on sound whatsoever so let's get to our creative conversation with a checklist and everybody loves a checklist so let's start with opening with a real big moment it clearly represents the game and the motivation of your gameplay the beginning of an ad is crucial to getting a message across highlight your game's name its logo within the first three seconds there's lots of repetition within gaming ads there's a lot so highlight your game early as it's key for people to remember and not confuse your competitors showcase the game and the gameplay leave the message into the story and explain the motivation and let's be true to the game's experience and the motivation you're trying to trigger this allows to learn with the results

whoever's responded to the ad responded because of the game play and the message probation for example rather than the usual play now bring in your motivation like design now the seat the call to action is the last place to connect your motivation be clear about what the game is about we know that retention is higher when the game really delivers on expectations that the ad created same applies to leveraging real and relevant it from gamepl possible if all the ads look the same you won't be able to know what motivated people to click but keep them within the same visual style don't make one ad using illustrations in another with live action and another with 3d so i'll give you an example of some of these that follow the checklist so as we said the at the ad opening is

super important if we want to learn if the motivation is really the drive of conversation we should clearly open with it so make sure the gameplay visual message are consistent against the motivation highlight your game's name early within the first three seconds it doesn't have to be a big moment it can be a quick transition or even part of a cutscene you're showing just make sure the ad is about your game and be clear and be proud of it weave your message into the story and explain the motivation the gameplay and the motivation should be clearly connected throughout the whole ad this is the theme of your ad this is the story you're telling so make it really really clear show real and relevant gameplay that illustrates the motivation real game play creates stronger interest in the title you don't have to stick to unedited gameplay footage but do go for gameplay that players will actually find when they download the game and lastly is the call to action so this

is again like you said a great opportunity to close the loop and drive the action link to what motivates these types of players who you're trying to lure other things to keep in mind but this is a learning framework you build different ads to learn like visual style so for example if one ad is longer than the other don't want that each new asset must begin with clear visual representation and message connecting the game play and motivation they also have to be visually different from each other this is this way you can be sure that the audience is responding to the ad and it's in fact responding to the motivation and gameplay consistency and isolating creative variables are key to ensuring better learnings and we understand that building ads but more sophisticated stories and messages can be new to some developers planning is key to making better ads you started by understanding the game you're exploring and exploring your motivations and next you prioritize

prioritized four motivations to build a very good way to start your building process is through a storyboard so lay out what you want in each section of the ad which gameplay best illustrates the motivation you want to convey what is the message is it short and punchy enough where is the logo and then what's next on the story your storyboard doesn't have to be pretty you can do this with slides or sketches but but having a clear map of what the ad will be is a great direction for the creative and the production teams to build well and fast so it should be clear by now but here's a reminder of all we've just seen we built four new assets clearly connecting motivations and gameplay we follow our creative considerations and build ads isolating the creative variables and consistent in aspect ratio and duration and then because i said there is an awful lot to cover in such a short space of time we have a copy of all of this with all of these learnings but also how to set up and run the test and how to adapt your

new creatives and we also have a long list of facebook marketing partners who are trained in this who could support you in getting started so you visit this euro url dot gg slash big catch playbook and you'll be able to download everything that i've just shown you and loads more so on that note i say thank you very much and and as as creative shop i look forward to seeing all these gorgeous creative ads pour onto our feed and learn more about your game and your motivations thanks so much linda that was that was incredible i know that we're not accepting questions for the particular talk but obviously you can reach out to uh definitely download that i'm going to download that i've learned some stuff for our marketing so that was great um but definitely reach out and uh through the meat system i'm sure there's plenty of folk from from facebook here we'll be no doubt happy to help our specific questions um but yeah now that was great i was it was also lovely very nicely delivered i'm a very uh i speak so rapidly and it was quite nice it was like a little thing

i have my i have my little candle lit beside me and the little zebra yeah no you should you should do like kind of stories with it so there's a whole new career there um brilliant well thank you so much linda um it's been an absolute pleasure having you um i i shall release you back to digital ether in in ireland there enjoy your enjoy today and hopefully yeah please do get in touch with linda and definitely download that um we'll put we'll paste the link to that again in the chat in just a second um but do download that and we'll send it out to everybody through the emails but thanks a lot linda have a great day and thank you for for uh yeah thank you for that anyways thank you goodbye see you later bye