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Getting Big on Facebook: A Case Study Dan Laughlin • Executive Director, Business Development. Agenda. 6L Intro Facebook Growth Strategies Case Study: Mystery Manor Q&A. About Me. Dan Laughlin is Executive Director, Business Development at 6waves Lolapps ( 6L):
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Getting Big on Facebook: A Case StudyDan Laughlin • Executive Director, Business Development
Agenda 6L Intro Facebook Growth Strategies Case Study: Mystery Manor Q&A
About Me • Dan Laughlin is Executive Director, Business Development at 6waves Lolapps (6L): • Responsible for growing the company’s global portfolio of developer partnershipsfor social and mobile. • Previously at Microsoft Game Studios as a Lead Producer and a Senior Business Development Manager. • Before entering the industry, spent time at Thomson Reuters and MarketOne International. • Holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and a BA from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
6L… • A network with tens of millions of users • Games from over 50 global partners • Expanding its strategy to mobile platforms • Providing critical services to developers : Marketing Hosting Distribution Localization Game Advisory
Our Network Size 24 MILLION Monthly Active Users 3.9 MILLION Daily Active Users
Top Games We Have Published 6L has helped scale many games across a range of genres Peak 1M+ MAU Titles on Facebook: • Ravenskye City • Airport City • Zombie Island • Baby & Me • Mystery Manor • Ravenwood Fair • Mall World • Kingdoms of Camelot • Animal Paradise • Resort World • Simply Hospital • Big Business • Birdland • Legacy of Rome • Spartacus: The Game • My Fishbowl
Click Exchange Click exchanges are only effective on a small scale, as growth is bounded by the size of the game joining the exchange. • Developers can also buy credits to participate more actively in exchanges • Traffic quality from click exchanges should be monitored closely
Self Publishing Long-term company goals and financial strategy should inform if self-publishing is the appropriate strategy • Key Considerations: • Capital to fund rising costs of user acquisition • Headcount and mindshare for marketing • Time to build marketing effectiveness • Ability to localize and distribute globally • Desire to own End Users and build a network
Publishing Partnerships Publishing is an increasingly relevant model in social games Established • Key Benefits • Network for cross-promotion • Funds for user acquisition • Marketing efficiency • Localization / regional knowledge • Studio focuses on development • Key Tradeoffs • Revenue share • Exclusivity • Competition versus rest of portfolio • End User data ownership Starting Up
The Developer-Publisher Partnership • Recognizing that their strengths were in game development and the Russian social networks, Game Insight partnered with 6L to scale on Facebook • The 6L / Game Insight partnership has yielded a collective peak of 13M Monthly Active Users on Facebook: • Mystery Manor (3.8M) • Resort World (3.5M) • Airport City (2.8M) • Big Business (2.2M) • Vegas (1.1M) • 6L has expanded to launch Game Insight titles on Mixi and Yabage social networks in Japan
Mystery Manor: Game Overview • For ten months 6L and Game Insight have worked closely to evolve and grow Mystery Manor (MM): • The first major Hidden Object release on Facebook • Gameplay built around the free2play model • High quality art • Consistent content and feature updates
MM Pre-Launch Planning • 6L Product Management worked with MM producers to build towards full global launch: • Iterating on game feature roadmap • Feedback on game flow, tutorial, virality, etc • Localization kickoff • Hosting / Scaling plan - Amazon EC2 • Phased user acquisition planning • Plan for Facebook platform changes (e.g. early tester of “fluid canvas”)
Phased User Growth SE Asia Turkey US, UK, Aus/NZ ~$10K test spend Spending tens of thousands per day Localized ad copy / images 200M+ emails per campaign • 6L has spent millions of dollars acquiring new users for Mystery Manor • In-network cross-promotion and email campaigns have driven consistent “soft money” installs
Expanding the Addressable Market • 7 languages now live in MM: • Russian, English, Chinese, Japanese, French, Italian, German, Turkish • 6L manages the translation processes and shares costs with developer • Native speakers write / review localized ad copy • 3 additional languages in development now: • Portuguese, Arabic, Thai
Ongoing Development • Continuous development allows 6L to sustain marketing: • Feature Development – monetization improvement over the long-run shows impact of an improving game • Content Releases – MM shows healthy retention and revenue spikes due to predictable content releases
Ad Targeting & Execution • The 6L user acquisition team is an experienced groupof marketers, analysts, artists, and programmers in San Francisco and Hong Kong • 6L uses internally developed processes and algorithms to analyze spend efficiency and cohort performance • Mystery Manor Marketing: • Continuous A/B testing of keyword targeting, creative, and copy • 200+ pieces of art utilized • 25+ pieces of ad copy – localized for 7 current languages • Keyword targeting – examples: woman, over 40, that play other hidden object games, ‘Like’ sudoko
Mystery Manor: What Worked • A close relationship with the developer • Constant product improvement • Evolved targeting to prevent saturation • Timing marketing with product updates • Translated content and ad copy • Ongoing in-network cross-promo and email campaigns • Spending big to acquire users