GROWtalks Vancouver - January 30th, 2014

1. LEVEL UP YOUR ENGAGEMENT
INSIDER TIPS FROM A MOBILE GAMES LEADER

2. ABOUT MYSELF
‣ Product Team Lead at A Thinking Ape
‣ 12 years in the video and mobile game industry
‣ Grew up on games, and still play them today
‣ I am not here to talk about the gaming industry
‣ I am here to talk about ENGAGEMENT

3. USER ENGAGEMENT
PARTY IN MY DORM
KINGDOMS AT WAR
‣ ATA has two very popular mobile games
‣ Ranked on the Top Grossing Charts
‣ Why? A Highly ENGAGED Player Base

4. KINGDOMS AT WAR
‣ Consistently a Top 50 Grossing Game
‣ #20 just this December
‣ Released Four years ago
‣ One of the oldest, if not the oldest, game that is on the
top grossing charts

5. KINGDOMS AT WAR VS OTHER PRODUCTS
‣ What is the secret to its success?
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
ay 1
D
0
ay 1
D
0
ay 3
D
0
ay 9
D
8
ay 1
D
0
6
ay 3
D
‣ Shown Above - Retention Data
‣ Key Difference Maker - Long Term Engagement
0

6. WHERE DID WE GO WRONG?
‣ When designing a product, we focus on
‣ Design - Does it give users what they want?
‣ Art/Sound/UX - Is it Satisfying and intuitive to use?
‣ Content - Do users want your content?
‣ Both games executed equally well in these areas.

7. ANALYZING THE DIFFERENCE
‣ Started looking beyond the core product
‣ Examined the communities and social relationships
formed
‣ Actions performed between two players
‣ Actions performed as a group
‣ Actions involving messages and chat
‣ The above actions, on a per user basis, has a direct
correlation with the success of our products

8. THE KEY DIFFERENCE
‣ Our users do not naturally want to be Social
‣ We created the Incentives for our users to initiate
Social Actions
‣ Social actions is what led to a high level of
Engagement

9. INCENTIVES
are the key to
ENGAGEMENT

10. ENGAGEMENT NEEDS INCENTIVES
‣ Incentivize User to User Interaction
‣ Incentivize Community Actions
‣ Incentivize Community Competition
‣ Incentivize their Next Visit

11. INCENTIVIZE USER TO USER INTERACTION
‣ Get your users interacting with each other at every
opportunity possible
‣ In Games - User to User Gifting
‣ On Facebook - Likes
‣ On Linked In - Endorsements
‣ All these examples require 1 Button Press and
incentivize your users to respond

12. INCENTIVIZE COMMUNITY ACTIONS
‣ Make group actions more rewarding than any
individual actions.
‣ In Games - Let groups tackle challenges together
‣ Online Store - Give out free bonuses to all buyers
when X number of a product is sold
‣ Kickstarter - Gated content until it has reached a
number of supporters
‣ Give them an incentive to work together and
communicate with each other.

13. INCENTIVIZE COMMUNITY COMPETITION
‣ Competing with real people is extremely compelling
‣ Keys to creating an amazing competitive environment
‣ Real People - Get your users competing with each
other
‣ Make them work - Points, Trophies, Posts, Reviews,
Check-ins
‣ Visible Reward - Not Real, but Visible

14. INCENTIVIZE COMMUNITY COMPETITION
‣ Examples Include
‣ Games - Leaderboards w/Prizes
‣ Yelp - Yelp VIP Status and Events
‣ FourSquare - Mayorships

15. INCENTIVIZE THEIR NEXT VISIT
‣ Treat your users as if it is the last time you will see
them
‣ Give them a reason to return
‣ But how?

16. INCENTIVIZE THEIR NEXT VISIT
‣ It is already done. Your users are now the ones driving
each other to return because they are all connected.
‣ Every time a message is sent between users, it brings
them back
‣ Every time a group needs help, it brings them back
‣ Every time a competition is updated, it brings them
back

17. You have created a
POSITIVE FEEDBACK LOOP
for User Engagement

18. BOTTOM LINE
‣ No matter how great your product’s Design, UX, Art, and
Sound is, it can be replicated
‣ In a competitive marketplace, any success will inspire
others just like you
‣ You have no competitive advantage

19. FOCUS ON CREATING SOCIAL CONNECTIONS
‣ You need to create something that cannot be replicated
‣ Incentivize your users to create social connections
‣ These social connections will keep your users coming
back
‣ #1 Reason why our players keep playing our games
‣ They care who they play with. The only place they can
do that is within our games.

20. THE PILLARS OF ENGAGEMENT SUCCESS
‣ Incentivize User to User Interaction
‣ Incentivize Community Actions
‣ Incentivize Community Competition
‣ and it will incentivize their next visit.
‣ Returning users are the key to long term user
engagement.

21. THANK YOU
QUESTIONS?