Brutally Honest #50 by Matej Lancaric
Brutally Honest #50 by Matej Lancaric
No 💩 BS newsletter with useful stuff about UA in the post IDFA world
Hello hello hello! What a beautiful day…
🥃 Drink talk
Preparing to hit the Istanbul Gaming Summit organized by Deconstructor of Fun & Google - it’s at full capacity. This is THE event to attend this year. If you missed the registration, you could watch it online!
🕺🏻 Tip of the week
I am constantly thinking about how to produce a creative winner. It’s not an easy job. Thank you captain obvious! So let’s look at the anatomy of a well-performing creative:
Hook
Meat
Call to Action
The hook:
The first 1-4 seconds of your ad are the most important part. Make the most of this time window by captivating your audience with a powerful, attention-grabbing hook that draws them in to keep watching. Ensure the hook is related to your game at least in some way. This will ensure a smooth transition from the initial hook to the following key message of your creative.
Meat
Attractions of the game itself are highly effective selling points of the game. Show gameplay recordings and share strategies, extraordinary characters, and your unique artistic style. Reveal the elements within your game that make it memorable and unique to new audiences. Also, you can use altered gameplay in your creatives. Not every level you show in the creative needs to be in the game.
Call-to-Action
Don't forget to add a compelling call-to-action at the end of your video ad. Use your game slogan, a catchy slogan, and a clear button to direct users to the next step. Keep up the momentum and transfer your audience's attention to the next action - try next level, achieve level XYZ, purchase?!
Examples:
Great hook
Altered gameplay
Call-to-Action
Why do I even showcase this video when its really terrible? Exactly why I started STOP SEXIST ADS activities. Just stop! But the call to action at the end is really a good one.
💀 Dr. Doom is not amused
One of my industry friends amused me with his direct and honest TL;DRs, so we agreed to share it here too! My friend reminds anonymous as Dr.Doom!
“In the spirit of buy high and sell low (or destroy what you bought) dissolving one Finnish company wasn't enough for Playtika so they launched a takeover bid for Rovio recently. On top of that they announced that they won't be launching new games anymore as everything is lost and nothing is working anymore. A true believer of Doom. Perfection.”
- Sincerely Dr. Doom (https://mobilegamer.biz/playtika-suspends-all-new-game-launches-until-marketing-landscape-improves)
🎮 two & a half gamers #54
Honest discussion about the current market landscape with a special guest Eric Kress. Is mobile f2p dead? Is UA really dead? What does the new frontier of game development look like? Tune in:
🎧 Listen on Spotify
📺 Watch on Youtube
🦄 Diary of a Dancing Unicorn
Today was a good day.
Hey! We would like to pause our cooperation before the creatives are even tested .. blablabla, because the quality is not at the level we would like it to be.
But you didn’t even test it.
Yes, but we have certain quality benchmarks, which are not even close.
Okay, no problem. Let’s part ways, it’s totally understandable.
Yep. We can offer you partial compensation for the concept work.
I won’t charge you anything if you don’t use these concepts in the future.
OK, let's hereby consider the project and agreement terminated. Please acknowledge this email and let's consider it concluded.
…fast forward a few months..
What the fuck?! They are using 2 of our concepts in their creatives. This creative is getting the most spending across all the channels.
Well done! Let me send you a congratulations email to these assholes.
Today was a good day.
🤺 Quote of the week
“Matej, I had a lot of fun watching this session (Can you imagine? FUN listening to folks talking about SKAN” Saadi, email conversation
Everything is dead & everybody lies
🧞 Level up yourself
I launched a YouTube Channel. I'm putting a ton of energy into creating valuable content I think you'll like. Check out the latest stuff, and give me a like and subscribe.
👾 Nostalgia games
Do you remember this game? What did you play when you were young?
The Clue! One of the first games translated into Czech language!
Play here: https://www.retrogames.cz/play_683-DOS.php
🥦 Before you go
All tips for killer UA operation are stored here! Check them out before you go to sleep.
Thanks for reading this week’s newsletter!
Please do me a favor and share this with someone in your network who you think would benefit from the insights and brutal honesty. It would mean a lot to me!
Take care, everyone! See you next Monday!
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