Summary
We had a monumental task ahead of us with the competitor products already popular with big media budgets and franschise sponsorships. We just wanted to focus on building relatability over popularity. We personified ourselves as the gamers themselves. We spoke like them, we thought like them, and we rewarded them for being part of the PlayerzPot as their ‘hangout'.
Challenge
We were just in time for IPL - a major source of entertainment for people to spend their downtime at home. We wanted to create a community of game lovers on digital media and our app, and build engagement with them as the IPL season progressed, while giving them a chance to display skills in a different kind of game. We wanted to create a community of game lovers on digital media and our app, and build engagement with them as the IPL season progressed, while giving them a chance to display skills in a different kind of game. On the brink of a major year in sporting and rise of mobile gaming even further, it was imperative that we deliver not just in terms of awareness and engagement, but also in delivering the right experience.
Objective
PlayerzPot was on the cusp of being one of the most preferred fantasy gaming apps in India. The app had seen phenomenal growth, thanks to the huge demand for this category that had risen during Covid lockdowns. While the app itself was one of the top performers in the category, we needed to give it a top-notch digital presence and make PlayerzPot a part of people's conversations on social media.
Strategy
Considering the lockdowns in 2020-21, actual playgrounds were never accessible for sports fanatics. This is where our new brand positioning came into play where we positioned PlayerzPot as ‘India Ka Naya Maidan' - a playground that was open 24x7 and where every kind of gamer was welcomed to play a plethora of games. This was launched with a breakout rap video that captured people's emotions. We measured social media conversations and saw game rivalries and banters were at peak during IPL. We used social listening and identified that team vs team, post-match game conversations were significantly rising. We aligned this observation with our insight that sports fanatics are always looking for opportunities to flex their game knowledge and love for the sport. So we caught their attention through 3 things: Khela Kya Challenge: We created a new social media trend and partnered with influencers and dancers on Instagram to take up the #KhelaKyaChallenge. Through this challenge, we encouraged people to celebrate their game love and big wins with our signature step from the rap itself. Khela Kya Hours: We designed weekly trivia contests that tested our audiences' knowledge and gave them opportunities to win big, even on social channels. Real-time rewards: Apart from just vouchers and merchandise, we rewarded every interaction in real-time with free pot codes, cashback offers - one of the biggest hooks for interaction and engagement on our social channels that would eventually drive people to the app itself. We partnered with fantasy gaming experts and seasoned players, who would guide our audience through every step of the way, comment on performances, the gaming experience, and lay out winning strategies - while advocating for PlayerzPot - even for those who were present on competitor apps.
Data
With this season of IPL, we went beyond and gave anyone who followed or played a sport an opportunity to make their skills count. The idea was to make playing on PlayerzPot part of everyday conversation. For that we had to make sure that the hook was extremely memorable to resonate with our audience and to entice them to play on the app. We needed to be fun, interactive and engaging on all our social channels, in every piece of content we put out.
Solution
Results
The numbers we achieved across platforms showcased the success of our campaign in making PlayerzPot a part of everyday conversation, beyond just fantasy gaming. On the app we saw a rise in game play by 81%! Active users on the platform grew phenomenally by 243% during the campaign period. App installs increased steadily, growing by 2.4% Daily Active Users grew by 1.7x while Monthly Active Users grew by 2.1x, and we retained them even after the IPL was halted! On Youtube, we delivered a massive reach and impressions of 16.03 million, and our Khela Kya rap garnered 6.04 million views! On Hotstar, Khela Kya had delivered a whopping 631.77 million impressions resulting in 286 million views and a VTR of 90% Our social media following has grown by 2x during the campaign and we retained it post the campaign as well. With 388mn in total, our campaign delivered 8.3x more impressions and achieved an increase in reach by 6.2x with 85mn in total
