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 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. And in the past 2 years, the app has 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. We were just in time for IPL - a major source of entertainment for people to spend their downtime at home.
Strategy
To begin with, we flipped the old PlayerzPot look to a new, cool, vibrant personality on social media. The new colours were bold, neon and resonated with gamers in a way like no other competitor did. The logo got a spin, literally, and PlayerzPot became the coolest ‘hangout' for fantasy gamers. Identifying the rising popularity of rap culture, we partnered with India's most rising rapper Kaam Bhaari and created an electrifying bass-line thumping rap - Khela Kya - that painted the world of PlayerzPot in a vibrant, exciting way. Our brand ambassadors and cricketing stalwarts Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Smriti Mandhara brought out their funky side that resonated with audiences' hopes and aspirations, creating mass appeal on social media. We released this rap on YouTube and our social channels as shorter cuts. We knew that people express opinions while watching the match and exhibit second-screen behaviour to flex their game and sports "gyaan". So we caught their attention through 3 things: Khela Kya Challenge: 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: 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. Real-time rewards: 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.
Data
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
