Text/Yiguang Flow

The day before yesterday, the 2024 Game Advertising Ecology Summit was held in Guangzhou, mentioning a large number of dry contents, among which Grape Jun is most concerned about the next trend of the industry: the transformation from "seeking quantity" to "seeking stability".

In recent years, it can be clearly felt that the game industry has not only heated up product competition year by year, but also the various fields that have extended to games are slowly changing to the Red Sea, the most typical of which is the field of advertising and marketing. The summit mentioned that mobile game revenue will increase by about 5% in 2024, and the number of game users will be 674 million, which also continues to show a slowdown trend.

It can be judged that the game market will become more saturated in the next few years, and the direction of game manufacturers will naturally be forced to turn back, and they will tend to pursue better products, more flexible marketing, and more diversified layouts...... In short, when doing the game business, everyone will be more stable and sustainable.

Focusing on the field of advertising and marketing, "how to jump out of traffic involution" has become the most urgent problem to be solved. At the Eco Summit, three key growth points were proposed: creative supply, path expansion, and marketing growth. So how to deal with the next challenges, and how to seize these growth points? This is an issue facing all manufacturers.

01

The future of the gaming industry,

It's about ecology

Judging by the trend over the years, it will be more difficult to do business alone in the gaming industry in the next few years.

Products with a single long board, a team with a single ability, and a distribution strategy with a single style of play will all face greater risks. For example, the product must not be empty of technology and art, but also have to be more refined and commercialized, as well as in line with the target audience, otherwise it is likely to be a quick Waterloo after launch, and a recent masterpiece in the industry confirms this risk point.

Similarly, it is more difficult for a team with a single ability to stand alone, and the pressure from different directions will increase; The issuance of products cannot rely solely on buying volume, content marketing, or the traffic pool of a specific platform.

For example, in the two-dimensional track that caught fire a few years ago, most manufacturers only have R&D capabilities, but lack more means to open the market, and there is still a large number of shutdowns after two years. Another example is that a pure purchase of the second game was recently picked up nine times in the past seven years, which attracted a large number of players to torture them.

In comparison, several successful masterpieces this year, such as "Black Myth: Wukong", "Love and Deep Space", "Singing Tide", "Three Kingdoms: Conquering the World" and "Delta Operation", are basically cases that focus on comprehensive capabilities. And the cases of failure are often one side of the other.

There is no doubt that in the future, with the saturation of industry competition, the fewer shortcomings in the entire business chain around the upstream, midstream and downstream of products, the better, otherwise these shortcomings can easily become a breakthrough for competitors. Especially in marketing, it is often necessary to start the layout long before the product is launched, and it is necessary to continue to invest until the product is shut down, which involves all aspects of the details.

The growth points mentioned in this summit rely on the three major ecosystems of Tencent Advertising: traffic, content, and technology.

In terms of traffic ecology, WeChat video accounts, mini programs, and PC users are still growing, and this growth will supplement and drive the growth of the mini game ecosystem, and then the market of IAA and hybrid will also expand. For all game products, abundant traffic means sustainable and healthy competition space.

In terms of content ecology, Tencent's resources are still strong. It can not only leverage the player's interaction ability through the whole line of "graphic + short video + long video + live broadcast + AR + offline", but also rely on the resources of "novel x film and television drama x variety show x music x animation" to enhance brand influence through adaptation/authorization/linkage. Moreover, after the development of short video content on the video account, a complete content territory has been built, and it will also be a blue ocean traffic pool in the future.

In terms of technical ecology, after the implementation of Tencent Advertising's new advertising (3.0) this year, it is good for crowd positioning, circle breaking, creative expression, and starting volume. With AIGC technology, the productivity of advertising creativity will also become higher.

Based on the overall changes in advertising media, game manufacturers are bound to understand and understand the overall situation in the future, in other words, the competition for the head of the game industry in the next few years will be a competition ecology.

Of course, this does not mean that game manufacturers should build their own ecosystems, after all, the ecological construction of games is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and cannot be achieved overnight, but how game manufacturers can mobilize market resources and quickly assist themselves in building a position with "ecological influence".

This is equivalent to a game manufacturer buying parts from a middleman in advance, and then integrating a weapon called "ecology" on its own. In contrast, the three growth points mentioned in this summit are based on this line of thinking.

02

Path expansion: walking on multiple legs,

How many more?

In the face of fierce competition, the strategic trend of betting on a certain track, looking at a certain market, and taking a single path is increasing, so domestic game manufacturers will naturally try to leave a few more back roads, or look for opportunities to walk on multiple legs.

In particular, those paths that can enter the game quickly, achieve quick results, and have long-term stability and obvious overall growth are more valuable, otherwise competitors will follow suit a little, and the new path will have to become a red ocean. At present, there are two more reliable paths:

The first is multi-market and multi-terminal distribution, such as the common PC and App dual-end, App and Mini Game dual-end, and then cooperate with the strategy of simultaneous distribution in domestic and overseas markets. The second is the conversion of IAP mini games to hybrid monetization, which is also a high-value path mined from the perspective of media.

Let's take a look at the path of the IAP mini game to the mix.

1. Mixing is the flashpoint of growth.

In 2023, the growth rate of the number of hybrid mini game products and advertising consumption will exceed 100%, and the year-on-year growth rate will continue to remain at 100% in 2024, and 60% of the IAP mini game purchase consumption is mixed mini games.

2. The advantage of hybrid change is to raise the ceiling of business.

First, the commercialization penetration rate is higher. The comprehensive monetization rate of hybrid mini games is 3 times higher than the pure IAP payment rate, covering a wider range of groups and more fully tapping user value.

Secondly, the post-payment design can increase retention and overall payment. The first-day payment rate of hybrid mini games is lower than that of IAP products, but the higher user retention increases the overall paid volume. Its first-day user ad penetration rate is lower than that of IAA products, but the experience is better than that of pure IAA products, thereby improving the retention rate.

In addition, CPAs are more competitive. At the product level, diversified commercialization means more revenue streams; In terms of advertising, the advertising revenue of the hybrid can be converted into the system's buying and bidding, forming a positive cycle of competition and improvement.

It can be seen that the choice of mixing has been an inevitable choice for IAP Mini Games to maximize profit margins.

3. How to understand mixing and how to practice it?

Regarding this issue, the platform also gave a complete answer to the game industry at the end of the year. In fact, since the beginning of this year, Tencent Advertising and the University of Hong Kong have jointly carried out research on hybridization, using a more scientific and rigorous A/Btest to dispel practitioners' concerns about whether to enter the hybrid.

At the node of this ecological summit, Tencent Advertising finally integrated the research results of nearly a year and launched the "2024 Mini Game Hybrid Monetization Commercialization White Paper", which describes in detail how to clearly understand the positioning of mixing, the principles of designing hybrid products, the misunderstandings that may be encountered in mixing, and how to quantify and design advertisements for different categories such as cards, simulated management, two-in-one, tower defense, and meat pigeons, and even how to place them.

In order to provide more practical reference guidance for the industry, the platform is also silently providing support for manufacturers, advancing and retreating together, and laying a solid foundation for a longer-term road in the future. Due to the length of the article, it will not be expanded here, and interested practitioners can get the full report at the link to read the original article at the end of the article.

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Let's look at the App to expand this path to mini games.

First of all, we must avoid a misconception. From the perspective of multi-terminal collaboration, the relationship between the App market and the Mini Game market is actually complementary, and exploring Mini Games is not a shift in positions for Apps, nor is it a resource tilt, but a growth strategy that can be grasped at the same time.

For example, Diandian Interactive's "Endless Winter", this product first started from the App side overseas, and returned to China after accumulating experience, starting with a small game to cut into the market, and then gradually developing to the App side, so that now multiple terminals go hand in hand.

Just look at its actions in China,You will find that its mini game version has several times stronger buying capacity than the App,At present, the mini game is still the main body of buying and operation,But from an overall point of view,Its playing style is actually what the market is suitable for,What kind of play is used。 This kind of thinking and flexible strategy is exactly what is needed for multi-path collaborative development.

Secondly, judging from the market data, the mini game market is large and fast-growing, which is worth trying and expanding here. This year, the size of the mini game market reached 39.836 billion, a year-on-year increase of 99.18%, and maintained rapid growth for three consecutive years, of which the proportion of internal purchase revenue is also increasing year by year, which shows that the consumption power of mini game users is increasing, which is worth excavating.

Then the mini game development cycle is short, there isThe accumulation of apps can be expanded faster, and there are many distribution channels and monetization models for mini games, which can ensure the rapid implementation and recovery of costs. For example, the old casual SLG "Pocket Shock" has become more and more expensive to buy in the late App era, but the life of the game has been extended after the launch of the mini-game version, and the mini-game version has also had a miraculous effect in controlling the cost of buying and sharing fission.

Finally, the mini-game is more flexible, allowing for quick trial and errorThe experience advantage of the app is realized into a competitive advantage in the market. For example, the different playing methods adopted by the two leading manufacturers have achieved excellent results:

The first is to focus on creativity, first try and error to find out the high-sticky gameplay process, and then cooperate with the mature commercialization system to operate; The second is to focus on a single category of gameplay, and then from light to heavy, each theme is done again, and then eat through the market of different themes in the entire track.

On the whole, as competition intensifies, mini-gamesThe two paths of IAP transformation and App exploration and expansion of mini games will become a necessity for some manufacturers in the market competition. With the help of the ecological resources, playing experience and technical tools behind the platform, it is undoubtedly more likely to take advantage of the growth ride.

03

Marketing Growth: How Much More

Blue Ocean Flow Pool?

In addition to the above-mentioned trend of the product side moving to multiple legs, we can also see that the competition in the issuance side buying volume market is also intensifying, and the popular platforms in previous years have become a red ocean. It can be said that in the next few years, game manufacturers will also need to continue to tap new traffic pools to resist the pressure.

At the same time, in the process of solving the problem of buying volume, we cannot give up the possibility of further product influence. Therefore, the way of game brand marketing also needs to constantly find breakthrough points to face the increasingly discerning tastes of users, and to ensure that its own brand can break through among many products.

In the second half of 2024, it is clear that there are two new selection opportunities in Tencent's advertising ecosystem: the breakthrough of the mutual selection ecology of WeChat Channels; Changes in the specifications of IP linkage and IP implantation marketing methods.

Let's still look at the WeChat video account to choose each other first.

1. Channels are forming a new blue ocean of traffic.

Judging from the general trend in the past, almost all short video platforms are changing to the red ocean, and in the face of the increasingly solidified influencer ecology, unless the brand uses a lot of resources to smash the integration of product and efficiency marketing, it is difficult to break free from the quagmire of reduced cost performance.

Although the video account was also coerced by the general trend before, there was no clear ecological solidification phenomenon internally, and with the finalization of the mutual selection of the video account this year, it will usher in a window period of rapid integration of resources, but the ecology has not yet been solidified. At the same time, based on the volume and growth rate accumulated by the video account in previous years, this window period has produced an explosive trend.

According to Tencent's financial report in Q1 this year, the total user time spent on Channels increased by more than 80% year-on-year, which clearly confirms this trend and also means that in the next few years, it will be a traffic blue ocean worth developing.

2. The advantage of Channels is not simply a new traffic pool.

Admittedly, the most obvious advantage of Channels is that it has not been overexploited, and the CPA is much lower than that of other platforms. Looking further, it can also be found that the video account relies on the WeChat ecosystem, and its user quality is correspondingly higher, the payment power is stronger, and the probability of game big R is greater. In addition, the overlap of private domain users of Channels is low, which is more convenient for game manufacturers to mine and screen users.

3. This year, we can clearly see a large number of successful cases relying on video accounts.

For example, according to the gameplay attributes, "Happy Fishing Master" chose the talent track of food and creative handicrafts, and then selected the talent cooperation that is highly suitable for game users according to the user portrait of the talent account, and finally created a very down-to-earth leisure and entertainment atmosphere. In the end, the click-through rate of the delivery component of "Happy Fishing Master" reached 3%, the average CPM was 4 yuan, and the activation payment rate and activation cost were better than the industry average.

Similarly, "Sword and Expedition: Departure" also achieved a high exposure effect of 17% completion rate and 1.5% interaction rate through the cooperation with the food experts on the video account, and used the communication strategy of game + food culture, and finally combined food culture and game works to quickly cover a large number of users.

"Journey to the West: Return" also cleverly used the platform and content characteristics of the video account, relying on the strict selection of food accounts dominated by male fans and advance cooperation, and used the actual CPM of 14 yuan and the low investment of 1.2 yuan in the interaction cost of the game to achieve interaction with a large number of users, and finally tapped enough target users.

4. Overall, the shelf life of the video account is longer.

Channels are now characterized by large volume, high efficiency, and privacy. The accumulation in the early stage ensures that the volume of Channels is large enough, and the emergence of mutual selection not only creates a blue ocean but also increases the utilization rate of resources, while the relatively private environment delays the infection of the traffic pool of Channels by the competition in the red ocean. Therefore, in the future, the traffic pool of Channels can maintain a longer blue ocean period.

Let's look at the new way of IP linkage and implantation.

1. IP still leads the market.

In the first three quarters of 2024, the actual sales revenue of China's game IP market has reached 196 billion, of which client game IP accounted for 62.3%, a year-on-year increase of 9%, mobile game IP accounted for 24.3%, and game products accounted for more than 70% of the top 10 entertainment products. At the same time, the results of user surveys show that more than 90% of the surveyed users have used IP-related products in the past year.

2. IP cooperation is moving closer to socialization.

On the battlefield of traditional boutique mobile games, since the beginning of this year, the cross-border integration of game products and pan-entertainment content has reached the level of deep binding, such as games + variety shows, games + sports, games + music and other more diversified ways.

"Peace Elite" x "Supernova Games 5"

"Lost in the Wilds" x NBA

"Naraka: Bladepoint" X QQ Music Lin Junjie

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Through the gameplay of game + pan-entertainment marketing, we can see the demands of game products on whether they can have social influence, whether they can go out of the circle as mass entertainment content, and the advantages of pan-entertainment content in terms of performance tension and ability to break the circle. Popular products are bound to go through this step when they reach a certain stage of development.

3. Mini game + IP fusion breaks the circle.

With the involution of the mini game buying market and the trend of high-quality products, it has become a new solution for manufacturers to build a circle-breaking advantage with IP linkage and drive long-term LTV growth.

"There is a good field in this city" X "The Sword Comes"

"Qingyun Jue: The Demon of Demons" X Immortal Rebellion

"Qingyun Jue: The Demon of Demons" X covers the sky

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On the whole, tapping the blue ocean of traffic ensures the breadth of the product, and raising the brand power consolidates the depth of influence of the product.

04

Creative supply: solve the source of the product

Content Supply

Whether it's getting a few more ways to get a product or finding a few new traffic sources, these methods always solve the problems in the middle and lower reaches of the game business chain. At the source of products, purchases, and marketing, the core elements that determine the success or failure of a game are creativity after all.

In the past, the capital cost required to introduce external ideas, such as IP licensing, was not low, and cultivating ideas by yourself, such as original IP, was easy to pile up the time cost. If you want to try to innovate the gameplay, you will have to face the high upfront cost of time and money, and the investment may not necessarily produce results.

As a result, most of the top products now avoid gameplay creativity, and use art resources and technical expression to cover up the lack of content creativity, even when introducing external creativity, they will be more cautious, combined with the problem of long research and development cycle of large-scale products, which makes it difficult for head products and mainstream tracks to break the shackles and conceive enough novel ideas.

In contrast, the field of mini-games is where the volume creativity is the strongest. The volume of materials to buy, the product theme to be volume, and the gameplay mechanism to be volume...... As a result, all kinds of novel products appeared, such as unpacking, cutting trees, salted fish, snails, mowing grass, and fighting zombies. The pressure to come up with new ideas after these products cannot be summed up in a few words.

Tencent Advertising has come up with another measure this year, that is, to open up its own resources and provide creativity to game manufacturers from the source. Specifically, through two measures:

1. Youchuang Cup Mini Game Creative Contest - co-sponsored by Tencent Advertising and the School of Future Design of Beijing Normal University, and co-organized by senior manufacturers and media representatives in the industry. Through the mode of the competition, on the one hand, it stimulates students' creative talents and provides them with a first-line opportunity to practice in the industry, and on the other hand, the selected excellent works can also continue to provide top ideas and bring more inspiration to the game industry.

2. IP matrix supply. In addition to mini games, Tencent, which integrates ecological advantages, also has a huge reserve of various IPs, which can also be continuously provided to developers for research and development, and complete game ideas and materials in a short time.

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In general, as the platform continues to supply source ideas to the game industry, there are more opportunities for more creative and novel game themes and gameplay to emerge.

05

epilogue

Looking at the core signals and many good news released by this ecological summit, it is foreseeable that the pattern of the game industry will quietly change in the next few years. The game business has long since transformed from an event of fighting for luck and betting on probability to a comprehensive strategy of pursuing steady and comprehensive development.

As mentioned at the beginning, the future is about ecology, especially the head products will pay more attention to ecology. In other words, starting from the idea, to the product, traffic, marketing, to the community and derivative ecology, the height of each link will determine the upper limit of a successful product. It's just that from the perspective of R&D, doing a good job in the ecology is too broad and too grand to take care of, and it is far less easy to make a good game.

Therefore, the ecological collaboration model is likely to become the choice of most first-tier products and manufacturers, which shows the core value of Tencent's advertising ecosystem for game manufacturers: to share the pressure of creative supply, path expansion, and marketing growth, so that developers can focus on creation and nurture better works, so that the game business can not only earn money in the present, but also hold the future.

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