Holiday Prep for Mobile Game Developers

HOLIDAY PREP FOR MOBILE GAME DEVELOPERS What's the gift of the season this year? All those shiny new mobile devices! Once the wrapping is savagely torn off those presents and in the recycle bin, you can expect a surge in downloads from the app stores. KNOW THE OPPORTUNITY If last year's metrics are any indication, the opportunity to acquire new players and increase engagement and monetization during and after the holidays is huge! PLAYHAVEN NETWORK GROWTH 450M 350M 250M 150M MILLIONS OF NEW PLAYERS 50M 2012 Q1 2012 Q2 2012 2012 2013 Q3 Q4 Q1 SESSIONS PER GAME 20K 16K 12K 8K PLAYING A TON MORE! 2012 Q1 2012 Q2 2012 2012 2013 Q4 Q1 Q3 GET READY FOR THE HOLIDAY SEASON AND BEYOND! Are you ready for the holiday season? Show YES off! Have you integrated all your third party SDKS? NO NO YES | Are you sure you've tested everything? New SDKS, Push Notifications, and deep linking, Oh MY! esure you're working with the most impactful SDK versions available from your service providers. With PlayHaven's newest SDKS, you'll have access to Push Notifications, and PlayHaven Rewards, Virtual Goods Promotions & Announcements that you can Make NO deep link to anywhere in your game, Apple iOS7 support, a totally rebuilt Android SDK and COPPA compliance for peace of mind. Test and test some more. YES If testing during the year is vital, testing before the holiday rush is even more critical. You only have one chance to make a first impression, so make it a good one. This is an important step to ensure your players have a great experience. Have you baked in enough time to test your integration? How about your holiday placements and campaigns? Include testing in your holiday planning and make the best possible impression on your new players. Do you have an acquisition plan? NO Did you know you could impact your organic installs? YES More players, more players. Develop an acquisition plan to capture all those holiday installs. Utilize ad networks and cross promotion opportunities. Develop a calendar of ad campaigns from now until post-holiday and promote your game to similar genres and demographics to ensure high quality conversions. Start testing at least 3 different variations of the same message and creative to the same audience and then optimize. Once you fine tune what's working, quickly ramp up your spend as you get closer to December and on into January and February. NO ***** Get featured Previously, in order to make it in Apple's Top Charts, you needed to have lots of downloads in a short amount of time. Well...that seems to be changing. You now have a new lever to optimize your game discovery by getting your current players to review your game. As a result, you'll see your ranking positively impacted and therefore increase your chances to be featured in the top of the charts. Getting featured on Google Play is not an exact science either but player ratings definitely help. Check out our blog post to see how to increase awareness of your ratings with PlayHaven Announcements. YES NO Are push notifications part of your engagement planning? YES Did we mention free push notifications? Download the newest SDKS and get access to our PlayHaven Push Notifications - completely free while in beta. Already a great way to improve player engagement, our Push Notifications can also help you improve retention and monetization. We've built them specifically for game developers - so you can trigger a reward or promote a discount on a new virtual good or level. This IS the season of giving after all. Are you really ready for the holiday season? NO YES Holidays are almost here. The leaves are changing colors and Jack Frost will soon be nipping at your nose. Time to add some holiday cheer to your game. Doll up your game icons, backgrounds, and characters in holiday gear. Consider special holiday prices or holiday-only in-app purchases. Use Virtual Good Promotions to increase awareness. Awesome! Want to help the rest of us with our lists? In just a few weeks, millions of new gamers will happily unwrap new smartphones and tablets. Make sure your game is part of the holiday fun. The time is here to get your planning in gear. Get ready. Get set. Go! O playhaven 2013 brought to you by