PickFu asked us to help them drive sales within the video game sector
Overview
PickFu is an online polling platform that helps clients understand their consumer’s purchasing decisions. It’s split-testing with a difference; PickFu goes beyond simply analysing variables including product names, descriptions, pictures and ad headlines to see how they shaped the user journey by using its polling software to ask consumers why they made their decisions.
There’s no reason you can’t test a video game on Steam marketplace in the same way you’d test a product listing on Etsy or Amazon – and that’s exactly what PickFu wanted our help promoting.
The team at PickFu had virtually no experience of the games industry, so wanted the assistance of a team that was familiar not only with the mobile gaming and F2P space, but which also understood inbound marketing, SEO, PR – and how to bring those elements together.
Client
PickFu
Platform
PC & Mobile
What we did
Global launch PR
What we did
We set to work on a positioning strategy to highlight what the PickFu platform does differently in comparison to traditional AB /split testing methods, and how we’d position this to game studios: qualitative feedback that can be applied quickly and efficiently to improve the quality of their games. To do this, we drew not just on our first-hand experience of mobile game publishing (with both founders of Big Games Machine having worked at mobile game companies in previous roles) but also the development process of PC and console games.
We identified not only that feedback testing isn’t routinely done by game developers, but that most feedback and split testing is done after the game is finished, when it becomes part of the marketing and advertising cycle.
As a result of our research we knew that our primary task was to educate game developers and marketers about how easy it is to test their ideas, using feedback tools like PickFu to easily gather feedback and help them to avoid potentially costly mistakes and assumptions.
We’ve also been working with them to build an educational platform giving advice into testing, with examples of how early and more rigorous testing within a game’s development cycle, such as qualitative testing concept art, iconography and ad creative, can help studios grow their sales.
How we did it
PickFu approached us because of our links within the video game industry, and to help position their offering, we carried out extensive research into game development to find out what testing methods are currently being implemented by studios and why. As part of our gap analysis, we discovered that while developers were testing in concept, alpha and beta, there was no testing in-between these cycles.
Using the PickFu platform itself we also carried out news-related polls to show its value and versatility. Our strategy was to try to create headlines and stories on trending topics such as gamers’ attitudes to loot boxes and purchasing decisions around Black Friday. We also worked with the team to create thought leadership articles and raise their profile within the industry via the placement of bylined articles.
The Results
- To date we’ve generated 57 pieces of coverage secured in a number of leading mobile and gaming B2B publications, including Pocketgamer.biz and Business of Apps. We’ve secured a mixture of bylined articles, comment pieces and news posts based on insights taken from PickFu’s platform (including one of the largest joint reports on toxicity within games ever created)
- We’ve successfully pitched for and secured speaking slots secured at games industry conferences including Develop Brighton, PocketGamer Connects and White Knights where PickFu has been able to discuss the importance of quantitative testing as part of games development and games marketing – directly reaching its key target audience
- The media traction has created important talking points around testing in B2B gaming publications and forums – something that our research showed had not existed before
- As a result of our efforts, PickFu is now firmly established within the industry as the main specialist qualitative testing platforms for video games. The boost to its profile as a result has helped it to expand its client base and grow its revenues
