Low Cost non mainstream media marketing plan for launching a smartphone game in South East Asian Markets

s of India, Singapore, Malaysia. Objective: Launch of the FunCards Poker game app on iOS and Android in the markets of Malaysia, Singapore target date 15th January 2013 and to reach 1000 downloads in a 3 week time frame from date of launch. Target Market: Smartphone based Poker gamers in Singapore, Malaysia. Smartphone penetration in Singapore and Malaysia and it is therefore logical to plan the launch there. Additionally from a Nielsen report on usage trends in Malaysia 56% report games as major app used (http://www.digitalnewsasia.com/node/107) and here is further research that is cited (http://www.newmediatrendwatch.com/regional-overview/90-asian?start=4)

Some research reports available in the public domain are appended with this document as critical for decision making and market selection which discusses the regions Telecom ARPU, usage dynamics etc. The marketing activities around launch of a smartphone app can be broadly put together in 3 stages: (1.) Pre Launch (preparation) (2.) Launch (3.) Post Launch The 'pre' launch marketing - this is hugely important and always overlooked and the proposed steps here are: 1. Pre Launch (immediate): This step helps gain early data; specifically email addresses of people who have tried the app out and are early pre beta to beta launch users. The reason the early email addresses are hugely important to as these are people who are anticipating the launch, and these users are most likely to leave you a positive review. These positive reviews will be the first ones visible to the public and that's hugely important to drive downloads and gain enough traction to get a space in the charts - where one sees more organic downloads. At this point we need to ensure that the pages are pushed through social networking channels. At this stage the idea is not to push too hard and 50 - 100 emails will be a great start and make a big difference. At this point a splash page musssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
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be created on a site like Launchrock.com It is also imperative to note that keeping people's attention for a whole minute with a thoughtfully designed and informative one minute video explaining it and showing it in use. People are more likely to spend time watching it. It also gives blogs something to embed and share. 2. Banners: we need to at this point create banners which 640100 iphone \ 25 kb \ jpeg or png. These will be needed for cross promotional pushes. The idea would be to reach out to as many applications around your niche as possible to see if they would be willing to show an ad of the game for a week whilst being launched. Many developers are happy for a set fee and again, these can be good to give you a burst of downloads straight after launch. 3. Public Outreach: A press/product page for after launch is also vital and today when creating a press release, it's hugely important that the press have a link to download more information about the application. This should include a folder with your screenshots, app logo, press release and other variants. The idea is to maximizing chances and if all the activities are targeted and coordinated they are that much more likely to attract buzz around your launch. The most important part of this is creating a gripping press release that describes your product perfectly and gives a bit of background around the people/person behind the product. This is needed for launch day and needs to be done professionally and should include high resolution screenshots, images of your App Icon, and most importantly a text file or some editable format that describes what your app does and why. Unfortunately, most bloggers are more likely to copy and paste a description than to spend thoughtful time with the product to come to their own conclusions. Do also remember to post the press kits online, but at a URL that is not publicly linked to and then send the link to anyone who inquires about the app. 4. Localization: at this point it may make sense to invest in localization to create localized and translated app descriptions for the application in the target languages of Hindi, Malay, Mandarin and Cantonese. The idea here is to be prepared to open up your distribution channels by translating your descriptions. 5. Compelling screenshots: Screenshots are now at the forefront of the mobile App Store ecosystem and that is the first thing an user sees which helps him or her decide to take the next step to download or not. The existing (pre release) screen shots need to be overhauled and it is here about the opportunity to take a download form a potential user. Screenshots often overlooked are critical for App Awareness. Here are some sample typical examples from the Apple App Store that can be a starting point to the redesign and final deployment of a similar interface for the card game: - http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/p... - http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/r... 6. Identify and engage reviewers: For effective app off take and adoption by users it is very critical to be reviewed by the blogosphere and YouTube reviewers who can be reached out to on a personal level and asked to review after launch. YouTube is a huge driver of traffic to social sites and also mobile websites. If you can capture the attention of a YouTube reviewer that chats
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about mobile, again this could contribute reviews and downloads to your application to improve other potential downloaders views. This can be looked as a though leader seeding stage in the marketing as most of the reviewers tend to shape thought and perception in the users mind. Listed below from Sabahan.com (http://www.sabahan.com/2007/02/06/50-most-influentialblogs-in-malaysia/#comment-16468) which provides a comprehensive list and also the methodology adopted. These are some influential Malaysian blogs compiled in 2007 and the data is therefore dated. Additionally here is more information on the top influential Malaysians which must be looked at to see if there are possibilities of involving them in the marketing/endorsement of the game http://www.malaysiandigest.com/features/74812-malaysias-top-10-most-influentialpeople.html Most Influential Malaysian Bloggers based on Technorati Scores: No Blog Title Technorati Rank Rank: 3,594 (1,026 links from 585 1 Yasmin The Story Teller blogs) Rank: 3,750 (874 links from 569 2 Afdlin Shauki blogs) Rank: 21,514 (324 links from 157 3 SultanMuzaffar blogs) Rank: 22,088 (298 links from 153 4 Lagu Top Masa Kini blogs) Rank: 234 (4,828 links from 2,406 5 kennysia.com blogs) Rank: 8,367 (589 links from 345 6 Alex Allied blogs) Rank: 8,976 (531 links from 323 7 Hot-screensaver blogs) Rank: 10,439 (1,131 links from 297 8 5Xmom blogs) Rank: 12,698 (669 links from 254 9 smashin pOpstar blogs) Rank: 13,733 (439 links from 236 10 cheeserland.com blogs) Rank: 16,256 (398 links from 202 11 minishorts.net blogs) Rank: 18,289 (282 links from 182 12 Patric Teo Tokkok blogs) Rank: 21,668 (348 links from 156 13 Fireangel blogs) Rank: 22,088 (264 links from 153 14 jasiminne anorexic penguin blogs) Rank: 22,371 (381 links from 151 15 A Gonzo Journal blogs) Rank: 23,740 (457 links from 142 16 As Suanie Sees It blogs)

Category Entertainment Entertainment Entertainment Entertainment Personal Personal Personal Personal Personal Personal Personal Personal Personal Personal Personal Personal
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17 ShaolinTiger.com 18 MichaelOoi.net 19 SapiensBryan.com 20 LiewCF.com 21 FriedBeefs Tech 22 Amanz.net 23 CyberHackz.net 24 Raymond.CC Blog 25 RotorBlog.com

Rank: 25,286 (337 links from 133 blogs) Rank: 26,568 (290 links from 127 blogs) Rank: 604 (2,676 links from 1,577 blogs) Rank: 3,346 (1,532 links from 613 blogs) Rank: 20,119 (356 links from 168 blogs) Rank: 21,013 (430 links from 161 blogs) Rank: 21,381 (558 links from 158 blogs) Rank: 27,690 (276 links from 122 blogs) Rank: 30,287 (170 links from 112 blogs)

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These activities need to be achieved before the launch day. There are over a billion apps now live over all the App Stores and Markets. You're not going to get noticed just because you have an awesome product, people need to see it and download it to realize that. Launching a new application is a worthy piece of news for some people; Journalists love to be first, therefore reaching out to them straight after launch gives you the best chance of coverage. Launch 1. The Launch: Try to launch on a Tuesday, never a Friday, never a Monday and never on the weekend. The thinking is that on Monday people are recovering from their weekends away, they will be up to their neck in it. Tuesday is key as it gives you four days to achieve a rank before the weekend, which is when most downloads occur, if you can get into the category ranks by the weekend - you will see a positive effect on your download numbers and you will rank longer for the following week. 2. Submit the PR: The FIRST thing you need to do is submit your press release and always submit these to http://prmac.com - this service is inexpensive and has huge reach. You should pay $20 for the extended service - these releases are picked up by serious players in the mobile industry. Similar services like PRWeb also exist to ensure that the PR gets picked up on a wider basis. If you really want to extend your reach, you can use more premium services like NewsWirePR - these are much more expensive but have 80,000 + industry influencers who could make a big difference. 3. Get social: Use personal (founders, key employees) and the business social network page and your friends social networks to push out updates and launch information. Social marketing (Facebook and Twitter announcements) are hugely important for early reviews and those extra
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downloads could be the difference between rank 25 and 26. Breaking in to the top 25 is the ultimate goal. It gets by far the most 'eyeballs'. 4. Reviewers: reach out to the influential bloggers and YouTube reviewers noted down prior to launch. Use the opportunity for delivering information about the app to them and hustling them to do a review on YouTube. If people do review it, tweet it, rinse and repeat. Post launch. 1. The period after the launch, is when you want to activate your cross promotional campaigns using the banners you created before launch. Use active cross promotion from a network of Applications, similar to your niche and try and pay for around 1000 initial clicks to boost rank. There are many networks which do a PPI (pay per install) program which you can user to monitor downloads. These can be expensive but essentially you are buying users so this will help massively. Some basic research seems to indicate that around 30% of all app traffic is from inapp advertising and cross promotions. 2. Forums and Social Engagment: The day after launch you should have started to write and create threads on Forums. MacRumours, TouchArcade, Tuaw - etc etc, threads spark discussion and if people see discussion they want to become involved. In order to become involved - they need to download the app and be certain to point towards the links for download on the platforms that the app is available on. At this point there should be a systematic process driven follow up on any coverage received. Thank you notes must be sent to the people who covered the application. Use Social media to drive engagement at this point by tweeting their posts and write comments on the articles. The objective at this point should be to seed Forums and Spark Conversations which increases engagement and drives adoption.Continue to create more threads, respond to people have written and responded on post and follow up all YouTube Reviewers and bloggers identified. Send people in the application a push notification to leave one positive review if they are enjoying the application 3. In a weeks time the application should have good traction and if it is gaining traction and sticking in the charts them the activities have yielded results. This is also the time to consider perhaps an increase your budget on cross promotional advertising and there are also some services which give a huge burst of downloads to your application called FreeAppaDay and AppO-Day. These are not cheap ($5,000 - $25,000) but they will usually guarantee ranks in your category. It's important to understand this isn't free. You should keep a significant portion of your application budget behind for marketing. 4. This is also the time to consider invest in mainstream Advertising Campaigns: Awareness is going to be crucial at this stage so you will need to do everything you can to spark the attention of people from target market. Initially we can start small by investing into online display ads, mobile display ads and Facebook ads. The combination of these three types of ads can present you with an opportunity to drive people directly to your app or leads for info acquisition. Here are a few prerequisites for an effective campaign that should be kept in mind:
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Captivating Photo: The idea that a photo can say 1000 words is very accurate. Photos are very important when you develop advertising campaigns but every photo can be perceived in a different way. Take time to test multiple photos with the ads and see which ones spark the most interest or click through. Perfect Headline: Your headline has no choice but to be short and sweet. Take the AIDA approach with your headlines: Capture Attention, Spark Interest, Insight Decision, Drive Action. If you can do this you will find success and be able to get a user to go from simply someone aware to someone downloading your application and sharing it with their friends. Call to Action: Tell them to click or download, look at monetizing the download experience for first time users by proposing a play off where the first 100 downloads get free gifts, extra points, in app currency etc..

This plan was prepared by Soumya P. Dhar, Bangalore, India Dated: 12 th December 2012 http://www.about.me/soumyapdhar

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