2. Our Product
Our product, Snail Trail, is an upcoming interactive game for children. The game
focuses on a character called Lucinda who is a snail that lives in the kingdom of
Gardonia. Lucinda is a princess snail and when her husband, the prince, is
kidnapped she must journey across the garden to rescue him from the evil King
Slug. Snail Trail is a fun loving game which focuses around one touch control.
The game is an endless scroller and platform game and while it is fun and easy
to play, it is also challenging and interesting. The game is aimed at children and
casual gamers. Snail Trail will be free to download from the App Store, which is
easily accessed from iphones/ipads/ipods, as well as being available on the
Android Store.
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4. PRICE
Snail Trail will be available for free on the app store because we believe that
this is the best way to initiate sales and create a buzz. People are more likely
to download a game, especially if it is for their children, if it is free according to
the ISFE research on gamer habits (shown below). We would however include in-
app purchases which would allow the user to upgrade their character and
download additional levels however we need to careful when doing this because
many parents have issues with in-app purchases, especially after the scandal
with Apple where a child spent over ÂŁ1000 on in-app purchases by mistake. To
avoid this and other instances of bad publicity we would charge a low price for
the in-app purchases but also we would hope that this would convince people to
buy more. We could also generate revenue inside the game by including
advertisements which other companyâs
would pay us to complete as well as
having a premium version of our game
with all of the add ons and no
advertisements at a cost of 99p.
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5. Place - App Store
The App Store is Appleâs official online download page where users can get applications for their
devices. On the App Store, there isnât any children's options on the app sections or in the game
sections. This is most likely because the majority of parents will download apps on behalf of their
children and so the section has been named âfamilyâ. This tells parents that the games included in
this section are appropriate for children to play the games with their parents and gain help from
them if theyâre too young to play alone. This is where our game would be placed if we sold it on
the App Store because whilst most of our target audience (4+) would be capable of playing the
game alone, it is likely that parents will want to play with them or simply make sure the game is
suitable for their child. Having our game in this section of the App Store will make it more likely to
be seen by our target audience rather than if we put it in the adult game section or the football
games section for example. There are also other versions of the App Store for different device
users such as the Android Play Store where we could sell our game.
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6. Place - Disney & CBBC
The Disney Channel is a TV show/ website aimed at pre-teens and adolescents
ages 10 - 16 while Disney Junior programmes are targeted at younger children
age 3 - 9. CBBC is a brand name for BBC which is a TV channel targeted at
children aged 6 - 12. CBBC also has a brand named Cbeebies and this is a
digital channel aimed at children 6 and under. If we were to advertise on the
Disney site we would use our Banner Ad to link directly back to the App Store
or our own website where users can download Snail Trail. Most of the
advertisements on the Disney and CBBC website are for their own games and
TV shows and it is likely that it would be extremely expensive to advertise our
game in these spots however one way which we could target these consumers
without having to pay large amounts for promotional space would be to
advertise on Google or other search engines so that when consumers are
searching for Disney they would notice our advertisement and hopefully, as this
would be relevant and targeted towards them, would click on the advertisement
with the aim of downloading the game.
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7. Market SegmentationWe have placed our
game towards the
casual sector of the
graph because the
game can be played
by anyone due to its
simple mechanics
however it still
requires basic game
knowledge and skill
due to the typical
game mechanics such
as moving platforms
ect.
Niche Mainstream
Casual
Core
Our game is equally niche
and mainstream. The
game is targeted at
children however it is
open to everyone in this
age group, we think it
will appeal to most
children as it is not an
overly niche game and
little skill or game
knowledge is required.
A Niche Market is a market which may not appeal
to everyone, it is a small portion of a market which
appeals to a specific type or group of people.
Casual games require little skill and can be player
during short time periods, for example on the bus.
A Mainstream Market is a large portion of the market which
most people will fit into, mainstream products are products
which appeal to the masses.
Core games are often complex and skill based. Core games
appeal to serious gamers who play them continuously, not as
time fillers.
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8. Market Segmentation PieChart
10%
55%
35%
Socialisers Achievers
KillersRichard Bartle was an author who, in 1996, wrote a paper
about Gamer Psychology. Bartle theorised that gamers could be
identified and split into the four following categoryâs:
Killers - focus on winning, rank, and direct peer-to-peer
competition. They are engaged by leaderboards and ranks.
Achievers - Â focus on attaining status and achieving preset
goals quickly and/or completely. They are engaged by
achievements, either determined by the game or themselves.
Explorers -Â focus on exploring and a drive to discover the
unknown. These players may end up knowing how the game
works and behaves better than the game creators themselves.
Socialisers -Â focus on socialising and a drive to develop a
network of friends and contacts. They help to spread
knowledge and a human feel, and are often involved in the
community aspect of the game.
Our game, Snail Trail, mostly appeals to achievers as shown in the chart above. This is most
likely due to the repetitive nature of the game and the fact that the whole goal of the game
is for the player to beat their previous highscore. Our game would probably appeal more to
killers if we added an online leaderboard and we could also increase our appeal for the
socialisers by creating a system which allows players to post their highscores to social media
sites.
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9. App Store Ratings
We have decided to give our game this rating. Applications in this category contain no
objectionable material. Having a 4+ Rating means that we can market our product to children
aged 4 and over which is helpful as according to a Guardian article, 28% of 4 year olds own a
tablet for playing games.
4+
Drugs No reference to drugs
Imitable Behaviour None
Language
No speech or text with strong
language
Nudity No nudity
Sex No sexual references
Threat
There are no scary or unsettling
images
Violence Salt balls are thrown at the snail
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11. Legal Considerations
We will need to make sure that our competition to win the free add
on is fair and that it is done based on download times so that we
can prove this is fair. We will advertise the rules of our promotion on
our website and ensure that the people who won are fairly chosen
through viewing everyoneâs individual download times.
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12. Despite the childrenâs app market being incredibly large, $1.5B
with an expected increase to $2.3B by 2017 (according to
venturebeat.com) there is a surprisingly low amount of
advertising directed at children this is most likely because
children are too young to be surfing on the internet and then
there would be no point so instead they are marketed towards
their parents.
One way in which Snail Trail could fit in with this trend would be
to attach our advertisements to Facebook, this way when
parents are scrolling through their timelineâs they would notice
our advertisement. Facebook advertising is also relatively easy to
set up and the costs are not too high for our game.
Place - Facebook
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13. Above is a venn diagram which shows some of the competition which our game may face when
launched into the market. All of the games have been organised into different sections, Endless
Runner, Cartoon Style, One Touch Control & Side Scrolling. The games which overlap in certain
areas take on both of these elements. The games which overlap all of the segments are the ones
which will be the biggest threat to Snail Trail as they will be very similar to our game.
Our Competition
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15. Audience Profile
Despite Appleâs first Ipad and the hoard of tablets that followed
being aimed at adults, use of tablets among five to 15-year-olds
in the UK tripled between 2012 and 2013 (from 14% to 42%)
and is still set to rise, according to The Guardian. This means
that our product has an excellent position for sales growth due
to the expansion of the market because our product is aimed at
children. We also believe that because of the strong female lead
in our game and the colour palette used, the game is more likely
to appeal to young girls rather than younger males however
there is no reason why the game would not appeal to boys.
Why is this our target audience?
Our ideal individual member of our target audience would be
female and 8 years old. Her name is Emily. Her interests would
include having sleepovers with her friends, taking part in
different sports (for example: Gymnastics) and watching TV
with her younger sister. The TV channelâs sheâs generally
interested in would be CBBC and Disney Channel, as she feels
like sheâs far too old for Cbeebies (although she does watch it
with her little sister). Her favourite TV showâs are Austin and
Ally and Shake it Up. Emilyâs favourite colour is purple and
would be classed as quite a girly girl. She uses her mumâs ipad
to download different games onto and loves adventure games.
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16. Questionnaire
We identified that market research may
be one of the best techniques when
trying to gather information about who
are game would appeal to and so we
have created a mock up of a
questionnaire which we could use.
We would ask this questionnaire to a
wide range of people in order to see
which demographic is most likely to
purchase our game.
We would be especially interested to find
out how many children play games and
which games they like most as they are
our target consumer and so if the result
of this questionnaire was that they donât
tend to play games we would have to
alter our target audience.
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17. Meeting Minutes
To the left are our meeting minutes from the
meeting we had to discuss the plans for our
marketing campaign. We brainstormed possible
ideas and discussed what the best course of
action would be in order to maximise
downloads upon the release of our game.
We decided to create a short video about
stepping on snails as we thought this would be
a fun way to promote the game, as well as
having a banner ad and creating a short book
on how to make your own snail.
At the end of the meeting we discussed the
actions to be taken, by who and by when and
decided that while Ellen and Jack would
complete research into the products, Abi and
Hazal would begin to draft ideas for our
products so that we could gain feedback.
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19. Aims of Our Campaign
- To raise awareness of people who are unaware of what are game is and
to get people talking about our game (including our target market but also
other people who have just heard about the game).
- To promote the game online as well as using other methods to get
people understanding what our game is (The banner and also by ďŹlm).
- One main aim is that it needs to appeal to the target audience (which is
4-6 year olds).
- We also need to advertise the game in a way that will make it look fun
and interesting to play so it grabs peoples attention.
- To attract other audiences which wouldnât normally be interested in the
style of our game.
- To develop a fan base, both online and ofďŹine.
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20. Targets For Our Campaign
- To get at least 10,000 clicks on our banner ad in the first
month. This would tell us that people are actively interested
in our game.
- To reach at least 1,000 downloads on the first day. Our
game is small scale and so we are not holding huge hopes
for itâs release but would still like to reach a large amount
of sales.
- To get good reviews
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21. Promotion
(First 100 Downloads)
On release day the first 100 downloaders will get a free snail
shell colour add on. This will hopefully increase the number of
people who want to download our game immediately and this
should lead to higher sales on the first day which will result in
positive reviews.
This promotion will get people talking about the game and should
create a positive brand image.
We will need to make sure that we regulate the winners carefully
and we will do this by checking with Apple and Android to see
who the first downloaders were judging by time, we will also
need to make it clear to everyone what time the game is
released and when/where.
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22. Direct Advertising
(Banner)
The reason why we have created banners is because they will come in use before and after the game is released. For
example if we released the banner before the game was released it would be created just to create anticipation for
the game and to raise awareness about our game, however if we released the banner after the game was released
then we would actually have a link for people to click on that would take them directly to the app store where they
could download the game. The banners work much better after the game is released because there is actually
something for the person to click on. The reason why banners are so helpful and important is because itâs a very
useful way to share your game with people around the world at a very fast pace. This is because you can have your
banners on popular websites such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. These are very popular websites which get
millions of people logging on each day and if you were to have your banner across the top of the main page then itâs
very likely that all those millions of people will see it and click on it. The more eye catching and interesting your
banner looks the more people will see it and will want to click on it so it is very important for the banner to look
colourful and eye catching. The type of websites that we would put our adverts on would have to be websites that
appeal to our target audience, so it would be websites like Cbeebies, CBBC and the Disney website. However we could
also put it on websites such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to appeal to our more mature audience of 13 - 16
year olds. This would then increase the amount of people that would play our game.
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23. Direct Advertising
(Video)
The promotional video is to help advertise our game to a vast amount of audiences
who arenât too sure on what the game is about. The reason why we decided to
choose a video to make was to use it as a promotion technique, getting different
audiences to hopefully talk about this. We were thinking that we could link the video
to the banner which would be presented on websites online like Cbeebies, CBBC and
Disney (the websites in which children would most likely browse on). The idea would
consist of the viewer clicking on the banner, which would then take you through to
the website where the video could be waiting to play. Once this is finished, it could
give you the chance of going through to the official website or going back to the
page that they were initially on. Not only would we present this online, but also
advertise it on TV in-between kids tv shows on the same sort of channels (CBBC,
Cbeebies and Disney). The main concept of the short film follows a foot who stands
on a snail, and we see the rest of his snail friends gang up to try and fight the foot.
The end of the video just states âWatch your stepâand having the game title âSnail
Trailâ in smaller text underneath it. This way it still relates to the game, but does it
in an entertaining way which would hopefully get the audiences questioning what they
just watched.
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24. Indirect Advertising
(Build Your Own Snail)
The toy will be used to promote the game.
It will promote the game by giving the
target audience an idea of what the game
will be. Having a make your own snail book
will get the audience interacted with the
product. Another advantage of this being a
book is that the company will be able to
make a profit as the game is free in the
app store. In this book there are the basics
on how to make the snail, to make more
money for the company, we thought that
we should make a more advanced book,
maybe with more detail to the shell, the
body, eyes etc. This product relates to the
store Build-A-Bear, children enjoy going in
choosing a bear a stuffing it and then
choosing an outfit for it. This will attract
our target audience more because its what
they might find interest in doing.
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25. How Do Our Final Products Fit The Audience?
We believe that our products reflect the needs and wants of our audience. All of our products are
age appropriate and we also think that the video we have created will appeal to the parents and
older children as well as our target consumers. The banner could be placed on any site which
childrenâs visit which will generate interest and children are very curious and clicking on the banner
could lead to either the download page or the promotional video.
The data to the left, taken from the ISFE website,
shows that 51% of gamers are under 35 which tells
us that a large portion of the gamer market is
young people. Our marketing campaign is targeted
at young people and so should be relevant to this
large portion of the market.
Our products are fairly gender neutral which is good because
only 5% more of the games market are male so in theory our
marketing plan should balance equally between the male and
female audience. We also have quite a wide range of products so
that they can reach the audience in multiple ways, for example
the âCreate A Snailâ book may appeal to mothers who want
activities to do with their children.
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26. We have chosen to release our game on April 11th at the PAX East Convention. This is because itâs
after a public holiday and according to statistics not many people download apps when they are
celebrating events like christmas, this then meaning that we would have more success with our
game if it was not released on celebration events and public holidays. We chose not to release our
game in december because itâs christmas and most people would go into stores like âGameâ to
purchase the more mainstream games for christmas presents. It is unlikely that people would buy
our app as a present as it is digital and not something you could physically wrap, so for us we think
that december would be the worst month to release our game as it would not sell very well.
Release Date
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29. Client Feedback
Do you think that the promotions and advertisements are suitable for our
target audience?
Yes because they are not inappropriate however they could be aimed more at adults.
What do you think of the banner advertisement?
The banner add looks professional and it is good however it is unclear why the consumer would
click it and what would draw them in. I think it needs something to entice consumer into clicking it
or a clear explanation of why they would do so.
Do you like the idea of advertising on CBBC and Disney?
Cbeebies and CBBC do not have advertisements on their sites so this needs to be adapted. Which
sites would you advertise on specifically?
Do you like the concept of the snail book?
The snail book is a good idea however how would we get consumers to buy it? Is it something
which would be given away? This needs to be linked to other products.
What do you think about our viral video?
The idea for the video is great however it is technically a trailer. The video is unlikely to go viral
and so it would be best to use it as an advert. One suggestion is that it could be linked to the
banner advert.
Do you think that our campaign will appeal to our target audience?
Yes, with these changes.
Friday, 4 July 14
30. Change #1
One amendment to our plan is that we are going to advertise on CITV, Milkshake! and Disney
rather than Cbeebies, CBBC and Disney. This is because the feedback we received stated that
Cbeebies and CBBC do not have advertisements on their website, which is a clear issue. We did
some research into childrenâs TV shows and found that children up to the age of 8 years old
spend at least 70% of their time a day on watching television, from this it is clear that we needed
to tap into this market and so we looked into the most popular childrenâs TV channels and found
Milkshake! on Channel Five and CITV.
We found research on BARB (Broadcasters
Audience Research Board) which told us that
the average daily reach of CITV is 694,000
people, it is fairly likely that a large majority
of these consumers would use the CITV
website and so that would be a better place
for us to use our banner advertisement.
We also decided to still use Disney because
they have huge viewer rates and are the most
suitable for our target audience.
Friday, 4 July 14
31. Change #2
The feedback we got from our client mostly states how we should adapt the banner in order to
entice the consumers and how the short video idea is technically a trailer, so instead of creating it
to go viral online, we could use this as an advert. As a group, we thought that we could link the
banner and the short film/ trailer together. One big improvement which we could make for the
banner is to animate the slug in the top right corner of the frame to bounce up and down. This
would then give the consumer a good or clear explanation of why they should click onto the
banner, as its eye catching and drawing them in to see what the banner is all about. To link this
in with the banner idea, we would have the advert shown when the audience clicks on the banner.
When clicking on the banner, it could send them to the official Snail Trail website, where the trailer
is presented, before the audience can enter the actual site. This then could make the consumer
more interested in what the game is, after watching the trailer (as this is indirect so doesnât
initially explain the game) and continue forward to the website to download the game.
The graph shows the percentage of which ages use
the internet occasionally and daily. This links in
with how weâre going to present our banner and
trailer (online) and can give us an insight on what
type of people will be more prone to seeing it
everyday rather than just occasionally. By looking
at the graph we can see that the ages of 9-11 &
12-15 use the internet occasionally, whereas the
ages of 16-25 use it daily the most. This can help
us map out which places to advertise our banners,
as well as putting them on childrenâs websites.
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32. Change #3
From our client feedback, we have gained information stating how the
snail book was a good idea however they had concerns about how we
would get the consumers to buy it. We have thought about these
concerns and in reaction we have decided to adapt our promotional
campaign. Our initial plan for the promotion was to give away free app
upgrades to the first 100 people who downloaded Snail Trail however on
reflection we have decided that the best method would be to give away
100 free âMake Your Own Snail Booksâ. Not only would this be a better
gift and probably persuade people more to download the game, but it
would also promote the book. If people miss out on being the first 100
to download the game they may still want to purchase a book. What we
would do in this instance is produce about 1,000 of the book and put
them for sale on our website. If the book is popular we will restock and if
not we will leave it. This should lead to more people downloading the
game as well as increased downloads for Snail Trail.
Friday, 4 July 14
33. this is what was suggested
this is what i want to change
diagram or chart or data
Feedback i got was this i will do this change based on
this research
Friday, 4 July 14
