Jump into IGL City, an interoperable open world platform for gaming and digital experiences. Our open city functions as our start menu, from here you can access a variety of interactive experiences ranging from shopping to MMO gameplay and everything in between!
At the beginning of this campaign, we were determined to expand into the competitive markets of blockchain gaming, while establishing a welcoming community.
This campaign was separated into three phases:
- Community Establishment
- PR Establishment and Co-Marketing
- Pre-Rev User Acquisition
My roles throughout this process were Art Director, Lead Designer, and Creative Strategist.
At the beginning of this campaign, we were determined to expand into the competitive markets of blockchain gaming, while establishing a welcoming community.
This campaign was separated into three phases:
- Community Establishment
- PR Establishment and Co-Marketing
- Pre-Rev User Acquisition
My roles throughout this process were Art Director, Lead Designer, and Creative Strategist.
IGL City is a blockchain-backed social platform. As we dove into the world of Web3, our main challenge was, we were an unknown entity and boostrapped start-up, so we had to be strategic. In order to grow our user base we needed to establish a hero community, users that would promote our product 24/7 out of genuine excitement. Looking into our competitors, a major differentiator was vaporware vs. a viable product. Moving into larger AAA studios, we saw the same factor in which new experiences were promoted at a different quality than the actual gameplay. In order to combat that aspect, we established content circulating the gameplay, lifestyle, and experiences IGL City has to offer - 70% of our content was generated from actual gameplay. It was exactly what our hero community wanted to see, our public discord grew from 0 to several thousand users within 30 days.
IGL City is a place where our users can be expressive. A digital environment where you can be your true self, down to your avatar!
After feeling comfortable with a solid core community, we began showcasing the intricate details and experiences contained within the city. Our main attractions and respawn points were strategically placed for traffic flow next to our "Founder's Square" for paid advertisement purposes, also known as intrinsic in-game ads. This concludes phase 1.
Phase 2 was a little more challenging, as we had to find creative ways to establish partnerships for co-branding and marketing to generate more eyes. One of our innovative features was the ability to purchase merchandise on the platform and have it physically delivered to your door. In order to leverage relationships with already existing brands, we built free storefronts for 8 small companies with an established audience as well as physical and purchasable product. In order to make this offer more enticing, we integrated an API that was beneficial to third party brands - all we needed was their website for full integration. The interaction was simple, walk up to the help desk and press interact.
The purpose of these strategic relations was co-marketing schemes in key locations where our niche customer could find us - indie game bloggers, podcasts, layer 2 blockchains, and other indie developers. This concludes phase 2.
Our user acquisition campaign began with our initial alpha release, two stress tests, the first with 30 users and the second with 100. This was challenging because the point of entry was a downloadable launcher, time consumption for the user, and PC requirements. In order to access the platform a profile with an email was needed, we generated 130 emails and potential customers on our subscription list.
We continued with a targeted CTA funneled into our email subscription list with a $1 reservation slot for early, lifetime access. The city itself is free to play, but there are limitations as far as live events, theatrical releases, etc. This reservation was given the highest tier of membership. The access cost the company nothing, and if the user enjoys the experience, they will bring paying users. We generated over 1500 emails and 300 reservations, adding 300+ more users into our hero community.
We continued with a targeted CTA funneled into our email subscription list with a $1 reservation slot for early, lifetime access. The city itself is free to play, but there are limitations as far as live events, theatrical releases, etc. This reservation was given the highest tier of membership. The access cost the company nothing, and if the user enjoys the experience, they will bring paying users. We generated over 1500 emails and 300 reservations, adding 300+ more users into our hero community.
Throughout this process we utilized gameplay content (outside of our Plague Farms teaser) in order to target our 18-25 year old male audience showcasing both completed and in-development projects. The ad copy was approached with hyperbole and emotional sale propositions targeting the issues within the gaming industry we aimed to overcome.
The campaign was primarily digital and generated significant brand awareness on social media. We surpassed many milestones with a 531% growth rate on our subscription list and 3.15% CTR on our CTA funnel.