App in the Box – Ben Jarris
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About the Episode
I break the normal AppMasters format to bring on a three time guest, Ben Jarris, to talk about what worked during his launch for Drop The Chicken 2. There’s some valuable content about localization, reaching out to YouTubers, and what sponsorships really work. If you’re in games, this is one episode you don’t want to miss.
Ben Jarris was the Digital Creative Director and Co-Founder of App in the Box.
Show Notes
Drop-The-Chicken2 Launch Successes
The keyword for what worked in the launch of Drop-The-Chicken2 is personalization. Here is how Ben did it:
- Using Social Media – Ben picked people from Twitter with a good following, made a photo of them with Drop-the-Chicken2, made sure the photos were really interesting so these people will share them. He also made a bank of funny images on Twitter with the Drop-the Chicken logo prominently displayed that got shared. Ben also gave his paid Facebook and Twitter campaigns the personal touch. He made sure that Drop-the-Chicken2 had an awesome trailer. He shelled out $100 for a Facebook ad that had a video – an incredibly well-done animated trailer of Drop-the-Chicken2 –this trailer was watched by 300,000-400,000Facebook users and this eventually gave Ben his best traction.
- Getting Press – Ben totally went out for the personal approach with the reporters. Having established a relationship with press people through the years, Ben emailed each one with something that was totally meant only for that person. The response was positively overwhelming and most of them replied with a “Yes, send us the link.” The next email was his press kit for Drop-the-Chicken.
- Targeting YouTubers – Ben hit all channels of YouTube that mentioned games and even channels that even just remotely mentioned games. He took the personal approach again by sending a video to YouTube talking about Drop-the-Chicken. Major sites like Touch Arcade and Appdevices eventually picked him up.
- Localization – going local is another form of personalization except that the target is not a person anymore but an entire country or a whole population of speakers of a certain language. This is where Ben hit the jackpot. Having Drop-the-Chicken translated to different languages got him incredible numbers. In China alone, Ben got 40,000 downloads in one day.
- Sponsorships – Ben advises that this is another affordable way to market an app. He cites Slide-to-Play for his app. There is something more personal about sponsorship that sets it apart from mere advertisement. In Ben’s case, Slide-to-Play puta promo of Drop-the-Chicken with a short write-up on every page.
Show Mentions
– Proto.io