Gaming Marketing in China is Life
A smart marketing campaign in China doesn't target gamers; it targets everyone. Everyone is a potential gamer.
Above, a recent collaboration between Reverse 1999 (重返未来99) and Pizza Hut in China, during May and June (2024).
The Chinese mobile game from Guangzhou based studio Bluepoch (深蓝互动) had its global launch in October 2023 and has been enjoying big success with more than 20 million users worldwide!
Gaming collabs with popular fast-food chains and other F&B brands are very common in China.
Notably, Pizza Hut had a big marketing campaign with Genshin Impact back in 2022, but other pop-culture IPs are often leveraged this way (in April this year, Neon Genesis Evangelion was everywhere at local Pizza Hut restaurants):
Some Insights and Opinions:
-Gaming in China is very mainstream and openly enjoyed by all demographics (virtue of smartphones/mobile gaming mostly).
A lot of gaming marketing in China simply targets consumers at large, and not just "gamers" specifically.
-Marketing and user-acquisition (UA) are crucial for a F2P mobile game success/survival in a market like China.
Widespread offline campaigns can be seen as part of the UA effort from marketing teams, as they actively spread awareness among the general population and bring in users that otherwise wouldn't be targeted if only "traditional" gaming channels were used (streaming, influencers, in-game ads, gaming communities, etc, etc).
-In-real-life gaming marketing is everywhere in China, mostly for mobile games and for some PC games here and there (rarely console games);
In malls, public transportation and infrastructure, service brands, small retail spaces (convenience stores) and more...
-It's virtually impossible nowadays to navigate a shopping mall in China without seeing gaming ads and collaborations sprinkled all around (if one takes notice of these things).
-On the digital space, the presence of gaming is even more disseminated and constant: digital service platforms of all kinds are strategically targeted by gaming marketing teams (publishers) to reach their intended target audience.
-It's not just passive expository ads. Most of these campaigns provide in-game incentives/content to users who engage with said campaigns.
While most of the gaming action happens on the digital front and online, having a strong offline presence is still important to promote games. It continuously legitimizes, destigmatizes and democratizes the medium across different demographics that don't necessarily crossover in other fields.
This seamless digital and in-real-life presence also helps to provide continuity of the product in people's daily life: "oh, look at that, I'm drinking a boba milktea that happens to have a Honor of Kings tag while I'm also playing the game on my phone during my lunch break".
Was previously unaware of the Evangelion Pizza Hut collab