Marvel Contest of Champions recruits new gamers with immersive out-of-home campaigns

BACKGROUND

As one of the industry leaders in developing entertaining, immersive, and highly social multiplayer mobile games, Kabam is adept at merging consumer behavior with the art of game design. Marvel Contest of Champions has grown to be one of Kabam’s most popular games, an arcade-style fighting game in which over 170 different Marvel Super Heroes and Super Villains, such as Spider Man, Groot, and Wolverine, face off head-to-head.

CHALLENGE

The native mobile format of the game excluded a large segment of gamers who didn’t yet embrace the mobile gaming platform. How could Kabam’s team of experienced UA managers increase usage among their core user base while also introducing Marvel Contest of Champions to non-mobile gamers? For inspiration they turned to the roots of gaming itself – the arcade.

SOLUTION

The concept revolved around two key components: A re-imagining of the classic super hero trading card and the classic arcade cabinet format. Partnering with Raw Thrills, Dave & Buster’s, and Marvel, Kabam released hundreds of Marvel Contest of Champions gaming cabinets into Dave and Buster’s arcades throughout North America that dispensed Champions Cards – dynamic trading cards featuring one of the characters from the game. When a gamer started the game a Champions Card was dispensed, encouraging the gamer to try the mobile version of Marvel Contest of Champions. But to effectively convert arcade gamers into mobile gamers, the team needed a way to seamlessly direct them to the mobile game and measure their activity. A QR code powered by OneLink transformed the Champions Cards from a collectors item into an effective user acquisition channel: Once scanned, the QR code either added the character featured on the Champions Card to their mobile game or directed those who didn’t have the app to download it. Not only could Kabam rely on the stability of the solution, they could be confident their users were being directed to the most valuable destination every time – without custom configurations or interstitial pages.

IMPACT

With OneLink the UA team had the same granular attribution data they relied on for their online campaigns, allowing them to see the specific arcade locations and card characters that drove the highest number of downloads and the ultimate lifetime value of each acquired user. The result was a frictionless and automated user experience, with reliable attribution built right in. Kabam now had a clear view of offline campaign performance and could attribute all relevant activity, opening their team up to an entirely new channel of customer acquisition and re-engagement. Initial results were very positive, showing particularly high value customers being acquired through the campaign, boosted time spent in-app for QR-code acquired user), and lifted ARPU.

LOOKING FORWARD

To capitalize on the success of their initial campaign, the team is creating an updated run of “Series 2” Champions Cards for Marvel’s Contest of Champions. These new cards will feature an even larger QR code with a more prominent placement to catch the eye of more users to increase conversion from the arcade game to the mobile app.