On September 2022, a notable game research company in Japan announced a report to verify the effect of IP collaboration measures in mobile game apps. We will summarize the key takeaways from the report. We referred to the Japanese website by Gamebiz and 4 Gamer.
We picked up an RPG mobile game title called "Kotodaman" as an example and analyzed 3 IPs, "Kimetsu no Yaiba(Demon Slayer)," "The Quintessential Quintuplets" and "Tokyo Revengers" as the IP collaboration examples.
The aims of IP collaboration in general include:
Collaborating with popular IPs and notable IPs to increase brand visibility and recognition
Increase engagement by collaborating with IPs that existing users are interested in
Acquire new users who have not yet been reached
<Below are the summary from the press release>
Acquisition of both male and female users in the "Kimetsu no Yaiba(Demon Slayer)" Collaboration
The “Kimetsu no Yaiba” collaboration, which took place from February 25 to March 22, 2021, has acquired 84,000 new users in the first week
In addition, 77,000 new users were acquired in the week of March 1, the following week, and the number of new users acquired in the two weeks combined reached 161,000. [Graph 1.]
So, what kind of users did this collaboration measure increase?
Looking at the user demographics during the week of the collaboration, the number of active users is increasing for men and women in their teens to 30s.
The rate of increase in active users in their 30s is particularly noticeable
When comparing the week of February 8 and the week of March 1, the number of men in their 30s nearly doubled, and the number of women in their 30s increased more than fourfold.
In addition, it was confirmed that the retention rate during the event period was high for those in their 30s. [Graph 2.]
Acquisition of teenage men in the "Quintessential Quintuplets" Collaboration
Collaboration with "The Quintessential Quintuplets" attracts teenage men Next, let's look at collaborations with the "Quintessential Quintuplets".
In the “Quintessential Quintuplets collaboration held from July 5th to July 19th, 2021, the app could not acquire as many new and returning users as the Demon Slayer collaboration
But still, in the first week of the event, the game has acquired about 50,000 users, including new and returning users. [Graph 3.]
A distinctive feature is the change in user demographics at the time of collaboration, and it turned out that the majority of users who increased were teenage males.
It is a rare phenomenon that only a limited number of users are acquired through collaboration measures for game apps.
The Quintessential Quintuplets” has a track record of significantly increasing the number of active users among teenage males, even in collaboration with other apps.
[Graph 4.]
Acquisition of many female users in the "Tokyo Revenergs" Collaboration
In the “Tokyo Revengers” collaboration held from August 27 to September 10, 2021, the app acquired about 80,000 new and returning users in the first week of the event.
In addition, the app acquired more than 30,000 new users in the week of August 23rd and August 30th. [Graph 5.]
Looking at the changes in user demographics at the time of collaboration, it was mainly women who increased.
Compared to the week of August 9, the number of women in their 20s more than doubled and the number of women in their teens more than tripled in the week of August 30th.
“Tokyo Revengers” has become very popular with women since the anime began airing, and it is speculated that this collaboration measure acquired many female users. [Graph 6.]
The report and data was released by Game Age
Key Takeaways
These data show that collaboration with certain IPs effectively acquires users in specific demographics in Japan.
What is important here is to hypothesize/verify whether the development/publishing company that provides the service can collaborate with which IP to increase the number of active users and whether the user segment targeted at the time of planning has been properly acquired.
In the long-running mobile game business, the question is whether to acquire a new user base that has not been acquired before, maintain the satisfaction level of continuous users, and regain users who have left or who have been dormant/withdrawn.
There are various purposes of IP collaboration, but if the IPs to be combined are mismatched, the expected effect cannot be obtained, and the human and time investment required for development/operation will be lost.
How JetSynthesys Japan can help your apps
JetSynthesys Japan has a marketing team with rich experience running marketing campaigns for international games in Japan.
We can advise on the go-to-market strategy, competitor benchmarking, marketing budget planning, and execution, including ASO, creative productions, media buying, and even running TV ad campaigns. We also have strong relationships with notable IP holders in Japan. Feel free to contact us for a free consultation.
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