The Game
Black Desert Online
is a sandbox-oriented massively multiplayer online role-playing game published by Kakao Games.
The Aim
ComboStrike managed all performance marketing and premium branding efforts for the 2016 launch of Black Desert Online across Europe and North America, and continues to support their marketing efforts to date.
The overarching goal was to increase brand awareness and generate direct sales.
The Approach
ComboStrike promotes Black Desert Online through a careful mix of brand awareness and performance marketing.
Awareness is generated through:
• Booking direct premium websites fitting the gaming genre
• Programmatic media buying, based on profiling, prospecting and retargeting
Programmatic data is then used to amplify performance, with:
• Focus on sales during prelaunch and launch phases
• Affiliation (CPA+CPS model)
• SEM (Bing, Google)
• Retargeting and prospecting
Long-term, we continue to optimize their campaigns through:
• Affiliation (“try-for-free” model) – generating registrations for the game at a 30% conversion rate
• Programmatic and Advanced TV campaigns related to each game update
• Influencer activations
The Results
ComboStrike managed to generate positive awareness around the B2P model of BDO during the pre- and launch phase, which led to the high numbers of sales and ongoing in-game monetization of high value players. The mix of awareness and performance marketing and the close cooperation between ComboStrike and KakaoGames’ marketing departments made the launch of BDO in the West the most successful launch of this franchise worldwide. In addition, the long term campaign planning has enabled the development of additional marketing channels such as affiliation with CPA “try-for-free” offers, and influencer marketing with creative approaches.
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