-
Organic vs. non-organic buzz – Celebrities (and ordinary players) create both types of buzz for Temple Run. Non-organically speaking, they simply tweet their score using the in-game prompt. Organically speaking, they go out of their way to create original content.
Free PR tip! All mobile games should have a social media sharing element integrated in some way because, put simply, people love to brag. Who better to broadcast your skills and high scores to than a horde of Twitter followers? If it’s quick and players don’t have to log out of the game to use it, players will be more likely post a score. Also, if they use the prepared message that’s auto generated, the product’s positioning is conveyed to an audience exactly as intended. This may then in turn lead to more organic conversations down the line and organic buzz gives more tangible, relatable validity.
Why is organic chatter is the best kind of chatter? Especially among celebrities with a fan following?
Celebrities use Twitter to inform their fans about everything – what they’re doing, where they’re going, when they’re performing, and most relevant here – what games they’re playing. Often times, they’re playing incredibly popular mobile games, Temple Run not being an exception. Temple Run has made waves with players through its viral features and “just one more run” gameplay and it’s an interesting case study to examine some of the celebrity chatter about it—just try and beat LeBron James or Mary J. Blige’s high score!
Celebs are starry-eyed when talking about Temple Run, and if you pay close attention, they’re “talking” about the game in two different ways: (1) non-organically reporting their score with the in-game prompt and (2) organically tweeting new content.
Non-organic (boring ole) buzz
-
“I got 1,042,734 points while escaping from demon monkeys in Temple Run. Beat that! t.co/eD4FAOsj
-
“I got 7,740 points while escaping from demon monkeys in Temple Run. Beat that! t.co/1XwwxKAk
-
Reporting high scores to fans/followers is made possible with the tweet icon that presents itself after you’ve completed a temple run. The button makes it easy and quick to share your score with friends, which takes no effort as the tweet is auto-generated for the player with their score and a taunt inserted. The reach of a celebrity’s tweet is further extended when fans retweet to their followers, giving the game buzz legs and longevity. The tweet below from NBA star “King”LeBron James had 50 retweets and favorites. In addition, 3 million followers could equal 3 million potential impressions, and they may in turn also go download Temple Run.
-
“I got 1,032,164 points while escaping from demon monkeys in Temple Run. Beat that! t.co/bRr0HnMx
-
Though this type of social buzz is great, there is better…
Organic (from the horse’s mouth) buzz
Conversational chatter also exists among celebrity Temple Run players and it has even longer legs than auto-generated score updates. For example, soccer star Tom Cleverley’s tweet had 50 retweets and 27 favorites, and Wayne Rooney’s tweet had 50 for both forms of feedback.
-
-
-
-
This kind of conversation is pure product promotion without sounding like it. (AKA: PR gold.) It’s actually integrated into the discussion and looks natural, not “in your face” promotional. Not only do celebrities challenge each other’s scores, they vent their frustrations about the game…
-
-
Their love…
-
-
And they even use it as a pick up line…
-
-
Temple Run social buzz isn’t exclusive to Twitter either, check out the Instagram photo above — think you can beat Justin Bieber’s high score?
Temple Run has made enough of an impact on these celebritiesthat they’ve actually gone out of their way to write original content about it -not just send out the preset tweet. You cantell this content is uniquely/organically from the celebrity because you can see where the tweetsoriginated. When tweets come from the in-app option, it says so. However, the original tweets (shown here) were sent via Blackberry, iPhone, Twitter, etc. Long story short, Temple Run is interesting enough to generate organic buzz among celebrities, and, whatever this is…
-
-
Organic buzz is important,especially when it comes from someone with a large following, but no matter the reach, it gives additional validity to the product you’re promoting without outright promoting it. It’s getting the product name out easily and when you have celebrities tweeting, their posts will most likely have legs, get “favorited” and retweeted many times over, exponentially increasing viral reach.
Thanks to Storify for making this blog post pop.
Imangi (Temple Run developer) is a TriplePoint client.
Tag: imangi
Attracting the Non-Gamer
Last week, while chatting around my kitchen table with a friend, she pulled out her phone and proceeded to play a round of Temple Run while we continued our conversation. Taking a cue from her, I whipped out my phone and began playing as well. And there we sat, talking as we individually played our games; eyes on our phones, concentration focused on not running into a tree or getting attacked by demon monkeys. As a non-gamer (I am reluctant to identify myself even as a casual gamer), this was an extremely unusual situation for me to be in. I have never connected with friends over Xbox LIVE or hung in on a Friday night playing Mario, but I am increasingly finding myself in situations where I am bonding and interacting with my friends over an iOS game.
I have never, ever, been a “gamer.” I may have dabbled with some Sims or Guitar Hero, but prior to installing Temple Run I had gone years without repeatedly playing any videogames. While a love of videogames was something I could conceptualize, comparing it to my love of books, it was never something that I personally experienced. I blame that on my horrible hand-eye coordination.
There are roughly 100,000 games currently available in the App Store. The mobile gaming market has grown exponentially in recent years, garnering attention from people who have never owned a console or handheld gaming device, but who own a smartphone. The smartphone has quickly captured a previously untapped market of gamers, getting Dad — who hasn’t played a video game since Centipede at the arcade — to spend spare moments slinging birds at pigs. Recently, the success of mobile gaming has even sparked discussion on the end of handheld devices.
As an iPhone owner for years, I still was never attracted to the games that entertained my friends, using my phone primarily for email and, well, phone calls. There was a gaming revolution occurring around me, but I was primarily immune to the draw of the game. What about Temple Run changed it all for me? As a self-proclaimed non-gamer, I base my addiction on its quick and consistent gameplay. I can pick it up on my two-minute subway ride or do back-to-back runs for an hour and it’s the same enjoyable game. Graphics are irrelevant to me. As someone who has never consistently experienced the almost life-like animation of certain console games, the visual gaming components are not high on my list of importance. Instead, it is the extremely simple, repetitive, yet exciting gameplay that keeps me starting up the only game I have on my iPhone. And small allusions to my childhood fictional idol — Indiana Jones — didn’t hurt at all.
Temple Run breaks taken while writing this blog post: 5
*Imangi, the studio behind Temple Run is a TriplePoint client.