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阐述PR在手机游戏开发中的重要性

发布时间:2013-02-20 14:43:10 Tags:,,,,

作者:Freyja Melhorn

在手机游戏产业中,如果你从未向别人分享自己的游戏,它就只会被忽视掉。

所以PR的角色真的非常重要。

向App Store提交一款游戏并看着它在一夜间变成畅销游戏的确是件非常美好的事,但在现实世界中这种美好却很少出现。

PR(from ah-seo)

PR(from ah-seo)

执行PR的最佳时刻

PR的作用该何时显示出来是取决于游戏类型,质量,目标用户以及IP或工作室是否够突出。

对于一款带有深度且具有一定用户基础的硬核游戏,PR最好能在发行前9个月将游戏呈献给新闻记者,但是对于游戏循环较短的休闲游戏来说,这么做便是在浪费时间。

一般情况下,硬核游戏最好能在测试前公开,而休闲游戏需要在发行前至少4至6个月公开。

不幸的是,很多工作室总是会错过执行PR的最佳时刻。我们经常会收到一些发行数周,但却陷入迷失的游戏的支持请求。

发行后再生成关注便是件非常困难的事,因为iOS中的编辑器只能呈现一些最新发行的产品。

内部PR或外包

不管是在内部执行PR还是求助于外部PR代理,这都是关于可用人员的问题。特别是对于小型工作室来说,他们一般都没有专门的PR负责人。

我们也常常会低估PR的工作量。如果只是编写并发送新闻稿的话,那就不需要PR代理了。

PR的主要工作通常来自后面阶段,即必须重复核实每个联系对象,并修改联系列表,因为个体联系人可能发生了改变,或者必须扩展媒体发布列表。

如果公司不能永久授权某位员工去落实PR工作,那么他们最好能够请求外部代理的帮助。

摆脱大量的联系人数据库不仅意味着你可以减轻工作量,同时还能与这方面的专家展开合作与交流,向他们咨询相关事宜。

甚至对于媒体以及一些大型公司来说,选择永久的外包合作或基于逐个项目的方法都是有价值的(游戏邦注:例如贸易展会或个体游戏),如此当公司内部的PR已经致力于其它项目时,他们也能够在某些特殊时期分担剩余的工作量。

各种元素

到底该选择怎样的代理取决于各种不同的因素。

专业性:那些从未与代理合作过的人可以先咨询一些友好的工作室,让他们进行推荐。

当然了,你也可以自己做判断。重要的是,代理总是能够证明自己在手机游戏领域拼搏多年所拥有的专业性——你可以根据推荐信或对方服务多年的客户进行判断。

便宜没有好货:也许你需要保证较低的成本,但是通常情况下便宜的服务总是不尽人意。我们都清楚,一个两人团队所提供的全面支持服务不可能指望每个月要价500€。

如果在多个要价中有2至3个要价是位于同一价格范围内,但其中一个明显较低,那我们就应该警惕这个最便宜的。在任何产业中都充斥着这些害群之马,他们很可能将工作交给低薪的实习生,而我们必须想办法避免这种情况。

从其它方向来看这一观点也同样适用。即我们应该更慎重地考虑某些报价是否是在开空头支票。

亲密关系:我们总是会选择那些自己熟悉且要好的代理。我们也很难相信那些带有批评信息的合作伙伴,更别说每天与他们一起工作了。

内部完成

如果你决定在公司内部完成PR,那你便需要考虑几点内容。首先,你需要创造一份目标列表。即在此列出那些会在游戏所选择的平台上进行评论的媒体们。

当你创造了一份媒体联系人列表后,你就需要花时间去浏览并分类——根据平台,杂志是否仍然存在以及编者是否仍为该杂志工作等元素进行划分。

如果你拥有更多当前的直接联系人,你的游戏发行便会更成功。除此之外,你还需要避免各种垃圾文件内容,因为编者们可不希望接收到一些自己不感兴趣的信息。

简单却有效

在电子邮件宣传册中,我们最好能够在3个句子内便吸引编者的注意。如果电子邮件一开始只有一些枯燥的内容,编者便会直接忽视它。

为什么?因为重要网站的编者每天都会手到好几百封新闻稿和宣传册,他们没有时间在一份10页的文件中逐页寻找重要信息。

如果是在电话上,你最多也只有2分钟时间去陈述自己的游戏,如果你想要将自己的产品推荐给一本杂志,你就需要为宣传做足了准备。

资产

图像是经常被忽视,但却非常重要的一个元素。对于编者和读者来说,图像总是非常重要,并且经由视频能够更好地解释一款产品。

如果没有视频,那最好能够包含富有表现力的截图和应用图标——这对于识别价值和游戏杂志数据库中所包含的内容来说非常重要。

但是我们并不能直接在联系人身上负压太多文件。对于新闻稿,我们应该附加一些具有网页分辨率的图像。也有些人直接提供新闻稿FTP的下载链接。

付费评论

亲爱的独立开发者们,我想说的是,有许多手机游戏网站会在联系后给你发送许多带有评论包的电子邮件,有时候还包含了超过4位数的高额报价。对于那些没有能力每天获取所有信息的公司来说,这一价格是合理的。

但是事实上,任何专业的杂志都不会收取这些费用,所以请将你的资本投资在其它地方吧,如预告片,广告,PR,推销或合作上。

不管这些网站给出何种理由,付费获取评论都不是一种常用的方法。

本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,拒绝任何不保留版权的转载,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

The who, what, why and when of mobile games PR, by Freyja Melhorn of swordfish PR

By Freyja Melhorn

In the mobile games industry, if you don’t tell anyone about your game, the odds are that it will simply be overlooked.

So at some point PR work needs to be done.

Just submitting a title to the App Store and seeing it become a million-seller overnight would be fantastic, but it very rarely happens.

Getting it out there

Exactly when the PR work needs to begin depends on the genre, the quality, the target audience and the prominence of the IP or the studio.

Introducing a game to journalists nine months before release can make sense for a hardcore title with game depth and a corresponding fan base – for a casual game with a significantly shorter game loop, on the other hand, it is a waste of time.

In general, a core title should be announced no later than the completion of the beta, and a casual game at least 4 – 6 weeks prior to release.

Unfortunately, it often happens that a studio misses the moment for PR. We frequently receive requests for support for games which have already been published weeks earlier and were simply lost in the shuffle.

Generating attention after publication is very difficult, because editors in the iOS field typically only report on actual new releases.

In da house

Whether the PR work should be done in-house or by an external PR agency is initially a question of the available staff. Particularly for small studios, there is frequently no dedicated PR manager.

The volume of work required is also often underestimated. Just writing and sending out a press release doesn’t require a PR agency.

The major work only begins later, when every contact has to be addressed again individually and the contact list has to be revised because the individual contacts have changed or the press distribution list simply has to be expanded.

If the company doesn’t have the option of permanently delegating someone for PR work, booking an agency is frequently worthwhile.

Apart from a large database of contacts, this means an enormous relief from the workload and you have – at least in terms of communications – a reliable partner with the right expertise who can also function in an advisory capacity.

Even for medium and large companies, it is worthwhile to outsource work permanently or on a project-by-project basis – for example for trade fairs or individual titles – in order to pick up a surplus load appropriately for specific dates when the in-house PR division is already working at capacity on other projects.

The X-Factor

Which agency to choose ultimately depends on a variety of factors.

Expertise: Anyone who has never worked with an agency before will do very well to get a recommendation from a friendly studio.

Of course, you can also go looking for yourself. It is important that the agency can clearly demonstrate years of expertise in the area of mobile games – for example with references or current clients that have been supported for years.

Cheap isn’t better: Your costs obviously need to be and should be kept as low as possible, but the cheapest offer is not necessarily the best. It should be clear to everyone that an all-round, care-free package with support from a fixed two-person team cannot be expected for € 500 per month.

If two or three offers out of several are in a similar price range, but one is significantly lower, caution should be exercised with the cheapest. And as in every industry, the black sheep among agencies, who quietly have the work done by poorly paid interns, should be avoided.

Naturally, this also works in the other direction. Offers that promise the moon at a clearly arranged price should be considered with just as much care.

Affinity: In case of doubt, you should always choose the agency for which you have the greater affinity. Otherwise, it can be difficult to trust your counterpart with critical information and work closely together with them on a daily basis.

Doing it yourself

If it is decided to do the PR in-house, a few important points must be taken into account. First, a target list should be created. Here the media which actually report on the platform on which your game will appear are selected.

If you are able to get hold of a list of press contacts, you should take the time to look through it and sort it – by platform, whether the magazine still exists, whether the editor still works for that magazine, etc.

The more current direct contacts you have, the greater the likelihood of publication. Apart from that, it is a way to avoid landing in the spam folder, because editors have been provided with information they are not interested in.

Simple, but effective

In an e-mail pitch, the editor’s attention has to be gained in a maximum of three sentences. If the e-mail contains nothing interesting at the beginning, it will simply be deleted.

Why? Because the editors of important websites receive hundreds of press releases and pitches daily and have no time to find the important information on the last page of a ten-page document in an attachment.

By telephone, you have a maximum of two minutes to present your case. Therefore, the preparation of such a pitch is one of the most important things if you want to effectively plug your product to magazines.

What about assets?

One often-overlooked but extremely important point is images. For both editors and readers, graphics are an important factor and a product is best explained via a video.

If one is not available, expressive screenshots and the app icon – important for the recognition value and inclusion in the game magazine’s database – are included.

However, contacts should not be immediately overwhelmed with multi-MB files. For a press release, a few select images in web resolution should be attached and high-resolution images can be made available on request. Even more elegant is offering a download link to a secure press FTP.

And finally… paid reviews

Dear indie developers, there are very, very many mobile game websites which, after contact, will send you countless e-mails with review packages, sometimes with hefty fees of up to four figures. Often this is justified with a lack of capacity for all the queries received every day.

Nevertheless, no professional magazine will charge these fees, so please invest your money elsewhere. For example, in trailer production, in advertising, in PR, in merchandise, in cooperations.

Regardless of what these sites say, paying for reviews is not the usual approach.(source:pocketgamer)


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