Marketing / PR: Has anyone used Appency? Appular? TriplePoint?

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by Rainier, May 22, 2012.

  1. Rainier

    Rainier Well-Known Member

    Apr 16, 2012
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    Hi all, in the process of developing my app, I've often heard from the wiser folks here at TA that I absolutely need to focus on marketing. Otherwise, it's like a tree falling in a forest that nobody hears.

    I've heard good things about TriplePoint, mostly incidental offhand remarks about how good the staff are (I think the venerable Hodap himself mentioned them). Has anyone actually hired them to market and promote your app? What was your experience and would you go with them again with the benefit of hindsight?

    How about Appency? And Appular? I've heard mixed reviews about Appency, but those came from comments 2-3 years old, so maybe they've had a chance to evolve a bit.

    Appular also seems nice, but I'm wondering if anyone has found their premium pricing to be worth the cost in terms of the eventual increase in sales for your app.

    Any input, whether you've used them or just heard of something they did to affect your impression of them, please share!

    Thanks in advance,

    Rainier
     
  2. AppVersal

    AppVersal Member

    Feb 29, 2012
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    You need not look any further than AppVersal(dot)com. We are the best at what we do. And all our customers agree!
     
  3. mr.Ugly

    mr.Ugly Well-Known Member

    Dec 1, 2009
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    Berlin, Germany
    are you so good that you don't even have a proper imprint and need to hide who you are from potential clients? is being from india so bad if you do your job good (as you say but don't proove)

    what apps did you help sell? talking about clients but having nothing to show off is a bit off.. not?
     
  4. mr_wexer

    mr_wexer Well-Known Member

    Mar 6, 2011
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    Thats a bit harsh... wait a minute it's not too harsh at all! They guarantee some fake Twitter and Facebook followers and 3-5 reviews on probably their own no traffic sites. Jesus christ AppVersal.... dodgy! :confused:
     
  5. AppVersal

    AppVersal Member

    Feb 29, 2012
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    We deliver everything that we promise. The followers and likes are completely targeted. Only targeted followers will follow you back. We don't use the mass follow method or the no-password required method. We use your Twitter account and follow genuine people (developers) who follow you back. All about a community and building trusted relationships. We are here for the long run and are changing the way Apps are marketed effectively.

    About the reviews, we have them published on top App review sites with whom we have partnered. Not small sites. It's all the marketing at which we are pretty good.
     
  6. AppVersal

    AppVersal Member

    Feb 29, 2012
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    Go try any of our competitors and you'll notice the difference. Customer satisfaction is our #1 priority at AppVersal. And we pride ourselves on the customer support that we provide.
     
  7. mr_wexer

    mr_wexer Well-Known Member

    Mar 6, 2011
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    #7 mr_wexer, May 22, 2012
    Last edited: May 22, 2012
    OK but you still haven't given an example of a single customer you've had and who are these high profile partner sites? Just one game that we may know of? Please enlighten us and then we can start taking you seriously.

    If I go to any of your competitors sites I can see straight away who they've partnered with and the titles they've done PR for. Your site is just a few hollow promises atm sry.

    Also I just noticed that you're using the #IDRTG to generate most of the followers for your customers. Indie devs can access this themselves, this is not a service you should be charging for m8 sry.
     
  8. MelissaMarie

    MelissaMarie Member

    Mar 23, 2012
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    PR & Marketing at Zaah, Social Media coordinator v
    New York, NY
    TriplePoint held a meet up a few months ago around the corner from us in NYC that was all about doing pr/marketing for your own games. They seem like a really solid company, really involved in the indie community and want to see it grow. I met some of them personally, and I think they are definitely worth it - however, I have absolutely no idea what their pricing is, so they may not be within reach for smaller budgets.

    If I can ask, what's your marketing budget like? If it's less than $5k I'd be interested to see if an agency takes you on. Also, what are your expectations for them, to raise sales? Brand awareness? Combo of both?

    At my company I've been doing the pr and marketing solo, with limited resources. So far I've found that the most valuable tool for a company is to have a voice, someone talking to the community - if you're low on budget and can do that internally, maybe that's the right route for you. If no one on your team wants to/cares to talk to people, it's worth hiring an outside person or agency.

    It definitely helps to get someone with connections to major gaming site editors, but in my experience, all the connections in the world can't guarantee placement if the editors don't like the game.

    I don't have experience with those other companies you listed, but I'd be ware of these things:

    - PLEASE don't waste money on follow-for-follow campaigns. If someone tweets for you, who understands your goals and can post neat content that isn't just scheduling out advertisements, that's worthwhile. If they're just going to follow other people scrambling for coverage, that's not worth much. If you want to raise your twitter numbers, you can buy followers, but they will never retweet or reply to you or help you in any way, except to fool silly people.

    -BEWARE the line that you'll get published on "top app review sites." Many of these sites often just republish press releases, or are paid for reviews. If you want to go that route, I can tell you how to do it free of charge, but it's never raised our download numbers.
     
  9. Airwalker

    Airwalker New Member

    May 22, 2012
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    You may want to rewrite your website copy. Not sure which one trumps what ;)

    Under FAQ
    What is your money back policy?
    If you believe that any of the services provided by us did not meet your expectations, we will refund your ENTIRE money back. No questions asked.


    Under Refund Policy
    Refunds will not be provided to users on the basis of satisfaction.
     
  10. mr_wexer

    mr_wexer Well-Known Member

    Mar 6, 2011
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    - I've a little experience with TriplepointPR and Appular and can give a really ballpark idea of cost. For a 6-7 week PR blitz around launch which includes lots of extras it starts around 8,000$ and can go up to 10,000$.

    - For longer term relationships of around 3 months and a few different campaigns it's around $15,000. So the longer you want to work with them the cheaper it'll work out per month.

    - These companies only work with apps they think they can help sell and they won't touch an app that doesn't hit their quality bar. Their all good folks I've worked with and won't take your money if they don't feel they can help. Maintaining relationships with the media with high quality products is key for them, unlike PRMac which is a bit more scatter gun.

    Hope this helps.
     
  11. David Phan

    David Phan Well-Known Member

    Feb 27, 2012
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    President & Producer
    Vancouver
    ZING! You got served Appversal!
     
  12. Rainier

    Rainier Well-Known Member

    Apr 16, 2012
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    Hi Melissa, thank you for the thoughtful response! The other day, I hunted down some previous comments in the forums here from a manager at TriplePoint, and he provided a link to that meetup you were talking about. The audio on it is horrible, but there are helpful bits in there if you can turn up the volume and pick out what they're saying.

    And I agree with the importance of finding people with strong relationships in the field. That's been my recent discovery, and one of the reasons I started looking at the group I mentioned above. There is a higher cost, but I imagine there's a virtuous circle in there, where at some point the extra money spent would get you just enough push to get you past that "gravitational pull" and all that extra publicity pays for the extra marketing costs. It all depends of course on the quality of the game, like you said.

    And again, I agree with your other comments (all my research is leading us down the same path): follow-for-follow is a complete waste of time, energy, and possibly money (if you spend money on places like Twiends). The quality of the followers is low and I imagine it has a payoff equivalent to banner ads - a very low ROI. And when you're an indie developer, it's all about the ROI.

    As for my expectations, it's about raising the sales, but primarily by helping me do the launch correctly, e.g. writing a great press release, getting advice on finishing touches to my web page, leveraging industry contacts to help get those review requests accepted come launch time, and so forth. I'm a new fish in the pond, so raising brand awareness doesn't have as much importance to me; if I was a studio putting out game after game, then those scale economies that come from brand recognition would help out more. I'm not anywhere near that stage yet.

    Thanks again for sharing!

    Rainier
     
  13. HTWGames

    HTWGames Well-Known Member

    Oct 10, 2011
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    Game Developer
    Toronto/Vancouver
    This is about the most accurate answer I can second. We are looking at getting in with TriplePoint in the coming months. So far they are interested in working with us, which is great news... it's going to cost a bit, probably about 10k, but if it helps with the exposure then by all means it's worth it if you think you have a title that is by far something that is of quality or note. I know a lot of people say that...but when you have it, you'll know it. Otherwise it's a major crap shoot...and it's just experimentation. The problem is proper experiments can cost boatloads of money. Otherwise it's just injecting yourself into it all and riding the charitable kindness of others speaking and spreading your wares...which is tough haha :)
     

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