We decided to make a contest among Zepi users. The idea of the contest was to give a gift cards to those, who scores more points in Zepi. The prizes are good, 30$, 20$ and 10$ gift cards, the contest is not difficult, but people don't want to play? What's the reason? Thank you all very much. So to conclude, I'll point out some main moments. - the game must be free or lite version for the contest and it must released especially for that purpose (to hold a contest) - the users should be aware of the contest to play it. So you should place an information about it on all the forums, on your web-site, on apple store, Twitter and Facebook. Some more sources must be used, but I can't figure out which? Should there be some viral marketing, videos, maybe banners or adds on Facebook? - the game must be prepared for the contest, users should leave their e-mail in the game, so we could contact them - the winner shouldn't be the one who scores more, but the one randomly chosen. So I have two questions: 1. What other sources must be used to promote the competition? 2. What to do next with this lite or free version of the game? Should it than be updated to the paid version or should it be simply used to attract people to the game and make them buy paid version?
Contests can be hard work, you need keep promoting them and pushing them. It's a bit surprising the first time around, but people won't just enter whenever you offer prizes.
I think most people assume they don't have much chance at getting a top-3 worldwide score... I would think the "best 5 reviews written for the lite app" would be fairly successful - maybe people are just getting lazy these days.
Yeah, I agree with drelbs. Laziness definitely plays a part. But, I simply don't have enough time to play a game to get to get ranked number 1, 2, or 3 in the world, so I won't even attempt those types of contests. They are very limiting in nature, hence a low participation. In my opinion, if you want to attract the most participants, you need to hold a contest that includes as many people as possible and requires little skill to enter. Some ideas that I might participate in would be... -Write the best review for the free version of our game. Or, better yet, select a winner randomly from all reviews within a given time frame. -Record a high score in our system on a given day. For more entries, hold the contest over multiple days and let people record a score on each day. Then randomly pick from those participants. Best of luck! Your prizes are more than fair...for those that can get scores that high.
Little White Bear had a great competition involving scores with Compression and it had a lot of participation. But instead of getting a top three score, they just said get a score between 1500-1600. Doesn't need skill, just luck and good timing.
Our experience with doing contests is similar to what others described above: * Awareness: I think the biggest problem for us was that we didn't have a good way to reach all of our users and tell them about the contest for a particular game. Our channels included updating our app description in the app store, posting on our social media sites (Facebook/Twitter), posting on the forums, and telling anyone who emailed our support page, but I don't think it reached many people and it didn't seem that re-posting helped much. Similarly, after we announced the winners using the above channels, only a few people actually contacted us to claim their prize. * Manner of entry: Echoing what other people said, even though many of our contests involved getting a Top 100 or Top 200 score, it did seem like even that was a barrier to people entering. Not sure if it's simply people weren't aware, or if that wasn't engaging. Probably both... * Prize: For many of our contests, we offered iTunes gift cards as well, but it didn't appear as too big of an incentive for people to enter. Our plan now is that instead of using a contest to give an incentive to new people to play, we will be focusing on our apps that engage the most people, and use contests as a way to engage existing fans further.
oki well comming from a gamer who could potentially participate, i noticed you have 4 versions of zepi. the appstore description isnt so clear on what the game is about (tho looks kinda match 3 ish) and with no lite, even at 99c id be unwilling to give this a punt unless it came recommended. secondly, the theme you chose for this contest is the pirate one, of all the themes there, it it one that looked the less appealing to me. lastly, given past experiences with games and high score charts, i dont think ive ever had the time or patience to beat the top score in any game. in fact on an old game, involving garbage pail kids, i flawlessly blast thru the game as quick as ma digits could go and still fell out of the top 30. in short, most folk have no hope in high score contests, even if theyre quite good! perhaps best reviews etc are good suggestions. i dont speak for everyone im sure, but thats my thoughts.
I guess my question is why are you running the contest in the first place, and what is your ultimate goal? It doesn't seem like this is designed to generate more sales.
concusion Thank you all very much. So to conclude, I'll point out some main moments. - the game must be free or lite version for the contest and it must released especially for that purpose (to hold a contest) - the users should be aware of the contest to play it. So you should place an information about it on all the forums, on your web-site, on apple store, Twitter and Facebook. Some more sources must be used, but I can't figure out which? Should there be some viral marketing, videos, maybe banners or adds on Facebook? - the game must be prepared for the contest, users should leave their e-mail in the game, so we could contact them - the winner shouldn't be the one who scores more, but the one randomly chosen. So I have two questions: 1. What other sources must be used to promote the competition? 2. What to do next with this lite or free version of the game? Should it than be updated to the paid version or should it be simply used to attract people to the game and make them buy paid version? Thank you
The problem with these contests is people have to pay for what they think is a small chance of winning.
I think you're right. But if the contest is made in the lite or free version and it attracted users, than what should be done next with that free or lite games? What's the point? People will play it, win some gift cards and forget about the game. How to attract their attention to paid games and how to attract as many as possible users to the contest?
