Nativex partnered with famous developer Kabam to help their game Shop Titans establish brand awareness and grow ROI in the Japanese market. Let's take a look at the strategies we used to make Shop Titans a success in Japan.
Kabam is a world leader of developing entertaining, immersive, and highly social multiplayer games for mobile devices. Founded in 2006, Kabam has studios and offices in Vancouver, Montreal, Charlottetown, San Francisco and Austin, Texas, and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Netmarble Games. Shop Titans is a simulation RPG created by Kabam and launched in 2019. Players can design and build fantasy shops, outfit their heroes with gear and send them on quests for rewards. With the game seeing success across several major markets such as the US, and the Kabam team wanted to grow in another key market: Japan.
To help Kabam achieve its goals in the Japanese market, we used the power of TikTok Hashtag challenges and we were able to generate some outstanding results.
Shop Titans did not have a strong brand affinity in Japan, so the Kabam team wanted to find a way to generate significant amounts of exposure while keeping costs down.
After running an in-depth analysis where we looked at the Japanese Simulation RPG market, Shop Titans’ key competitors, and Kabam’s goals, the Nativex team focused on two key objectives.
Establish brand awareness and interest in the Japanese market
Improve media buying efforts to generate lower CPI
In order to achieve its objectives, Shop Titans launched the #ファイトタイタン hashtag challenge on TikTok. Here’s a detailed breakdown of the strategies around this campaign.
Timing: We chose the Japanese Golden Week, a series of popular Japanese holidays, as the target date for our hashtag challenge to maximize exposure.
Localized Materials: We created a set of custom stickers and profile pictures designed specifically for the Japanese audience.
Traffic Generation: We ran several TikTok campaigns targeting the app’s main entry points in order to drive users to our Hashtag Challenge. The Hashtag Challenge ran for a total of 3 days in April 2021 and it was structured as follows:
Campaign 1: Homepage takeover linking TikTok users to our Hashtag Challenge; once on our Hashtag Challenge homepage, users would then be able to create their own video, publish it, and become a part of the Hashtag Challenge.
Campaign 2: Brand premium video placed in the “For You” section on TikTok; from there, users would be able to reach our Hashtag Challenge homepage, pick a sticker from the custom ones we designed, then create their own videos to join the challenge.
Campaign 3: Top banners in the “Discover” section on TikTok, designed to generate additional traffic by helping users find the Shop Titans Hashtag Challenge; once they clicked on the banner, they would land on our Hashtag Challenge homepage, where they would be able to create their own videos and join the challenge.
The Hashtag Challenge was a success, resulting in a massive wave of organic downloads. Shop Titans also received additional exposure and downloads thanks to the amount of user-generated content based on the original Hashtag Challenge.
As a core agency for TikTok, we believe we can help more global advertisers achieve success on what is arguably the hottest social app in the world – get in touch with the Nativex team today to give your campaigns a tangible ROI boost!
