From my first day at East Side Games to my last, marketing art (known internally as “Growth Art”) was driven by the pursuit of data driven success. The team operates under a philosophy of test, test, and test some more. While at ESG as both Marketing Artist and Lead Marketing Artist, I collaborated with the User Acquisition team and the Data Manager to concept and drive the art on our digital campaigns.

Hero Creative

The User Acquisition team (and all of Marketing for that matter) are always on the look-out for the “Hero Creative”; aka the best performing creative in terms of Cost Per Install, Impressions, and Click Through Rate. For around 2 to 3 years, my Bud Farm Idle Tycoon video ad “Upgrading Businesses” was BFIT’s top performing ad — thus BFIT’s “Hero Creative.” Based on the “Progression” motivation (from Quantic Foundries “Motivation Model”) I envisioned showing off how cool the business designs were in Bud Farm. Choosing the — at the time — most interesting business “Extractory” I designed a stripped down and focused ad on just the one mechanic: Upgrading.

Before the wild success of Upgrading Businesses the Marketing Team was still searching for the best creative strategy. We operated under an “everything and the kitchen sink” approach, trying to find any campaign direction that would garner us success. After “Upgrading Businesses” the Marketing shifted focus to motivation testing.

Testing Strategy

Initially we used Quantic Foundries “Player Motivation Model” to guide our creative strategy — until, that is, Facebook released their own motivation model called “The Big Catch Strategy.” Both follow a similar principle (focus ad creatives on a single, clear theme); and both have many overlaps in the areas of focus (what motivates potential players to click on game ads?). For Bud Farm I initially focused on motivations that were intrinsic to the game (thus easier to create ads for), such as “progression” and “completion.” As testing was the ultimate goal, however, we broadened our creatives to include motivations not in-game; such as “action” and “Self Expression.”

Taking the success of the “Upgrading Businesses” video ad, I made a series of static facebook ads. Statics are generally cheaper and easier to make, though they can be less effective in terms of impressions and click through. This “Upgrade Business” Static was a top performer for a number of months.

The Pitch

The creation of “Upgrading Businesses” was, at the time, a leap of faith. As testing was our focus, we did not spend too much time in the creation process. I was asking the Marketing Team to give me two weeks to put together a higher-fidelity ad than we’d used before; and one that featured a single aspect of our game. First step, was to give them the testing strategy and a series of ads I’d researched that fell under the “Motivation Model” umbrella. Using those ads as a template, I created the Upgrading Businesses Storyboard. The team, excited, gave the green-light and the risk paid off!

Other Creatives

Escapism

Story + Progression (“Tutorial Ads”)

Story

Static ads were run on Facebook Ads Manager and Google UAC; created in Photoshop. Video ads were run on Ironsource, Google UAC, Facebook Ads Manager, and other ad networks; created in After Effects and Premier Pro.