Lily’s Backyard stole the highlight with their quirky and humorous video advertisements. The puzzle sport grew steadily in the direction of success due to their spunky artistic belongings. We’re diving into their advertising and marketing technique and the explanations behind their rise to cell gaming promoting fame.
About Lily’s Backyard
Lily’s Backyard is a match-3 blast sport developed by Copenhagen-based studio Tactile Video games. It was launched in January 2019 and has since been downloaded over 70 million occasions (with nearly all of downloads coming from India and the US) and earned $350 million.
The sport is called after its major character Lily, who discovers she inherited her great-aunt’s home. Lily’s Backyard meta-layer is all about serving to Lily get her new backyard again in form, recover from her ex-boyfriend and flirt together with her new neighbor.
The sport’s description on Tactile Video games’ web site begins off with a joke, which is fairly on-brand with Lily’s Backyard advertising and marketing technique.
Shops belongings and ASO technique
Lily’s Backyard static retailer visible belongings are comparable in each shops, even on the Amazon App Retailer. Each the icon and the screenshots are very comparable however they differ across the preview video.
The icon
For his or her icon, Lily’s Backyard guess on a artistic development that exhibits a feminine character caring for a kid in a really chilly and hostile surroundings. This isn’t in any respect the theme of the sport (which is to revive a backyard by successful stars). Nevertheless it will probably appear to be a seasonal icon by showcasing winter parts (the snow, the obvious coldness skilled by the characters, the empty branches of the tree).
It combines the seasonal side and the trending side. There are a number of advertisements proper now that present a redheaded younger mom attempting to outlive in a chilly decrepit home with a toddler. And despite the fact that Lily doesn’t have a toddler within the sport, there’s a child on the forefront of this icon. Clearly, Lily’s Backyard is betting on promoting developments and isn’t scared to convey the faux advert approach to its icon.
The screenshots
For screenshots, the principle concepts and execution could be very comparable with solely a slight variation. Above Lily is contained in the room on the App Retailer model (left) whereas she’s exterior on the Play Retailer (proper). The App Retailer model additionally contains extra in-game parts with the life, cash and star depend, and the speech bubbles from the sport.
That is the primary screenshot that seems on each the App Retailer and the Play Retailer and it focuses on the dishonest trope that’s typically utilized in video advertisements (the Household Island sport is an professional on this trope).
The opposite screenshots are additionally placing the principle character in dire conditions, and remind the person of various advertisements the place the viewer sees a participant make horrible selections to attempt to save a personality. These screenshots are a transparent reminder of that, it helps construct familiarity and set off an emphatic response from the person who will wish to assist.
The precise gameplay solely exhibits up additional down on one screenshot on each shops. Storytelling is clearly a greater converter.
The preview video
As per App Retailer guidelines, the App Retailer preview video is predicated on precise gameplay with the primary a part of the video showcasing the renovation a part of the sport the place you may select which fashion you wish to use for decorations. Then the match 3 side comes into play with display captures.
The Play Retailer video focuses extra on storytelling. Displaying a day within the lifetime of Lily the place all the pieces goes incorrect, from being late for work to being fired, then witnessing her home burning down (in a wierd reminder of a Merge Mansion advert). Then, 16 seconds in it turns right into a faux gameplay advert the place the participant is making horrible selections whereas Lily is attempting to restore a part of the home and makes all the pieces worse.
The fail side is a good way to push the viewers to motion, it has been used for fairly a while in promoting to push conversion and interplay. The frustration helps viewers really feel like they will do higher than what’s proven on display.
Making creatives enjoyable
From the beginning, Lily’s Backyard gained an viewers with snarky and humorous promoting with dramatic plot twists and soiled jokes. The video games’ advertisements are targeted on one of many sport’s meta-layer: the story and its character. Not one of the advertisements truly present the story within the sport, however they arrange personas for the characters and drive consideration with innuendos and racy jokes.
On this advert for instance, we’re empathizing with the principle character Lily when her boyfriend runs away on the sight of a optimistic being pregnant take a look at. It makes Lily relatable, and coping with lifelike points (a being pregnant, a break-up) Nevertheless, a second plot twist adjustments it up and makes the advert unforgettable: it seems the being pregnant take a look at was faux and Lily manipulated it to eliminate her boyfriend.
Each advert exhibits a brand new twist on a standard trope: a being pregnant scare however Lily faked it, her boyfriend cheated however with Lily’s mom, and so forth. Even their seasonal belongings have a naughty undertone.
This concentrate on the characters and their lives enable Tactile Video games to have some enjoyable with their belongings and produce authentic advertisements, stacking them with as a lot innuendo as they will to focus on a extra grownup viewers. Some of the well-known advertisements for Lily’s Backyard truly exhibits the principle character having fun with herself on a washer. Even the advertisements titles on YouTube are phrased as wordplays or jokes.
These jokes appeal to a number of consideration and interactions from customers, they’re typically commented on and actually increase the visibility of the sport by setting it aside from its rivals with a robust model picture. One which’s laid again and breeds pleasant interactions.
And now that Tactile Video games has launched a brand new cell sport Penny & Flo, characters from each universes are interacting with one another within the newest advertisements.
Maintaining with Lily
What makes this sport so related is the way it stays within the public eye as nicely by means of a robust social media presence. There’s a YouTube account known as “Lily’s Backyard Complicated Universe”, exhibiting advertisements for each Lily’s Backyard and Penny & Flo. There’s additionally a devoted Instagram account that showcases Lily and the opposite characters in several conditions.
Not solely does it assist create and cater to a neighborhood, making a stronger relationship with the gamers and guaranteeing their consideration and attachment to the sport, nevertheless it additionally retains the sport related. Their final Instagram publish is a nod to the Oscars’ ceremony which occurred Sunday night.
They reply feedback from players and produce extraordinarily seasonal content material in a well timed method, which exhibits that the sport continues to be very a lot current and updated. It retains customers and even drives them again to the app with freebies linked to seasonal occasions.
And with nearly 900k followers on Instagram, it appears to be working simply nice.
Hello there, I am Marine (she/her), I am a Content material Supervisor at Apptamin. Apptamin is a artistic company specialised in app movies (video advertisements, app retailer movies, and so forth.).
