GameChangerSF

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a servicing company, and we partner up with publishers and other stakeholders to develop games based on the brand they own or the market space they want to go into. We work on any gaming platform that’s relevant today, and we do everything from pre-production to LiveOps. I’m the director of product management, and I oversee the work of product managers, analysts, and more. I also actively identify the market space that our external clients are getting into.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with GameChangerSF?

We were looking to optimize our user acquisition (UA) campaigns and the marketability of the game we were developing.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Every week, they continuously look at other countries that we can target. They also identify ad networks that are frequented by our potential players. That way, they’ll see our ads running. On top of that, GameChangerSF finds ways to constantly optimize our campaigns in order to reduce our marketing costs. On our side, we look at their preparation every month, and we check the budget we have for the upcoming months.  

What is the team composition?

We collaborate with Sylvia (COO) and Phil (Co-Founder), and we discuss high-level matters. We also work with their account manager, Facebook specialist, Google specialist, and more. 

How did you come to work with GameChangerSF?

We were looking for a new UA partner in the summer of last year, but I only joined the project in January 2021. My company interviewed several potential UA partners at that time.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $2 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in September 2020, and we continue to work with GameChangerSF.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

We track the success rate of the various campaigns they’re doing, and so far, they’ve been performing very well. We’re in a better position because of their expertise, and we don’t think it would’ve been this great if we partnered with another service provider. Furthermore, they constantly propose new ways to look at our marketing angle, and they test it on various locales in order to optimize our spending. 

How did GameChangerSF perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been very accessible — whenever we get in touch with them, they’re always available. The team is super organized, and they have a fast turnaround. For example, when we want to turn off a game in a country where something negative happened, they’re able to do that within 24 hours. On top of that, GameChangerSF has given us access to their dashboard, and every week they have a detailed presentation on their progress.

We have no friction because they’ve been very transparent and reactive. Above all, they constantly adapt to our needs. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their knowledge of the UA space and their ability to keep with trends have been impressive. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we’re super happy with the work they’ve done. We’ve been getting what we expect from them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t be afraid to reach out to GameChangerSF because they’re cooperative. They’re open to discussing everything; you can get decisions by communicating with their team. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the product manager of Mediatonic. We create a wide range of games.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with GameChangerSF?

One of our games, Gears POP!, is a free-to-play mobile game in the strategy genre. It has a partnership with Microsoft and is from the Gears of War franchise. It was vital that we get the marketing right, which is why we brought on GameChangerSF.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

GameChangerSF ran all of our acquisition campaigns and optimization as well as created the creative assets including the game’s adverts and videos. Gears POP! is a strategy PVP game that features live, synchronous multi-player usage. Because the characters are from Gears of War, the visuals are in the style of fun co-pop. There’s a very broad appeal, and the objective was to implement nice, friendly, bright, and colorful visuals.

Our team gave GameChangerSF raw assets such as sprites, textures, and font families. They utilized these as a style guide to create a carousel turnaround for the characters. Their team created videos capturing plays from the game and inter-spliced that with lots of different colors and ran them in adverts.

They ran user acquisition and part of that was the creation of visuals for the adverts themselves. Their team used our raw assets to compose the visuals of the advert which included gameplay footage, creative turnarounds of characters, and a huge variety of visual effects.

GameChangerSF also helped us with install listings and design work. They provided help based on their vast knowledge of what works and doesn’t in terms of getting the best conversion rate on installs.

What is the team composition?

I worked with Phil (Creative Director) initially, then after the first month, my main contact became Silvia (COO). She was our consistent, go-to person for everything.

How did you come to work with GameChangerSF?

I joined the project a month before we started the contract with GameChangerSF. They had provided services on a previous project with my company so we knew about their high standard of quality. We started this process before our global launch. Our team needed someone who could hit the ground running and provide that high-quality right from the onset.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $1.8 million, that includes ad spend.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from July 2019–June 2020. They helped us gradually scale down the ad spend toward the end of the engagement.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We’ve been impressed with the level of polish and speed in which they’ve turned things around in. The adverts were of high quality. Their team was also great at reflecting changes on our end; they were very reactive and the quality was never damaged by that. We’d have a change of plan, and they’d have the implementation turned around quickly.

We based quantifiable metrics by looking at the most valuable cohorts of users in terms of ROI. GameChangerSF optimized that over time. The effort was ongoing and constant. They spend time tweaking various styles we wouldn’t have been able to do in-house.

How did GameChangerSF perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management has been really good. Initially, we held two calls a week even if there wasn’t much to update. It was nice to have that transparency and open discussion. We were learning about the process ourselves; they held our hand and explained everything. Soon enough, we got to a cadence of one update per week.

I’d speak to them throughout the week informally through Slack. They sent a weekly report, and we held weekly conference calls with all the stakeholders. During this, they’d take us through changes, results, and their action plan for the following week. Their team was very organized and transparent.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I think very highly of their team members. I’ve learned a lot from them in terms of the process and market. However, I have to highlight that the creative art team really pulled it out of the bag. The quality of the work was fantastic and turned around so quickly.

They sent us a showcase of all the ad creatives they’ve done over time and it was a true work of art. The showcase was a pure trailer of the game. It shows everything we achieved in the last year. GameChangerSF’s art team is a real asset to their company.

Are there any areas they could improve?

At the beginning of the engagement, we had weekly informal communication through email. However, they changed that and started sending a deck for presentations. It was a standard structure so we knew what information to expect going into it.

Also, the decks were easily readable in terms of understanding the framework. This was a great improvement. It was previously informal, but they made it more structured.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you have a quick, clean process for sharing assets and text and then organize that process from the beginning.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of the digital team for a cable network.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with GameChangerSF?

We’d noticed gamers were a large part of our demographic, so we launched a mobile game that fit within our mission.  We hired GameChangerSF to handle the marketing and management of those efforts, focusing primarily on paid user acquisition. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

From the beginning, GameChangerSF worked with us to educate our team on the process and plan our approach. They helped us form our business goals and align them with our users’ needs. Working in collaboration with our marketing team, they aimed to create a strategy and used analytics to inform their next steps. 

Their team set up the infrastructure to best target certain users through various marketing avenues. Looking at various demographics and ensuring it made sense with our mission, they developed strategies that worked in conjunction with our in-house efforts to find valuable users. 

They were in charge of finding new avenues, platforms, and ideas to increase paid user acquisition. From a marketing standpoint, they were responsible for helping us with our ideas for our website, newsletters, cable network, or social media platforms, ensuring every campaign was working toward our mission from both organic and paid user standpoints. 

What is the team composition?

We typically worked with 5–6 different individuals. Phil (Founder & President, GamerChangerSF) helped us with high-level strategy needs. We also had a daily point of contact, a person specialized in optimization, and a  strategy teammate. People switched in and out of these roles throughout the project.  

How did you come to work with GameChangerSF?

Two unaffiliated people recommended GameChangerSF, so we felt very comfortable pursuing them. We interviewed a few teams, but Phil’s company stood out because of their knowledge, patience, and abilities. We ran a test with them and did a pre-launch in Australia and our teams were just very comfortable with each other from the start. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent millions of dollars on their services over the course of our engagement. I’d put us in the $1 million – $10 million range. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from November 2016–May 2019. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

I don’t have any statistics on hand right now, but we were pleased with their efforts on paid user acquisition. They did a great job and delivered on what they promised. Their reports were easy to read so we could tell their efforts were working.

How did GameChangerSF perform from a project management standpoint?

They were great to work with. We had weekly meetings and they’d articulate exactly what they were working on and providing the reporting we needed. There was a dashboard we used and a set of reports they crafted for us. We gave regular feedback about changes and updates, and they were incredibly responsive in giving us what we needed. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The most important thing for us was identifying high ROI users, and they did that for us. We were able to understand their process and see tangible outcomes from their work. During our weekly meetings, they’d identify what was working and how they could better improve their efforts. For example, they knew just how hard to push resources into certain efforts for a better ROI and found a good balance. We didn’t waste money working with them, which is great. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Off the top of my head, I can’t think of anything for them to improve. We had a great relationship so I don’t have anything negative to say. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The most important thing is to have constant communication and responsiveness. Oftentimes, people can get distracted, but you have to be willing to hear them. GameChangerSF is hyper-aware of changes in the industry, so we always learned something by listening to them. We realized that we weren’t always very reactive, so we couldn’t manage all of the shifts happening around us. Once we got more comfortable with their team and trust them, we could take advantage of what they have to offer. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the former marketing director for Behavior Interactive.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with GameChangerSF?

We needed user acquisition services for a game app that we were creating. It was based on a movie made by a major production company.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They did an analysis of the audience we were going to target and helped us find the best users for our game. They also provided feedback on creative and did app store optimization. Now, we have the best keywords so we’re easy to find.

After this project reached the top position in the US app stores, we used the same service for other game apps. Another one that performed well was a game app based off a popular reality TV show in the US. We saw a great conversion rate, even with our low budget.

I’m planning to work with them at my current company as well.

What is the team composition?

We worked with four people, including the two co-founders.

How did you come to work with GameChangerSF?

I contacted a few marketing agencies in Europe and the US. Based on an interview, I saw how they worked and what they’d done in the past. I felt that they were the best.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent into the seven digits across five years.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started five years ago and they kept working until I left the company. I’m planning to engage them with my new company at the end of this year as well.  

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

We have an attribution system that allows us to see what campaign every user came from. This lets us know exactly how much we spent for GameChangerSF and how much we’re receiving from the users acquired by them. They’ve also done well in this regard.

How did GameChangerSF perform from a project management standpoint?

We managed the work internally, but they were always available. Depending on the type of project we were working on, we’d have a daily call and weekly reports. Outside that, they’d ask for emergency numbers they could call if there was an issue with the creative or anything else. The right people always fixed things quickly. We never had any issues.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They took time to understand our games and our mobile ecosystem. Most user agencies talk about powerful technical tools they use but they don’t care about the game they’re marketing. GameChangerSF plays the game and ensure the campaign will be successful. It’s not just about the money for them.

They also have a custom dashboard for reporting. It’s amazing and has all the information we want: spend, revenue, users, etc.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t know. They provide exactly the service we need. An east coast presence would be good so we could have a morning call, but that’s not very important. I don’t have any complaints.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Talk to them and be transparent. They’ll be able to provide the best service if they have all the information.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a Senior Implementation Manager at Seeker Health by EVERSANA. I manage digital campaigns for biopharmaceutical companies

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire GameChangerSF?

GameChangerSF developed and maintains two mission-critical dashboards aggregating data from multiple sources, including FB and Google, and adding a visual layer on top to present the complicated data set in a visually pleasing and simple dashboard.

What were your goals for this project?

The goals of this project were to automate mission-critical reporting from multiple sources, including FB and Google, into one custom dashboard accessible by our clients.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

GameChangerSF stood out because of its data science and analytics expertise in developing custom data dashboards.

Describe the project in detail.

GameChangerSF developed and maintains two mission-critical dashboards aggregating data from multiple sources, including FB and Google, and adding a visual layer on top to present the complicated data set in a visually pleasing and simple dashboard.

The first dashboard reports on campaign performance for Google and Facebook advertising based on selected Key Performance Indicators. The second dashboard reports on website visitors and provides a heat map by geography.

GameChangerSF designed the dashboards and programmed all components required to connect to original data sources. Then GameChangerSF provided embed code so that these dashboards could be accessed by our clients within our system.

What was the team composition?

We worked directly with Phil Shpilberg, who supervised a programmer, data scientist and project manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

In a period of 3 months we enabled automated reporting for all of our current clients. The work was performed on schedule and on budget. In addition, we were able to save staff time by automating reporting. We estimate this has saved 6 hours per month per client.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The team was organized and responsive. All timelines were either met or reduced. GameChangerSF communicated efficiently with our team to move the project forward.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Ability to deliver high quality work. Excellent responsiveness - all emails answered within 24 hours with resolution. Ability to help us automate reporting. Our clients are delighted with our new, real time dashboards

Are there any areas for improvement?

We found GameChangerSF to be an excellent service provider.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We're a small digital games publisher that produces mobile and console games. I'm the VP of Publishing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with GameChangerSF?

We needed a mobile user acquisitions (UA) marketing expert. We were just about to launch a new game, and we wanted help.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They were our primary UA agency for several years. They helped create and optimize campaigns and our creative for multiple titles. Most importantly, they made sure our UA was as profitable as possible. They set up analytics and communicated with us on a daily basis to make sure our goals were met.

What is the team composition?

We had four main contacts, with one major lead that we communicated with all the time. There were a few other people that came in and out over the course of our engagement with them.

How did you come to work with GameChangerSF?

A colleague worked with them and helped us broker a deal. We went through several UA agencies that were great with scale, but lacked the flexibility or responsibility or GameChanger. More than anyone else, they helped us make decisions and were willing to help drive the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

I believe we started around January 2014. We've scaled back on our relationship with them around December 2018, but we still have a smaller ongoing arrangement.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

They helped grow our userbase and achieve the volume we wanted. Over the course of our work with them, we grew to about 40,000 daily active users.

How did GameChangerSF perform from a project management standpoint?

They were great project managers. We had twice-weekly calls, and they built a dashboard that showed their spend and how profitable the collaboration was. We had daily reports, and they were very easy to work with.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Compared to other agencies we worked with, GameChanger offered much more UA expertise. They made strategic decisions and were a critical asset. They provided good value, helped us test new networks, and filled our userbase smartly over time.

They were responsive, proactive, and communicative, and their openness and honesty were fantastic. If a channel underperformed, they took ownership, shut it off, and let us know what happened. They were very good for our business and our revenue.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Over time, a lot of UA has moved to algorithmic or programmatic processes. They're very good at manual acquisitions, but they could work on their programmatic offerings.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Speak with them on the phone. They offer a lot of value in that candid exchange, and they're willing to work as your employee. They will take on your goals and go beyond just meeting their own quotas. Ask them questions; they will give you good, honest answers.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the former head of product for a computer software company. One of my roles was to manage the various mobile applications that we produced.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with GameChangerSF?

We needed someone to help with our user acquisition strategy and execution.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired GameChangerSF to handle our user acquisition, strategy, and execution. We built the applications, and we needed to get users to try them by downloading them and using them. It was a marketing challenge, and we didn’t have anyone in-house that had that particular expertise.

We came to them with a target number of users to acquire for our business models. We also had a certain budget, and we needed to know the best ways to allocate it and track it. We hired them to make the most of the funds we had to find us users that would stick with the products for the long-term. We really let them run the show.

GameChangerSF consulted with us on our goals. They helped us come up with an overall strategy for how to best approach that problem of acquiring users. Those discussions centered on what channels we should be using and how we should be spending our money. More broadly, they examined and enhanced everything related to user acquisition for us.

What is the team composition?

I worked closely with Phil (Founder & President, GameChangerSF) and Silvia (COO, GameChangerSF), though there were other people involved in the project as well.

Phil was driven to help us find a strategy and do whatever he could personally. Once we got to the execution phase, Silvia managed the campaigns and monitored how the money was flowing in various digital channels.

How did you come to work with GameChangerSF?

Our parent company had an existing relationship with another company, so we worked with them for a while, but we soon realized that they weren’t the best fit for us. We wanted a vendor that was more flexible and had more expertise in the digital realm, especially as it pertained to mobile acquisition.

The company we had been working with subcontracted some of the work to GameChangerSF. Once we found out that was the case and they were the team doing much of the work we liked, we elected to partner with them directly.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent between $3,000,000–$5,000,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project began in January 2018, and the work is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

While GameChangerSF was involved with the project, we profitably acquired over 2,000,000 users. We are very impressed by that growth.

How did GameChangerSF perform from a project management standpoint?

We worked well together once we established a system. They know how to set the guardrails in place so the relationship will be successful. From a pure project management perspective, there were no surprises, and everything was on time. They shared relevant information during our weekly check-ins, and we were usually on target and performing well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were not experts in the user acquisition space. I appreciated that they were able to educate us on all the nuances of that domain. They made us more effective product people and operators of our business. GameChangerSF took a data-driven approach to shape our product strategy. They chronicled why specific trends appeared and what opportunities we could take advantage of. They never felt like a separate entity from our company.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. If anything, I would have liked to work with them more in person, but we hired them fully aware that they were located in another city.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Lead with the problem that you want them to solve and tap into their expertise. They are creative problem-solvers that will help you define a strategy. They have all the capabilities of then executing on that strategy.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the chief brand officer at Insomniac Games, an AAA game developer in business since 1994.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire GameChangerSF?

We engaged with GameChangerSF for mobile marketing, SEO, KPI development and management, and more.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goals were to promote and monetize our first mobile game in our 20-plus year history.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I was referred to GameChangerSF by a group of experienced industry executives, and we were not disappointed.  

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

GameChangerSF provided various services including SEO, app store optimization, consumer price index analysis, KPI development, retention studies, strategic marketing spend counsel, etc. They also provided analysis for metrics such as the daily average revenue per user, monthly active users, lifetime value, and average ad revenue per user.

What was the team composition?

Phil (President, GameChangerSF) and his partner were active every day on our behalf. Sometimes they brought in additional staff to support us as needed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

I can't say enough good things about working with GameChangerSF. Phil has guided us through the ever-changing world of mobile games marketing and had a brilliant command of user acquisition, keeping our consumer price index highly optimized throughout our campaigns. Additionally, he helped us with all sorts of game development-related issues, offering design suggestions to improve retention and monetization.

Furthermore, Phil always went the extra mile to be available to answer questions and provide counsel. Phil knows mobile game development and marketing, which is the benchmark for being a top-of-mind executive to call when mobile games marketing support is required. Overall, he's a great guy that’s highly trustworthy, ethical, and above all, someone who cares about his clients.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Phil was personally involved and invested on a daily basis. We were lucky to have him.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

GameChangerSF truly cares about its clients. I didn't feel like they were faceless vendors just taking our money. They really cared about our best interests and wanted to see us succeed, bending over backward consistently to go the extra mile for us. Phil, in particular, was brilliant and outgoing. We learned a lot from working with him.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I wished we had listened to them more on the product development/design part of the work. We were reluctant with some design changes, and taking Phil’s advice may have helped us boost our monetization.