As we step as much as recognise Earth Day 2024 – the 50-year-old world occasion that seeks to focus on points affecting our climate, oceans, and planetary peace – not-for-profit organisation PlanetPlay desires to assist sport studios and gamers make significant change.
By harnessing ‘passive activism’, PlanetPlay’s experience lies in serving to studios create in-game promotions that inform gamers about inexperienced points and galvanise them to contribute to real-world sustainability causes “with out altering the video games they play or how they play them”.
Due to an enviable celeb community that spans the video games, music, and leisure industries, PlanetPlay is completely positioned to assist studios implement environmentally-conscious messaging with its new marketing campaign, “Make Green Tuesday Moves” (MGTM).
A twist on the organisation’s personal “Make Inexperienced Strikes” strapline, the daring initiative seeks to make use of the primary Tuesday of each month to showcase crucial inexperienced points in a pleasant, accessible solution to avid gamers – and, in the end, assist studios promote more video games and IAPs.
“Once we had been initially in discussions with studios about evolving from one-off in-game inexperienced activations to an everyday, ongoing marketing campaign involving a number of companions and video games, it grew to become clear {that a} recurring month-to-month activation would hold studios, celeb companions and gamers excited and engaged,” explains Rhea Loucas, Founder and CEO of PlanetPlay.
“What we have now constructed with our founding MGTM members is exclusive. We will have a number of studios speaking concerning the motion, mixed with celebrities and PlanetPlay, and this triangulation of comms will ship a various portfolio of video games, sport objects, and business uplift for all concerned.”
“We will have a number of studios speaking concerning the motion, mixed with celebrities and PlanetPlay”
Rhea Loucas, PlanetPlay
Kicking off on June 4, 2024, SYBO (Subway Surfers), Lockwood Publishing (Avakin Life), Ten Sq. Video games (Fishing Conflict), and CM Video games (Nitro Nation) have all been signed up as MGTM launch companions to create a singular ‘inexperienced’ merchandise – characters, skins, weapons, costumes; you title it – that may solely be out there for that month, with the marketing campaign refreshing with new activations on subsequent first Tuesdays.
Gross sales of these in-game objects will then be invested into fully-certified sustainability tasks, akin to PlanetPlay’s flagship Hongera Project, which goals to assist over 150,000 households in Kenya enhance their dwelling situations, or the WAI Wanaka water conservation project in New Zealand, for which 50,000 Fishing Conflict gamers raised funds just by partaking in an in-game occasion.
And since PlanetPlay works alongside studios to plan memorable campaigns, sport devs and publishers can make sure that the concepts and messaging not solely complement that of their employees, however their video games, too. All studios must do is combine PlanetPlay’s API and/or promo codes to launch an merchandise or objects on the PlanetPlay retailer or in-game, and assist MGMT through their very own communication channels.
If celebrities are concerned within the promotion as a ‘Star of the Month’ – say, music artists J Balvin or GRAMMY-nominated Fats Joe, who’ve featured beforehand in PlanetPlay activations in Subway Surfers and Avakin Life, respectively – PlanetPlay will present all crucial licences, so studios can safely create objects/DLCs associated to the celebrities.
“We’re speaking to many alternative folks and properties, throughout the worlds of leisure, music, motion pictures and sports activities,” says Loucas.
“We’ve already collaborated with music administration specialist Roc Nation for standalone in-game activations that includes J Balvin and Fats Joe, and we’ll be revealing more about particular Make Inexperienced Tuesday Strikes IP collaborations all through the summer season.”
With the primary wave of MGTM studios racking up 400 million month-to-month lively customers and 36 million each day gamers, what’s stopping your studio from stepping up?
Lockwood Publishing noticed its Avakin Life partnership with Fats Joe drive a 6% enhance in Google Play retailer downloads and a 104.8% uplift in new consumer acquisitions – and that is on high of a 58.7% uptick in reactivated gamers, and a 458% enhance in in-game-store gross sales, too (see infographic, under).
Climate change is a giant topic, however PlanetPlay stresses there’s numerous actions, along with becoming a member of the MGTM motion, that studios and avid gamers can take proper now to assist the struggle towards climate change.
“Most likely the most important factor is for studios to higher perceive their audiences and the environmental causes they’re most involved in, i.e. water conservation, carbon discount, and so forth,” says Felix Bradshaw, World Head of Enterprise Growth at PlanetPlay. “We work with studios to create small in-game surveys, the information from which can then assist inform the path of their future inexperienced activations.
“Finally, all they should do is figure with PlanetPlay – we have now carried out the considering and heavy lifting. We don’t need to disrupt the connection between studios and their participant communities; we need to improve it by creating very easy methods for gamers to assist the planet doing issues they already do within the video games they already play.”
PlanetPlay is at all times seeking to welcome new studios and video games to the Make Inexperienced Tuesdays Strikes marketing campaign – even when they’re undecided fairly how their sport may implement it simply but.
“Collectively, we as [the games industry] will be doing a lot more,” admits Bradshaw. “As a part of our consultancy pillar, we work with studios to assist set up their inexperienced baselines and achievable objectives, then assist them to launch compelling in-game inexperienced activations that assist verified environmental causes with out having to start out from scratch.”
Bradshaw provides: “Even when a studio would not suppose there’s a inexperienced angle for his or her sport, we invite them to problem us to seek out one, as a result of there at all times is, no matter style. Working with PlanetPlay could be very straightforward by means of the API or through promo codes, and we additionally present the MGTM expertise/IPs, as a part of the motion.”
No, it is not straightforward being inexperienced; however with PlanetPlay in your aspect, it might be simpler than you suppose…
For more particulars of easy methods to get your studio concerned within the Make Inexperienced Tuesday Strikes initiative, contact PlanetPlay’s Felix Bradshaw at felix.b@planetplay.com, or check out the Make Green Tuesday Moves website.