Garfield in "Natives" as an example of a successful brand collaboration in a mobile game

The introduction of celebrities and popular movie and television characters into the game is a common practice in the mobile sphere. Now Lithuanian Game Insight has started to practice it actively. The other day she launched a large-scale event in her 60 million blockbuster “Natives”. The face of the new event was Garfield the cat, a popular hero of comics and animated series. We tell you exactly how the company implemented the brand in its citybuilder.

Update tasks

Any event sets itself specific tasks, based on which content is prepared for it. This update tries to solve two tasks simultaneously.

The first one is standard for modern game services. We are talking about retaining the old audience with new content that diversifies the gameplay. This can also include the desire to re-engage the audience, which for some reason quit playing earlier.

The second task is to reach a new audience that has not heard about the game before, but loves and tracks all products related to the Garfield brand.

It ‘s in conversation with App2Top.ru Maxim Donskikh, president of Game Insight, confirmed: “An event of this kind should be primarily interesting to experienced players — they have already seen a lot of events in the Natives, and it is important that the game does not turn into a routine, but can surprise them again and again with something completely new. At the same time, we set ourselves the task of pleasing an audience that loves Garfield, but is not yet familiar with the world of “Natives”.”

Update release time

The event was timed to several events at once. In theory, this should increase the significance of the announcement. Thus, the developers are trying to attract the maximum number of audience and create a cumulative effect, a driver that can give additional push downloads.

In this case, it was about three events.

The first of them is Garfield’s fortieth birthday. On June 19, 1978, the first strip appeared with the participation of a lazy red cat, who has a special weakness for lasagna. This is a bright media occasion.

Garfield celebrates his fortieth birthday in “The Natives”
The second event is more designed for business-oriented press.

We are talking about achieving a specific franchise title mark of 60 million downloads. The game took 7 years to overcome this mark.

The third event is not directly related to the game or event itself. We are talking about the recent release of a new game in the universe of “Natives”. The company released Trade Island: Big City Tribez in April.

A large-scale event in one game of a particular IP can positively affect the performance of another project of the same brand. Users who are passionate about the Garfield story may well start looking for more about the bodybuilder and come up with a novelty.

New content in the game

The main content innovation is the addition of a hero with his own location, a set of quests and even currency.

When moving to a location, the player is tasked with finding a number of items that are scattered around the new territory. Energy is spent on the search, which is replenished over time. Also, a new currency is spent on instant replenishment of energy.

Energy is spent on excavations
The new island is not an alternative to other “Natives” islands.

Roughly speaking, this is not a standard construction site for the game, but a place with new entertainment mechanics.

The meaning of participating in the promotion for the playing user is to open access to seven new buildings. Some of them are decorative, some are functional (they give new builders or regular income). All of them are made in a cat theme. An additional bonus: the collection of abundantly scattered resources on the territory.

New buildings dedicated to catsInput speed

The update with Garfield is designed, among other things, for a new audience for the game, so the cat appears in the game immediately after completing the training. Somewhere in the first fifteen minutes of the game, a new user already encounters Garfield, sees that he has a certain role in the game. The player starts interacting directly with him, performing his line of quests a little later.

“The player gets access to the event from level 7 — this is the moment when the player has already mastered the basic principles of the game and is ready to learn new things,” says Donskikh.

This is pretty fast by the standards of the game. About the first half hour or the first two or three sessions. Despite this, there is a risk that the audience that will come to the game just for the sake of the cat may be disappointed that they do not see him immediately in the game. But, according to the Donskys, it was impossible otherwise.

“It is impossible to insert new content right from the start, it can break the entire flow of player input into the game.”

As for the long-playing audience or the one who was re-involved in the project by the announcement of the event, the event is available for them immediately after the update. You don’t even have to complete any quests to discover new content.

What about the indicators?

It’s too early to say. The action has just begun. It seems important to us that Game Insight has seriously approached collaboration, not limiting itself to ASO adaptation and reskin of a couple of items.

You can learn more about working with brands personally from Game Insight at the upcoming White Nights. The company will read the report on collaborations on the second day of the conference on June 29.