GMIC Preview: How to acquire, retain and monetise mobile gamers

To dominate the charts, one must master the art of ARM - acquiring, retaining and monetising players. No easy task with skyrocketing user acquisition costs and the risk of free-to-play stagnation looming.

So, in programming the Pocket Gamer Global Game Stars Track @ GMIC taking place in San Francisco on 22 October, Pocket Gamer took extra measure to pack the program with ROI-focused panels that will provide attendees with an impactful toolkit to takeaway.

"We've lined up the best and the brightest in mobile gaming," offered Chris James, MD of Pocket Gamer publisher Steel Media.

"The idea is to share insights into the most pressing questions facing indies, including how do I beat Goliath at his own game?"

As such, the panel "Are Social Platforms Changing the World of User Acquisition?" will feature CEOs and top execs from Storm8, Glu Mobile, PlayFirst, InMobi and Fiksu.

Said session will address portfolio diversification, intelligent and methodical testing for funnel analysis of data and traffic, and pursuing proprietary cross-promotion and rev-share with publisher networks to drive installs.

"One effective way to combat skyrocketing UA costs is to diversify your spending," explains Storm8 CEO Perry Tam.

"By buying at efficient prices across as many channels and titles as possible, you can achieve cumulatively strong volumes without breaking the bank. This can avoid paying exorbitant prices for concentrated inventory on any single source or title.

"At Storm8, we've always taken the approach of building a portfolio of games instead of one single big hit. As a result, we have a balanced and blended portfolio of games across many genres, which enables us to spread the spending across many different titles, thereby reducing it overall."

According to PlayFirst CEO and president Marco DeMiroz, every game requires a "different UA optimisation strategy based on its unique mechanics and audience.

He continues, "For a hardcore or niche game with higher ARPDAU, for example, you may want to buy quality traffic to drive revenue. For a casual game with brand recognition and lower ARPDAU, you might want to opt for a burst UA strategy to chart up and drive organic growth."

Mike Cohen, VP & GM of InMobi, agrees. "Optimizing for user lifetime value is the key to managing ROI," he says.

"With LTV optimisation, you target the customers that actually matter to you and eliminate the incentivized users who end up hurting rankings because they uninstall so quickly".

Pocket Gamer, a proud media partner of the upcoming GamesBeat conference in SF, has also invited Dean Takahashi to moderate the "What Every Dev Should Know About Monetization" panel.

It includes speakers from GREE, Tilting Point, and Applifier, the hot new monetization startup that has been generating over a million dollars a month for top publishers like Rovio.

"What every developer should know about monetisation is that it doesn't count for much without retention: if people aren't staying in the game and playing, monetising them is obviously impossible," asserts Giordano Contestabile, former PopCap Bejeweled executive producer, now Tilting Point VP of product and revenue.

"Keeping players engaged in the game is the only way to obtain long-term value, and once you have a large engaged audience it's nearly always possible to figure out how to build a business out of it.

"Launching a game that monetises well is only the first step: true success only comes if you can build a long-lasting brand, rather than focusing on short-term tactical results.

"From creating memorable characters and settings, to performing large scale marketing campaigns and brand extension opportunities, focusing on making a great game that people want to play as long as possible is paramount."

Thanks to the generous support of by our track sponsors UCWeb, Logitech, NativeX, SGN, Distimo, InMobi, Fiksu, HasOffers and Chukong USA, for a limited time, you can attend the Pocket Gamer Global Game Stars Track @ GMIC for FREE when registering under the "Pocket Gamer Network - Global Game Stars" option.

This offer is only available to a limited number of Pocket Gamer readers, so register for your free GGS track badge today.

Join Pocket Gamer's Chris James and Martine Paris for a full day of visionary keynotes, thought-provoking panels, and thrilling pitch sessions.

The impressive roster of track speakers includes:

• Chris DeWolfe, CEO, SGN
• Chris Early, VP digital publishing, Ubisoft
• Chris James, MD, Steel Media
• Chris Carvalho, COO, Kabam
• Dave Roberts, CEO, PopCap
• David Helgason, CEO, Unity
• Dean Takahashi, lead writer, VentureBeat
• Ed Fries, co-creator, Xbox
• Fabien-Pierre Nicolas, GM Mobile, Perfect World
• Giordano Contestabile, VP product and revenue, Tilting Point
• Glenn Kiladis, VP & GM, Fiksu
• Jay Wright, VP product management, Qualcomm
• Jeff Lyndon, co-founder & EVP, iDreamSky
• Kristian Segerstrale, co-founder and partner, Initial Capital
• Kyu Lee, President, Gamevil USA
• Lei Zhang, general manager USA, CocoaChina
• Lori Kozlowski, editor, Forbes
• Martine Paris, US events editor, Pocket Gamer
• Mickey Maher, VP, Applifier
• Mike Cohen, VP GM, InMobi
• Mike Lu, VP product management, GREE
• Nabeel Hyatt, partner, Spark Capital
• Niccolo De Masi, CEO and president, Glu Mobile
• Nick Ning Yang, Chaie, China Young Angel Investor
• Patrick Mork, advisory board, Onavo & Pocket Gems
• Perry Tam, CEO, Storm8
• Remco van den elzen, CCO and co-founder, Distimo
• Rick Liu, VP Asia Pacific & Latin America, NativeX
• Becky Ann Hughes, VP product & marketing, PlayFirst

To enjoy GMIC and all it has to offer, click here for 20 percent off Gold and VIP passes or for a free expo pass, click here.

Then when the sun goes down, party like the future is here
with Pocket Gamer, Qualcomm & Everyplay. Delight in drinks, bites and beats by DJ R3Y in the swanky subterranean digs of Vessel nightclub. RSVP here for a free afterparty ticket.