Last week Gamesforum had the pleasure of interviewing Gamesforum Seattle panellist Sam McLellan. An expert in mobile games, and a true authority on mobile marketing. Sam shared great insights on building your marketing strategy in a start-up, the aftershock of the pandemic and embracing change to stay ahead of the curve! Read on for more...

• Q. So, Sam, tell us a bit about yourself! Who do you work for, and what is your role?

Hello! I am Sam McLellan, Chief Marketing Officer for BigBrain Games, a skill based gaming company where you can compete in live games and win real money prizes. I've been in the games industry for over 10 years, largely focused on product IAP monetization and performance marketing/growth. 

• Q. How did you find yourself working in the mobile games industry?

As a kid, I always wanted to work in the games industry and in college I had the opportunity to work on PC MMOs as an intern where I was able to gain some exposure to the product, QA and customer support/gamemaster side of things. Fast forward a few years and I had the good fortune to join a startup called Kabam that had just pivoted the company to go all-in on Facebook gaming. That ultimately lead to being involved with mobile gaming as the company expanded beyond Facebook games and very much into mobile gaming as that industry took off.

• Q. What drove you to join Big Brain Games in March?

It was one of those rare moments where you meet an incredibly talented team and a well thought out, polished product that is fun to play and truly rewards you for playing it. I'm confident that if you enjoy trivia and doing anything on your phone, you'd see the immense potential there is in BigBrain, especially with the implosion of HQ Trivia. They showed there are a ton of people who enjoy competitive trivia and no one has really stepped into the void they created, until now.

In addition, the company size was also very appealing as I very much prefer the startup world where I can wear all the hats and get my hands dirty vs the giant corporation world where you tend to find yourself largely siloed and bogged down in office politics. 

• Q. We have seen drastic changes in the everyday routine of consumers. How has your approach to mobile marketing changed through the pandemic, war in Ukraine and financial crisis?

While all of those have definitely had an impact on consumer spending, I think they are amplifying the struggles introduced into the app ecosystem with the Apple privacy/ATT changes. The impact those have had, on SMBs in particular, is immense and something that many are still attempting to grapple with. Now throw in additional curveballs shortly after a major shift to the way you could market your product and you'll find most smaller companies aren't able to really keep up or adjust as easily. Large companies can always spend away the problem, for the most part, but that tends not to be the case for SMBs or smaller-market products that relied on hypertargeting to find their customers.

For myself, my approach during the pandemic was largely the same, if not more aggressive. Most companies pulled back their spend initially as we went into the pandemic as it was a huge unknown. But for games, I think it was a really quick realization that people needed something to do and to ramp up campaigns. When the real world is a real bummer, people tend to turn to virtual worlds.

Since joining BigBrain in March, the situation in Ukraine hasn't really impacted us much as we currently only serve the US market. The macroeconomic climate is something we'll always keep our eyes on, but we've not seen much impact so far. People can play BigBrain for free on any given night and all our tournaments have low entry fees which helps on that front. 

• Q, In your capacity as CMO at Big Brain Games, how are you developing your marketing strategy to stay ahead of the curve in this increasingly competitive landscape?

Embracing change is key. The old way of running a growth machine with heavy reliance on IDFAs died with the Apple changes. That's not coming back, but it doesn't mean you can't port over many, if not most, of your learnings from before. With the ATT changes, targeting became much more fuzzy and rather than hitting small, specific audiences with a message that resonated only with those players, you have to target a wider audience and tailor the message to appeal to the wider group. Ad creative and copy testing is key to success there.

The fuzzier targeting also opens up things that would normally have been seen as too inefficient before. The rapid expansion of streaming apps, for example, has added in a ton of new ad inventory. If you're forced to appeal to a wider audience on the traditional digital channels, then the wider targeting of CTV/OTT is suddenly less daunting and actually similar to targeting on something like Facebook. It is a relatively safe assumption that people who tune in and watch HGTV are interested in, and will likely at some point, renovate a house or scale up the scope of their yard work.

Remaining hands on, at least with a channel/platform or two, also ensures that you don't get left behind. I've seen more than a few growth marketers fall behind when they focus on just strategy or team management as they don't get to experiment with new product launches/updates. 

• Q. As part of a fairly new company, what advice do you have for fellow small or start-up companies in defining a marketing strategy?

Time, budget and data will likely be in short supply initially. Learn when, where and how to use all 3 to have the biggest impact. Running 9 channels at lower budget levels and getting limited data back from SKAN/ATT will pale in comparison to spending on just 3 networks, getting more data as a result of the consolidated spend, and more time to invest in other growth areas.

There is a time and place for each marketing lever at your disposal. Attempting to ramp up player acquisition for a hypercasual game is likely to struggle if you're throwing all your budget into a brand campaign or attempting an email campaign. However, both of those levers become quite effective when yielded later in the games lifecycle when you can use email to keep current players engaged outside of the app/re-engage lapsed players or help lower the costs on your performance campaigns with a companion branding campaign. 

• Q. You will be joining our UA managers panel at Gamesforum Seattle, what can we expect to hear from you? What trends do you look forward to exploring?

I think performance marketing is in a really interesting place right now. There is a ton of doom and gloom out there about the privacy changes, but that tends to be from the companies and people who excelled in the IDFA era. I think the post-ATT world and how people adapted then adapted again is a really interesting conversation. The consolidation in the games space is also been extremely interesting to watch, especially as the lines between AAA console/PC gaming and mobile gaming continues to get erased. And, as always, I'm up for chatting startup worlds vs hypergrowth world vs mature corporation world as each is fairly unique.

• Q, What are you most looking forward to at Gamesforum Seattle?

Reconnecting with folks! The virtual events that filled the void during the pandemic just aren't the same with the in-person, face to face interactions.

• Q. Speaking of Seattle, do you have any hot spots to eat, drink or visit in the city?

I have only visited once before and it was back in 2014, so my knowledge is limited and definitely out of date. I really enjoyed The Chapel Bar when I was there (a bar that opened in an old church), but it looks like it has since closed so I'll be keeping an eye out for what others have to say!

• Q. What is your go to mobile game at the moment?

The impressive popularity of Vampire Survivors on PC and the clones it spawned on mobile have been my go-tos of late. Lonely Survivor (great game, terrible localizations) and Survivor.io are my faves so far.

Hear more from Sam McLellanand our other expert speakers at Gamesforum Seattle! You can register online here, and view our full speaker line-up here.