As part of Casual Connect Europe, Tammy Levy, Director Product for the mobile publishing team at Kongregate, gave a presentation about Kongregate’s findings on effective in-game advertising. Learn how to: track and optimize performance; engage as many players as possible; and give rewards that matter. This talk includes case studies which highlight good and bad ad implementation from Adventure Capitalist, Bullet Boy, Epic Skater, and more. Learn how in-game ads can boost your revenue stream or even become your main source. Tammy pointed out that, “Ads do not necessarily cannibalize IAP but in fact Kongregate have seen that payers interact more with ads compared to non-payers.” To learn more, listen to the full session below.
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Tammy Levy is Director Product for the mobile publishing team at Kongregate, As such, Tammy is responsible for ensuring Kongregate’s teams utilize data to make decisions on improving games and ultimately ensuring they will become successful businesses.
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Tammy’s career path began with a love of games; “Games equal fun. Who wouldn’t want to pursue that?” Tammy studied Digital Media Design at the University of Pennsylvania with the intention of working in the movie industry making CG movies but realized the same skills could be applied to the game industry, an area few other students were considering.
After an internship at EA’s Pogo, Tammy began working at Zynga, a company that, she describes, “lives and breathes data.” Tammy has been able to apply everything learned there to Kongregate – and expand on it.
Different Developers, Different Perspectives
At Kongregate, Tammy greatly enjoys the opportunity to interact and work with developers from around the globe – and at all levels of experience. Tammy relates, “One day you are talking with and guiding a small three-person studio building their first game and the next day you could be talking with a team of console veterans trying their hand on the mobile space. The different perspectives we experience are very refreshing.”
At times it is challenging to not be the first party developer of the games Kongregate releases because the different teams may have very different points of view. Tammy finds open communication and information sharing essential to working in this situation. And it is always rewarding to find a solution everyone believes in.
Every time Tammy is part of a game launch, she is very proud. Launch day is only the beginning of the live servicing journey, but getting there requires huge effort from everyone involved. Tammy explains, “After all that work, seeing the game in your audience’s hands is an extremely gratifying experience.”
Data: The Most Effective Factor
The most effective factor for mobile marketing and retention at Kongregate is data, Tammy insists. Even with all the tools in the world, unless you look at the data regularly and identify the areas where improvement is needed, the tools will be of no value.
Tammy’s work requires constantly looking at the data behind games. It is extremely important to focus on making sure games are both fun and good business. Although there is sometimes the misconception that monetizing games will remove the fun factor, with the right balance it is possible to achieve both.
An Overall View of the Industry
Kongregate is fortunate to have a portfolio of over 20 mobile titles and thousands of games on the web platform. With this many games and the amount of data they generate, the company has an enviable overall view of the game industry. This gives the company relatively accurate benchmarks and the ability to follow industry trends.
Setting up Kongregate’s analytics and tools was definitely a challenge. It is always necessary to question the validity of the data, and at Kongregate they continue to do so even though they have overcome the initial challenges. As a publisher, Kongregate faces the unique challenge of working with developers who have very different levels of experience, backgrounds and who use different technologies. Tammy emphasizes, “You need to think about standardizing and automating as much as possible to minimize the custom work each developer needs to put in. And I am happy to say we’ve been able to do that.”
Emphasize Innovation
Tammy would definitely like to see people in the industry place greater emphasis on innovation. Although there are places where innovation is occurring, in the past couple of years teams are focusing mainly on what seem to be “sure bets.” Recognizing that this is an area of need, Kongregate has just announced a program, Launchpad X, which is intended to foster innovation.
Sharing information, data, knowledge and experiences is what Tammy believes has the potential to improve us all. “If you do this, we’ll make everyone in the industry better and elevate the whole industry.”
When Tammy is not working, you can find hir relaxing at home with a cup of tea and reading a good book, watching a movie or playing a board game. Tammy has also been involved in indoor rock climbing for the past two years and has recently started climbing outdoors as well.
Kongregate is currently hiring. For more information on available roles, visit them at www.kongregate.com/pages/jobs.
