VNG - Gunny Origin

The Objective

Promoting the launch of VNG's Gunny Origin mobile game

Vietnam-based gaming publisher VNG wanted to promote its new mobile game Gunny Origin, the mobile-version of the legendary Gunny Web game which has been around for more than 13 years. VNG's objective was to scale big by building excitement and awareness for the game leading up to its launch. To do so, VNG leveraged TikTok to execute a full funnel launch strategy -- by leveraging TikTok's branding solutions such as TopView ads, down to performance solutions such as In-Feed Ads with App Event Optimization.

The Solution

Leveraging TikTok's full suite of ad solutions for a full funnel launch campaign

VNG designed a multi-faceted campaign that combined organic and paid media strategies to drive brand awareness and game app installs. As part of its comprehensive launch strategy, VNG generated creatives in collaboration with creators, ads starring Vietnamese celebrities such as Rapper Den, and gameplay creatives that demonstrated the game in action. Many of the creatives featured beloved characters from the Gunny franchise, helping to build excitement for the new mobile game launch.

VNG then organized its campaign into three phases: pre-launch, growth, and sustain.

During the pre-launch phase, VNG set up a Business Profile and drove pre-registrations via an Instant Page that linked to its app store profile. The brand also aimed to maximize awareness of the game launch in this phase, using a combination of standard In-Feed Ads and native Spark Ads set to the Community Interaction objective. Using native Spark Ads allowed VNG to amplify organic and paid creator-generated content to generate buzz. Meanwhile, the Community Interaction objective optimized for follower acquisition.

As for In-Feed Ads, VNG used TikTok's premium ad placement, TopView, which provides 100% SOV. The objective was to drive users to a livestream which featured two players competing head-to-head, for fun-filled fan engagement. This resulted in awareness uplift, and also increased installs on both Android and iOS.

During the growth phase of the campaign VNG targeted user acquisition, deploying gift codes to boost installs. The brand used the App Installs objective on Spark Ads, while retargeting users that had engaged with the pre-launch phase. VNG also used Cost-Bidding Optimization as well as Cost Cap to optimize the budget spend. At this stage, VNG scaled its ad placement beyond TikTok via Pangle, the ad network for TikTok for Business, which runs immersive ads on third-party apps.

For the mid-stage of the growth phase, VNG also utilised App Event Optimization to boost return on ad spend. And finally, for the sustain phase of the campaign, VNG utilized the Conversion objective to double down on maximizing return on ad spend.

Throughout the game launch campaign, VNG activated iOS14 Dedicated Campaigns to reach iOS14.5+ users.

The Results

Leveraging TikTok's branding solutions to drive installs during launch

VNG gave Gunny Origin a hero's welcome, with a stellar campaign that reached millions of fans, building and sustaining excitement for the game launch and beyond.

TikTok drove 28% of all app installs during the launch campaign, making it the #1 channel. After just three weeks, Gunny Origin's TikTok Business Profile had attracted more than 40,000 followers, with a 4.5% uplift in attraction, thanks to the Community Interaction objective. And once the ball had got rolling on the launch campaign, VNG saw a 4.9% uplift in awareness thanks to TopView ads. As for the livestream, VNG saw a 42% uplift in unique views. With a combination of branded content and creator-generated content, this led to significant impact on game installs, with 4X Android App Install Uplift and 2X iOS App Install Uplift, as well as attracting over 200 million views.