The Gameloft WAP site
Gameloft is a leading international developer and publisher of video games for mobile phones and is number two in the market today. The company already has a presence on all the major operator portals but its games sit alongside those of its competitors and it was proving hard to stand out from the crowd. Gameloft wanted to use their marketing power to sell their games direct-to-consumer and capture new business.
The mobile web was chosen as the best platform for the direct-to-consumer site as it delivers a better user experience with proven lower support costs than Premium SMS. Unlike Premium SMS, on the mobile web the point of payment and download are tightly coupled into one seamless WAP flow, leading to fewer support problems. Device detection on the mobile website ensures Gameloft only sells the games that are compatible with the user’s handset.
Search promotions drives users to the mobile site
In the Gameloft mobile website, there are approximately 110 of its top games, optimized for over 800 handsets. It is important that each game can be located in just a few clicks and is of the highest quality so that customers have a good experience and came back for more.
Gameloft chose the Bango Target package (now called Bango Payment World) and is using the global WAP billing platform to collect payment from users around the world, important as the mobile service is available in 15 different languages
Mobile users access the mobile site by entering www.gameloft.com into their phone browser or by clicking through from search and advertising promotions. Once on the site, they browse and buy games in one seamless step using the Bango Service.
The Bango Service provides global billing. The best payment method is dynamically presented to the consumer depending on their country and network using Bango's BillRank technology.
The system chooses from the following payment methods: direct operator billing (including PayForIt in the UK), Premium SMS, credit/debit cards and PayPal and adapts according to the user's payment history. So if a consumer in the UK pays with their credit card, the next time they come to pay for a game, this option is presented first.
Gameloft’s strategy is to think global and act locally. The mobile website works across all the territories, but is localized for specific markets so the content is in the right language and is relevant and appealing for that country. At the same time, Bango detects where the user is coming from and delivers the best payment method for the user in that country.
"We are very happy to have signed this partnership with Bango. We're witnessing a big evolution today in terms of WAP usage and Bango is a good partner to work with for WAP billing." Houssain Elguertit, B2C Development Manager at Gameloft
Houssain Elguertit, B2C Development Manager at Gameloft
Gameloft's marketing programs are driving traffic to the direct-to-consumer site with visitors seen from across Europe, the US and the Far East. Full use is made of search marketing through Yahoo!, Google and other search engines as well as mobile advertising networks delivered by Admob, Screentonic and Third Screen Media.
“We needed to be able to track the success of our campaigns otherwise we wouldn’t know where to put our next investment, with Bango tracking numbers, we can track the success of each campaign and see immediately which promotions yielded high rates of return with our 24x7 view of transactions as they happen.” Houssain Elguertit, B2C Development Manager at Gameloft
Gameloft initially purchased the Bango Target (now called Bango Payment World) package and has now upgraded to Bango Payment Advantage to secure the highest possible payout rates this package brings. Now Gameloft are within 1% of the payouts that Bango receives from an operator, making its purchase of the Bango Service highly profitable in a global marketplace.