How Gameface.me rode Gangnam Style (part of the way) to viral success

Making its downloads dance

Around Halloween time, I argued it wasn't a sensible strategy to choose the same single-day event as lots of other developers as the lever for game launches, updates or general marketing activity.

An example of a much more nuanced approach to getting your app or game noticed is proved by US start up Gameface.me.

We covered their personalisation technology earlier in 2012, and as recent blog post from CEO Tipatat Chennavasin demonstrates, it's making the most of its agile operations.

Upwards shuffle

During the summer, it reworked its PuppetFace app - where you dress up your friends, slap them around or make them do silly dances - to take advantage of the Gangnam Style craze.

Cue an themed update and additional keywords, and a free iOS app that had been getting 50 downloads daily was up to 1,500 per day, peaking at 2,800.

In total, it got 40,000 downloads. Nothing to retire on, but a big difference nevertheless.

Of course, the story has a twist in terms of the cease and desist letter Gameface.me received from the record label.

But every cloud has a silver lining, or as Chennavasin explains, "We now had an 'in' with PSY - so let's get pitching. Our response to the C&D was a business proposal to let us handle the making of the official Gangnam Style app".

There's no news on that, yet...

[source: Gameface.me blog]

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