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Home / Module 4: Driving Key Metrics / Deep Integration & Loyalty Liveops

Deep Integration and Loyalty Liveops

So you've integrated a loyalty program into your app. It has a tier system and tier benefits. It has rewards that players can earn by engaging with your game and earning loyalty points. Congratulations! So far, you're doing everything right. There's loyalty lift to be enjoyed simply by getting the basics right.

 

But what's next? How do you get FULL value from your loyalty program in your game?

 

In this article, we'll discuss deep integration and loyalty liveops, two interconnected concepts that take your loyalty program in your app to the next level.

 

Let's get started and be better together!

What is "Deep Integration"?

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There's a tendency to want to bolt on a loyalty center, set up some earn methods for your loyalty currencies, merchandise the tier program in a couple of key places, and you're done, right? Wrong.

 

If the program feels bolted on, players won't believe it's real. They won't engage with it regularly. And in the end, they won't find nearly as much value in it.

 

That's where deep integration comes in. Deep integration is when your loyalty proposition feels truly connected to and interwoven with your game experiences. It's when players feel connected to the loyalty brand in nearly every aspect of what they do in your game.

 

Think about your brick-and-mortar loyalty experiences. When you buy an airline ticket and you're a higher status, you might unlock a better experience in the booking process. If you need to cancel your flight for some reason, you might have looser restrictions. When you get to the airport, you have a dedicated luggage check-in experience. At the terminal, your group is called to board the plane first. Just before the safety procedures, you're thanked by the crew over the intercom. And on and on.

 

There's a reason they do all of this. Because the more deeply loyalty is integrated into the customer experience, the better it does at driving higher customer retention and engagement.

Endless Possibilities

So what does this look like for mobile games? There's no one answer, but instead, countless possibilities. And of course it varies by genre. The easiest way to think about it is that deep integration is a shift in your mindset.

When I'm building out this [game, feature, promotion, liveops event, meta layer, progression, etc.], I ask myself:
How could loyalty be incorporated? How could I leverage the loyalty assets? How could I give those assets away? How could I tuck MY assets behind a loyalty currency burn? How could I improve the experience for higher-status players? How could I use loyalty to make more money? How could I use loyalty to make this experience more fun?

The "Deep Integration Mindset" 

Here are some examples of what deep integration might look like in your app:

 

Boosters & Other Game Functionality

  • Players can buy boosters with their loyalty points.

  • Players can access in-game undo with their loyalty points.

  • Higher-tiered players get more boosters than other players.

  • Higher-tiered players can access in-game undo.

 

Liveops

  • At the end of a liveops event, players "unlock" higher benefits using their loyalty points.

  • At the end of a liveops event, players get a multiplier on their prize that is tied to their tier.

  • During liveops events, higher-tier players get to participate in a more challenging track that pays out more.

  • Liveops event milestones include an LP grant.

  • Certain special liveops events run exclusively for higher-tiered players.

 

Monetization

  • Players can unlock MORE currency or exclusive offers in the IAP store by using their loyalty points.

  • Players can buy all sorts of in-app currencies and commodities with their loyalty points.

  • Players can skip ads using their loyalty points.

  • Players can gain access to MORE or LESS ads using their loyalty points.

  • Higher-tiered players get more currency for watching ads.

  • Higher-tiered players don't have to watch ads.

 

Content

  • Players can unlock prize boosters with their loyalty points.

  • Players can unlock games, rooms, and mini-games with their loyalty points.

  • Players can lock in their streak, or save it, with their loyalty points.

  • Players can buy skins, backgrounds, avatar outfits, and more with their loyalty points.

  • Higher-tiered players can unlock more prize boosters than other players.

  • Higher-tiered players get access to games, rooms, and mini-games before other players.

  • Higher-tiered players can lock in their streak, or save it.

  • Higher-tiered players have exclusive/early access to skins, backgrounds, avatar outfits, and more.

Other Presence

In short, loyalty should play a role in and have functional utility in much of your game. But it doesn't all have to be functional. There are other ways loyalty can be deeply integrated that are more intrinsic.

 

  • Messages to the player about updates to the game could come from the loyalty program voice instead of the app voice.

  • Hosted players and premium customer support could communicate directly with the player inside the app. 

  • Certain features in the game could simply be "brought to you by..." the loyalty program.

 

While these don't seem like they mean as much as the functional utility use cases, they're just as effective at establishing a feeling of rich integration, and are usually far cheaper to employ. They may not stand on their own, but they make a great complement to more functional integrations.

A Word of Precaution:

There are some gotchas and pitfalls that you may run into when building deeper integration. Depending on the game genre, there are certain uses of loyalty and status benefits that the platforms (Apple and Google) frown upon. playAWARDS knows these very well and can help guide you through what will and won't work for your app.

How playAWARDS Can Help

That's not all playAWARDS can help with! We're here to be your strategic advisor, your sounding board, and generally your expert in all things loyalty in mobile games. We'll work with you to devise a strategy that will work best for your app, and can even help with the potential economy implications of that strategy.

 

Finally, we have a suite of tools that are here to help. Just to name two, the Loyalty Webhook allows for us to merchandise loyalty updates to your players in your app. The Rewards Detail Interface lets you buy rewards anywhere so you don't have to interrupt your player's natural flow as they redeem a reward in your app.

What is "Loyalty Liveops"?

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So you've got the basics down and now you're deeply integrated. What's next? Loyalty Liveops.

 

Loyalty Liveops can mean two things:

  1. Leveraging loyalty assets in short-term events in your game (operated by either us or you).

  2. Liveops events operated entirely by playAWARDS (and leveraging either loyalty assets, game assets, or both).

 

Let's cover each below.

Leveraging Loyalty Assets for Liveops

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As alluded to above, leveraging loyalty assets for liveops can be a great way to improve the performance of your liveops events.

 

You should think about this as both a giving and a taking. For example, at the end of a liveops event, you may give the player some loyalty points as a reward for completing the event. Alternatively, at the end of a liveops event, you may offer to take some loyalty points as a price to unlock a bigger in-app currency prize or bonus.

 

The assets that playAWARDS and loyalty programs bring that can be leveraged for liveops include:

  • Loyalty Points

  • (Gifting a) Reward

  • (Unlocking a) Reward

  • (Unlocking a category of) Rewards

  • Tier Points

  • Tier

  • Tier expiration (extension)

  • (Additional) Tier benefits

 

You can include these assets in a liveops event that is run by either you or playAWARDS. (We'll discuss playAWARDS-run events in next section.) Either way, we will work with you to ensure your success!

Events Operated by playAWARDS

The second type of loyalty liveops events are those simply conducted by playAWARDS.

 

Here's how it works:

  • playAWARDS works closely with your liveops and economy teams to design the event.

  • playAWARDS creates all of the necessary assets (possibly with help/access to your game assets, if needed).

  • playAWARDS deploys all communication/merchandising to the eligible players. (Of course, if any of this communication is to be in your app, then either you must deploy it or else you may subscribe to the Loyalty Webhook and we'll take it from there.)

  • playAWARDS manages all of the data and conducts the event. (Typically, players opt in by purchasing a reward in the reward store.)

  • playAWARDS handles any communication and fulfillment for the winners, where applicable.

  • playAWARDS will measure the performance of the event and report back to you.

 

Some examples of playAWARDS-run loyalty liveops events include:

  • Hosted Events: e.g. A hosted-only event where high-end players compete against each other on coin-in and the player with the most gets a big chip prize.

  • Monetized Sweepstakes: e.g. Players can boost the number of sweepstakes entries they've earned by playing a certain number of hands.

  • Tier-up Challenges: e.g. Players to tier up during the promotional period are awarded additional currencies or sweepstakes entries.

  • Loyalty Point Hot Seats: e.g. Any player playing the game during the promotional period is eligible for a bonus.

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As illustrated above, playAWARDS-run loyalty liveops events can leverage either playAWARDS assets or yours.

Why Do It?

playAWARDS has run many liveops events and we A/B test each one. We do this by hanging onto a similar-looking control group and measuring their behavior against the test group during the period of the event.

 

Events playAWARDS run have been shown to bring significant lift in ARPPU and PPU during the event, measuring anywhere from 10% to 50% lift above the control group.

Wrapping Up

When it comes to loyalty programs, getting the basics down is essential. You must get that right before you can advance to level two.

 

But taking your loyalty program to the next level means it feels deeply integrated into the game loop, and you're fully leveraging it to drive short-term gains in engagement and monetization.

 

When you get there, your players will reward you with higher LTVs and bragging about this awesome app that they play to their friends. And if it's feeling daunting, don't worry, take it one step at a time, and playAWARDS is here help.

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