3 branding lessons from total battle

branding and communications lessons from a game I have spent the last one month raving about, building a city and meeting new people from around the world.

Dear You,

I was randomly scrolling through Instagram and saw a game that prepared you to defeat a monster based on math choices. I thought to myself - oh! I miss basic arithmetic; this might help me rejig my brain. So, I downloaded it. 

If you're not new here, you already know I love games. I play FIFA, and I get stuck on new games, figuring them out over and over again, so this one was no different. I started playing. The next thing I knew, I was playing for hours, and the game started to reveal itself to me. The more I played, the more I was intrigued by the marketing, branding, and community lessons embedded with the game. It's most definitely designed to keep you coming and opening your wallets to spend money. It intrigued me, and upon closer notice, I realized that these three lessons stood out for me.

clarity of goals = clarity of action = rewards:

Every day, we get specific quests and every four hours, we get daily jobs, and they are very clear: "train 100 guardsmen", "match to 3 crypts", "battle in the arena five times", "collect taxes for citizens". The quests were different from the jobs, and they were time-bound as well. The clarity of the goal makes it so easy to know what actions you need to take, and they prepare you to learn specific skills and unlock ideas and rewards toward a bigger mission. Initially, I lost out on big rewards and opportunities when I played randomly without paying attention to the quests. This is very similar to branding or communications, even life. If you are unclear on your goals, you might miss out on big rewards and the big picture. If you know the goal is to get 1000 leads for a specific product, you won't spend millions hiring a celebrity who doesn't care about your product. You may focus more on a referral strategy or create a free trial or resource that captures the attention of your apparent target audience. This also applies in life. You'll reap great rewards if you are clear on your goals and actions

competition works:

Every day, there are tournaments, and most of these tournaments have rewards and gifts. Out of the thousands of players, they spotlight and reward the top 100; you can see the scores in real-time. This is how the kings of the kingdoms in the game are chosen every week. Competition pushes people to try a little harder beyond their limits, especially when they see that the prize is near. It helps people find new motivations. I remember watching Physical 100 on Netflix, and some people said they kept going because they just wanted to beat the person ahead of them, some said they wanted to be the best woman, and some said they just didn't want to be last. Competition and leaderboards help us find new motivations to stretch ourselves beyond our current limits and beat our previous records. I personally think that Pepsi and Coca-Cola are so much bigger than they would have been because of the competition that exists between them. The same thing can apply to your brand; while your core focus is your customers, and your eyes should be on them 90% of the time, find one person to beat within your market segment. From a marketing perspective, you could create healthy competition within your consumers by introducing rewards and point systems. Show them how others perform compared to them, which could spur more action. I remember an energy company sending out marketing materials letting consumers know they were in the top 20% compared to their neighbours and sharing what the top 1% did. This inspired people to want to be part of the top 1%, and it helped them use their energy better. Even at Ingressive for Good, we emailed participants of the 1000 Women In X training, telling them they're 50% done with their course and are in the top 100 of 1000 women. Finish soon to be part of the top 10 or be one of the first to finish. It inspired people to complete their courses more and even faster.

keep a journal:

In this game, there's a record of every action you take. I find myself returning to the journal to see what skilled soldiers I used, who dealt the most significant damage to the monsters, what soldiers I should focus on bringing along in the next attack, etc. This was such a helpful feature because many of my actions were no longer random. I knew which were experiments and which were calculated strategies. It made my success repeatable. I also starred my wins, and this reminded me of the importance of a win journal in boosting confidence and creating an opportunity to build systems and create repeatable success. This also translates in the branding and communications world—every action you take, document. Please review with your team what worked, what didn't, and why we experienced growth or decline this month. Ask questions, and document your steps and your analytics. It often holds the key to repeatable success.

I was going to share one more on community, but this is already long, and the community insights deserve their own letter, so see you next time on unbranded letters. Until then, share this!

Which of these lessons stood out for you? Let me know in the comment section.

With Love,
Blessing Abeng

sidebar: Writing this letter about lessons from playing a game made me think of my conversation with Kunle Idowu [Frank Donga] about play and how it can be a powerful tool for learning. Click play to watch this unbranded conversation: