10x’ing installs and doubling player retention

Because the game's growth had plateaued and performance marketing and UA simply wasn't cutting it anymore, Futureplay had a hard choice to make.

Kill the game and start over from scratch or give the game one last chance. They went with the latter, more unconventional route and even more unconventionally for their industry they tasked us, an external creative partner to help them breathe new life into the game.

Without a strong brand and story, it was virtually impossible to stand out in the extremely crowded “merge” mobile game category where fast-following is seen as the way to make quick gains, resulting in a landscape of sameness.

It was a clear opportunity to build a unique world and brand experience to the foundation for a deeper, more coherent game story, new exciting characters and lore, all with strong ties to the game itself, making it a seamless user experience from marketing to gameplay.

The new Merge Gardens is a brand inspired by the childhood mystery and fantasy novels that our core audience grew up with. We wrote the unique story of protagonist Daisy and her estranged family with roots going more than a century back in time and a whole cast of side characters and plotlines. A mystery that turned into a comprehensive 25-page storybook, films, app store pages, website, visual guidelines, game logo and tagline.

Creating a unique story. Before landing on the current story, multiple concepts tailored to the audience where created, presented and evaluated with a large number of players. The story of the very relatable Daisy and her confusing discovery of Myrtle Grove and her family's mysterious past won the heart of the audience by a large margin.

15 unique character concepts. Besides the game's main cast, we created a range of unlockable characters stuck in the mysterious Myrtle Grove garden as topiary statues – a simple way to keep players engaged and slowly reveal the parts of the plot. We wrote each character concept and directed the visual development before they were turned into beautiful 3D for a fully animated 3D marketing campaign consisting of multiple episodes, many of which are still in development.

An identity worthy of a franchise. The identity is inspired by classic mystery and fantasy book covers that you'll find adorning Stephen King and Agatha Christie novels. The topiary statues both acted as a storytelling plot and an instant visual hook. In a marketing environment where players are disrupted from their gameplay to commercials, we knew that visuals of the highest recognizability and quality were key.

Since the relaunch, Futureplay has seen unprecedented growth for their game with a massive 10-fold increase in downloads and an incredible doubling of player retention compared to before the rebranding.

The online marketing films have turned into highly anticipated episodic content with fans screaming for more, discussing plots and hailing it as some of the best advertising in gaming.