Abstract
With the emerging of Internet technology, the digital game industry is booming. Successful promotion is a requirement for new games to gain an important position in market competition. Some marketing literature emphasizes that event marketing constitutes an effective way to promote new products, and key opinion leaders (KOLs) and user-generated contents (UGCs) play an important role in game adoption. However, there are no relevant studies to explore event marketing, KOLs, and UGCs’ role and influence in the different stages of the process of new game promotion. Thus, using text mining and social network analysis methods, this study collected 698,965 postings on Sina Weibo to analyze the information diffusion trends and the effect of UGCs, marketing events, and KOLs at different promotion stages. Our results show that the new game promotion experienced a rapid outbreak and finally entered a declining diffusion trend. Critical events driven by popular festivals played an important role in the promotion process. Comic and game KOLs have higher influence, and marketing KOLs must cooperate with these KOLs to achieve better diffusion effects. In addition, head KOLs play a major role in information dissemination, especially in the first stage; however, when the information increases rapidly, ordinary users and tail KOLs also increase rapidly. The development of UGCs also reflects the diffusion trend of new game promotion. Based on these results, this study suggests countermeasures and suggestions for game design and marketing promotion for new game promotion.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
References
Baruah TD (2012) Effectiveness of social media as a tool of communication and its potential for technology-enabled connections: a micro-level study. Int J Sci Res Publ 2(5):1–10
Benesty J, Chen, J, Huang Y, Cohen I (2009) Pearson correlation coefficient Noise reduction in speech processing: Springer
Casalo LV, Flavian C, Ibanez-Sanchez S (2020) Influencers on instagram: antecedents and consequences of opinion leadership. J Bus Res 117:510–519. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.07.005
Chen Y, Liu Y, Zhang J (2012) When do third-party product reviews affect firm value and what can firms do? The case of media critics and professional movie reviews. J Mark 76(2):116–134. https://doi.org/10.1509/jm.09.0034
Chen HS (2015) The decision making of the new product promotion under turbulent environment through real option with GM (1, 1). J Grey Syst 18(4):213–224
Drengner J, Gaus H, Jahn S (2008) Does flow influence the brand image in event marketing? J Advert Res 48(1):138–147. https://doi.org/10.2501/s0021849908080148
Goel S, Anderson A, Hofman J, Watts DJ (2016) The structural virality of online diffusion. Manage Sci 62(1):180–196. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2015.2158
Guan W, Gao H, Yang M, Li Y, Ma H, Qian W, Yang X (2014) Analyzing user behavior of the micro-blogging website Sina Weibo during hot social events. Physica A. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physa.2013.09.059
Grandjean M (2015) Gephi: Introduction to network analysis and visualisation
Gruner RL, Vomberg A, Homburg C, Lukas BA (2019) Supporting new product launches with social media communication and online advertising: sales volume and profit implications. J Prod Innov Manag 36(2):172–195. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpim.12475
Hajarian M, Bastanfard A, Mohammadzadeh J, Khalilian M (2019) A personalized gamification method for increasing user engagement in social networks. Soc Netw Anal Min 9(1):1–14
Hu H-H, Lin J, Qian Y, Sun J (2018) Strategies for new product diffusion: whom and how to target? J Bus Res 83:111–119. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.10.010
Huang M, Ali R, Liao J (2017) The effect of user experience in online games on word of mouth: a pleasure-arousal-dominance (PAD) model perspective. Comput Hum Behav 75:329–338. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.05.015
Hu Y (2005) Efficient, high-quality force-directed graph drawing. Math J 10(1):37–71
Jacomy M, Venturini T, Heymann S, Bastian M (2014) ForceAtlas2, a continuous graph layout algorithm for handy network visualization designed for the Gephi software. PLoS ONE 9(6):e98679. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0098679
Jung JM, Min KS, Kellaris JJ (2011) The games people play: how the entertainment value of online ads helps or harms persuasion. Psychol Mark 28(7):661–681. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.20406
Lee D, Hosanagar K, Nair HS (2018) Advertising content and consumer engagement on social media: evidence from Facebook. Manage Sci 64(11):5105–5131. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2290802
Li J, Zhang K (2007) Keyword extraction based on tf/idf for Chinese news document. Wuhan Univ J Nat Sci 12(5):917–921. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11859-007-0038-4
Li SG, Zhang YQ, Yu ZX, Liu F (2020) Economical user-generated content (UGC) marketing for online stores based on a fine-grained joint model of the consumer purchase decision process. Electron Commer Res. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10660-020-09401-8
Li Y, Zhang Z, Peng Y, Yin H, Xu Q (2018) Matching user accounts based on user generated content across social networks. Futur Gener Comput Syst- Int J Esci 83:104–115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.future.2018.01.041
Libai B, Muller E, Peres R (2013) Decomposing the value of word-of-mouth seeding programs: acceleration versus expansion. J Mark Res 50(2):161–176. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmr.11.0305
Lin HC, Bruning PF, Swarna H (2018) Using online opinion leaders to promote the hedonic and utilitarian value of products and services. Bus Horiz. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2018.01.010
Liu C, Zhan X-X, Zhang Z-K, Sun G-Q, Hui PM (2015) How events determine spreading patterns: information transmission via internal and external influences on social networks. New J Phys 17(11):113045. https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/17/11/113045
Liu T, Lai Z (2020) From non-player characters to othered participants: Chinese women’s gaming experience in the ‘free’ digital market. Inf Commun Soc 14:1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2020.1791217
Men LR, Tsai WHS (2012) How companies cultivate relationships with publics on social network sites: evidence from China and the United States. Public Relat Rev 38(5):723–730. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2011.10.006
Miner AAS (1992) Strategic momentum: the effects of repetitive, positional, and contextual momentum on merger activity. Strateg Manag J 13(5):335–348. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.4250130503
Morgeson FP, Mitchell TR, Liu D (2015) Event system theory: an event-oriented approach to the organizational sciences. Acad Manag Rev 40(4):515–537. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2012.0099
Nejad MG, Amini M, Babakus E (2015) Success factors in product seeding: the role of homophily. J Retail 91(1):68–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2014.11.002
Newman MEJ (2003) The structure and function of complex networks. SIAM Rev 45(2):167–256. https://doi.org/10.1137/s003614450342480
Pierri F, Piccardi C, Ceri S (2020) Topology comparison of Twitter diffusion networks effectively reveals misleading information. Sci Rep 10(1):1–9
Steenkamp J, Gielens K (2003) Consumer and market drivers of the trial probability of new consumer packaged goods. J Consum Res 30(3):368–384. https://doi.org/10.1086/378615
Tian X, Yu G, He F (2016) An analysis of sleep complaints on Sina Weibo. Comput Hum Behav 62:230–235. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.04.014
Torres P, Augusto M, Matos M (2019) Antecedents and outcomes of digital influencer endorsement: an exploratory study. Psychol Mark 36(12):1267–1276. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21274
Tselyutina T, Malkov E (2015) Event marketing in Russia: trends and prospects. SWorldJournal 21508(2):76–82
Veirman MD, Cauberghe V, Hudders L (2016) Marketing through Instagram influencers: the impact of number of followers and product divergence on brand attitude. Int J Advert 36(1):1–31. https://doi.org/10.1080/02650487.2017.1348035
Wang Z, Liu H, Liu W, Wang S (2020) Understanding the power of opinion leaders’ influence on the diffusion process of popular mobile games: travel Frog on Sina Weibo. Comput Hum Behav. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2020.106354
Watts DJ, Dodds PS (2007) Influentials, networks, and public opinion formation. J Consum Res 34(4):441–458. https://doi.org/10.1086/518527
Yam A, Russell-Bennett R, Foth M, Mulcahy R (2017) How does serious M-Game technology encourage low-income households to perform socially responsible behaviors? Psychol Mark 34(4):394–409. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.20996
Yu Z, Zhang D, Yu Z, Yang D (2015) Participant selection for offline event marketing leveraging location-based social networks. Ieee Trans Syst Man Cybern-Syst 45(6):853–864. https://doi.org/10.1109/tsmc.2014.2383993
Zarantonello L, Schmitt BH (2013) The impact of event marketing on brand equity the mediating roles of brand experience and brand attitude. Int J Advert 32(2):255–280. https://doi.org/10.2501/ija-32-2-255-280
Zhang YS, Zheng J, Tang AJ (2017) A Quantitative evaluation method of micro-blog user authority based on multi-feature fusion. Tien Tzu Hsueh Pao/acta Electronica Sinica 45(11):2800–2809. https://doi.org/10.3969/j.issn.0372-2112.2017.11.030
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 72074060).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest concerning the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wang, X., Yu, G. & Yu, Y. Exploring the marketing strategy for the promotion of a new mobile game: love and producer on sina weibo. Soc. Netw. Anal. Min. 11, 117 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13278-021-00831-2
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13278-021-00831-2