z*******n
发帖数: 1034 | 1 Tricks and tips for how to get your game featured in the Apple’s App Store
http://venturebeat.com/2014/05/07/tricks-and-tips-for-how-to-ge
Having Apple feature you on the App Store can make or break a mobile game,
as it helps you stand out among a million competitors. But this is easier
said than done.
Michael Ehrenberg, a former Apple App Store marketing manager, gave some
advice on the difficult question of how to get Apple to feature a game.
Speaking at the Mobile Gaming USA conference Tuesday in San Francisco,
Ehrenberg noted how he was on both sides of the fence, as he also worked in
marketing at mobile game publisher Gameloft. His advice was rare in that
Apple itself just never explains its ways in a public way.
Ehrenberg sat in on the meetings where Apple’s curators decided what to
feature. Those who get featured will feel like they’ve won the lottery,
given how much competition is out there.
Some tips he had were common sense. Make a great game. Make sure it exploits
the newest features of the iOS software as well as Apple’s latest hardware
. And don’t just concentrate on your game. Concentrate on selling your game
. That means you have to sell it not only to customers, but to press outlets
and to Apple itself.
“Developers put so much work into their games,” he said. “But they should
put as much time and energy and love into selling the game as they do
building the game.”
In that sales pitch, you sell a story. You tell about your passion for the
project, why you wanted to make it, and how far you’ve come. You show a
prototype of your game early and show it again when it’s closer to launch
so that Apple’s team can feel like they’ve been in the loop and can plan
for a coordinated launch. You need to show a game weeks before it is due to
come out, not days.
Michael Ehrenberg
Above: Michael Ehrenberg, a former Apple App Store manager.
Image Credit: Dean Takahashi
When Ehrenberg was at Gameloft, he would stake out a spot at a coffee house
near Apple. Then he would call his contacts there and say that he had a
meeting with someone at Apple and that he wanted to show them a new game. If
they spared 15 minutes for meeting him, that was all that he needed to keep
them informed about an upcoming game.
He noted that some developers have the impression that Apple can be paid to
feature games. He said that’s not the case, as the marketing team for the
App Store really focuses on what consumers want to see, as if they were
putting together a reviewers’ essential guide.
“It is 100 percent hand-curated,” Ehrenberg said.
The one exception is the “free app of the week,” where a developer permits
Apple to give away a paid app for free for a short time. That massive
discounting can create huge awareness and viral growth for a game, and it
usually pays off, Ehrenberg said.
The App Store team is global, and regional teams select content to feature
that is relevant on a local basis. College basketball apps are featured in
the U.S. during March Madness, but those apps don’t appear in the featured
spots of United Kingdom’s store.
The team of curators themselves try not to meet too much with developers and
get influenced by them. It’s like a Church and State division.
“You can’t pay them off or talk to them,” he said. “They are the sole
keyholders for featuring games. They hide behind the curtain, like Oz, and
want it all to be about the quality of the games.”
But they have a marketing team that does seek out the best content. They
take emails at a***************[email protected] and a***************[email protected].
These teams want to know about a game, track its progress, and evangelize it
within Apple.
They usually want to know the details of how your game takes advantage of
the technology in the latest iPhone or iPad. You have to make sure that the
frame rate of your animations is good. When they see what they want, they
will know it. You also want to make sure that you give Apple some kind of
exclusivity so that it can get a competitive advantage over rivals.
The game should be released on a Thursday, so that you can take advantage of
the changeover in the App Store. Beyond that, some marketing is seasonal.
You may have to tell Apple about a Halloween game promotion about a month
before the day.
You can pull tricks or do anything deceptive in your apps. And you have to
be wary about including any mature content, which is a red flag for Apple.
If you’re targeting a game at kids (which is going to be less and less
permissible in the future), you better not include a $99 virtual goods
purchase in the game.
“Apple is extremely sensitive to how its products look in the marketplace,
” Ehrenberg said.
You can test drive your products in certain markets. But don’t put them
into markets where the press is sure to discover them and write them up.
That will steal your thunder, and it may lose you the chance to get featured.
And as Apple invests in featuring you, you should also invest in your app by
creating PR campaigns, trailers, screen shots, and interviews. Your game
should have good reviews at the outset, and you should monitor what is being
said about your game in places like Neogaf or the Touch Arcade forums. And
if you’re going to create ads for your games, make sure they can see them
in Cupertino, Calif., where Apple’s headquarters is.
But above all else, Ehrenberg repeated that you cannot forget you have to
make a great game.
“Make it special, make it innovative, and make it best in class,”
Ehrenberg said. | z*******n
发帖数: 1034 | 2 App Store Marketing Guidelines
https://developer.apple.com/app-store/marketing/guidelines/
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in
【在 z*******n 的大作中提到】
: Tricks and tips for how to get your game featured in the Apple’s App Store
: http://venturebeat.com/2014/05/07/tricks-and-tips-for-how-to-ge
: Having Apple feature you on the App Store can make or break a mobile game,
: as it helps you stand out among a million competitors. But this is easier
: said than done.
: Michael Ehrenberg, a former Apple App Store marketing manager, gave some
: advice on the difficult question of how to get Apple to feature a game.
: Speaking at the Mobile Gaming USA conference Tuesday in San Francisco,
: Ehrenberg noted how he was on both sides of the fence, as he also worked in
: marketing at mobile game publisher Gameloft. His advice was rare in that
| z*******n
发帖数: 1034 | 3 分享游戏获得App Store推荐的建议和技巧
发布时间：2014-05-08 14:10:56 Tags：app store,推广,苹果推荐,营销活动
作者：Dean Takahashi
获得苹果App Store推荐可以成就或毁灭一款手机游戏，因为它令你的游戏从千万百竞
争对手中脱颖而出。但说得总比做得容易。
前苹果App Store营销经理Michael Ehrenberg针对如何让苹果推荐一款应用这个难题提
供了一些建议。在日前于旧金山举行的手机游戏USA大会上，Ehrenberg表示他很清楚苹
果与发行商这两者的运营情况，因为他曾就职于手机游戏发行商Ganeloft。他的建议甚
为罕见，因为苹果自身从未说明过其发行之道。
Available_on_the_App_Store(from startapp.com)
Available_on_the_App_Store(from startapp.com)
Ehrenberg称苹果审核人员会如召开决定推荐哪款应用的会议，而获得推荐者就会获得
一种自己中了头彩的感觉，要知道这个市场的竞争十分激烈。
他所提供的某些建议是众所皆知的经验之谈。例如，制作出色的游戏。确保它利用了
iOS软件以及苹果最新硬件的新功能。不要只是专注于游戏本身，还要关注销售游戏。
这意味着你不但要将游戏出售给用户，还要推销给媒体和苹果本身。
他称“开发者在自己的游戏上投入了太多精力，但他们应该在销售游戏中投入同样多的
时间和精力。”
开发者在推销提案中应该讲好故事。谈谈自己对该项目的激情，为何想制作这款游戏，
以及你所经历的过程。你应该在即将发布游戏之前，尽早展示游戏原型，以便苹果团队
获得一种身在其中之感，并为你制定相应的发布计划。你必须在游戏快要发布的数周而
非数天之前就展示这些内容。
当Ehrenberg在Gameloft就职时，他会挑选一家离苹果较近的咖啡馆。然后打电话给他
的联系人，表示他和某位苹果成员有个会面，他想为之展示一款新游戏。如果他们肯花
15分钟同他见个面，那么他就能够让他们获知一款新游戏将面市的消息。
他指出有些开发者误认为可以花钱买通苹果，令之推荐游戏。但事实并非如此，因为苹
果App Store营销团队专注于用户需求，会以审核者的眼光为大众提供基本引导。
Ehrenberg称“这真是100%的亲力亲为。”
唯一例外的是“每周免费应用”版块，开发者允许苹果限时免费促销一款付费应用。这
种大规模的折扣可以为游戏创造病毒式传播和发展，通常结果也甚为乐观。
App Store地区团队会选择符合本地需求的内容来推荐。例如在March Madness（美国大
学篮球繁忙冠军赛季）期间，美国App Store就会推荐大学生篮球应用，而英国App
Store就不会推荐这些应用。
apps(from techbang.com)
apps(from techbang.com)
这个审核团队的成员本身不会试图接触太多开发者并受到后者怂恿。
他称“你不能收买他们，他们是推荐游戏的唯一锁眼。他们隐藏在幕后，其宗旨是保证
游戏的质量。”
但他们有一个寻找最佳内容的营销团队。他们会通过a***************[email protected]以
及a***************[email protected]接收电子邮件。这些团队想了解一款游戏，跟进它的
进程，并在苹果内部进行宣传。
他们通常想了解你的游戏如何利用最新iPhone或iPad的功能等详情。你得确保你每一帧
动画都是良好的。当他们看到自己所需的内容时就会清楚了。你还要确保给予苹果一些
独家权，这样它才能获得超过竞争对手的优势。
游戏应该在周四发布，这样你就可以利用App Store转换期的优势。除此之外，还要注
意一些季节性的营销活动。如果你要推广一款万圣节游戏，可能得提前一个月告诉苹果。
你可以在自己的应用中耍一些小手段，但必须清楚应用中若含有任何成人内容，就可能
被苹果察觉。如果你的游戏目标用户是孩子，最好不要在游戏中植入含有99美元虚拟商
品交易的内容。
“苹果对自己的产品在市场上的表现十分敏感”。
你可以在特定市场测试自己产品。但不要将其推向媒体肯定会发现，并为之撰写报道的
市场。因为这会透露你的风声，导致你失去获得推荐的机会。
就像苹果投入精力推荐你的应用一样，你也要通过创造PR活动，预告视频，截图和接受
采访来创造势头。你的游戏一开始要拥有良好的评价，你应该关注Neogaf或Touch
Arcade论坛等网站上关于你游戏的评价。如果你想为自己的游戏打广告，要确保苹果总
部的人能够看到这些广告。
除了以上建议之外，Ehrenberg重复强调的是，不要忘了创造出色的游戏。
“要让你的游戏在竞争对手中与众不同，富有创新性和卓越性。”（本文为游戏邦/
gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）
Store
in
【在 z*******n 的大作中提到】
: Tricks and tips for how to get your game featured in the Apple’s App Store
: http://venturebeat.com/2014/05/07/tricks-and-tips-for-how-to-ge
: Having Apple feature you on the App Store can make or break a mobile game,
: as it helps you stand out among a million competitors. But this is easier
: said than done.
: Michael Ehrenberg, a former Apple App Store marketing manager, gave some
: advice on the difficult question of how to get Apple to feature a game.
: Speaking at the Mobile Gaming USA conference Tuesday in San Francisco,
: Ehrenberg noted how he was on both sides of the fence, as he also worked in
: marketing at mobile game publisher Gameloft. His advice was rare in that
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