Creative Highlights

Download PDF

Creative Highlights

—

August 2021

August Creative Trends:
Takeaways

●
Many of the top creatives highlight
human-like characters
, either in gameplay or cinematics (
Garena Free Fire,

Fidget Trading, Royal Match, Family Island, Call of Duty, Clash of Clans, Mobile Legends
…)

●
Anniversary celebration
theme of some gaming brands in the ads (
Mobile Legends
,
Clash of Clans
)

●
Mech Arena: Robot
adopts a
Sports News format
, for their first month of WW release

●
Happy Colours
utilises a
talking animal
impersonating a human-like character, as well as the continued trend of

paws tapping the screen

●
ArrowFest
creatives have a variation of a real life player footage with
Bitmoji

images

●
Introduction to the
Tesla

experience
in the
PUBG Mobile
world

●
Bingo Clash
uses the unique
paper trend
from Facebook type of ad creative

●
Some top creatives have a CTA button at the end which show a
search bar with the app’s name
typed in (
Happy

Colours, Trading Legend
)

●
Continued trend of
special collaborations with music artists
, such as
Call of Duty
x Ozuna and
Garena Free Fire
x

Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike.

●
Giving away
promo codes & rewards
in the ads (
Mobile Legends
)

●
Happy Colours
and
PUBG Mobile
continue to use a
screen split format
throughout the ad, including moving videos

along static content and captions.

●
Use of famous
Pop music
on Hypercasual games (
Magic Finder 3D
and
Strong Pusher
)

●
Family Island
and
Royal Match
both feature characters in
extreme emergencies
(fire and volcano)

●
Several top creatives continue the trend of
fail state elements
, such as
Royal Match
,
Evony
,
Trading Legend
and

Township
.

●
New game
ZenMatch
bets on the continued trend of
instructions on top of the screen

August Creative Trends:
Continued Success

August 2021 Creative

Trends

Garena Free Fire
:

Real life DJs Featured as Characters

WHERE: Ranked #22 on Instagram

Interesting Components:

●
Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike (DJs)

highlighted as playable characters in

a Garena Free Fire world

●
Cinematic of Dimitri Vegas taking

down bad guys who are holding Like

Mike hostage

●
End card of DJs partying with other

characters and search bar with
“FREE

FIRE” query

WHERE: Ranked #5 on YouTube

Interesting Components:

(
Top
)

●
Highlights zombie theme introduced in

the latest update

●
Storyline focused ad – starting with a

startled character with a foreign accent

●
Use of a realistic cinematic format,

action music increasingly tense in the

background and Sci-fi elements

(zombies, teleporting, futuristic

machines)

(
Bottom
)

●
Ozuna & CoD partnership – new Ozuna

video in a CoD world

●
Ozuna is a CoD character in the ad, and

throws himself out of the plane with a

special gun

Call of Duty
:

Real Life Artist Featured as
Character

Royal Match
:

Cinematic Focus w/ Match 3 Gameplay

WHERE: Ranked #38 on ironSource

Interesting Components:

●
Begins with cinematic of King waking

up to emergency which quickly gets

out of hand

●
Match 3 gameplay is layered under

the cinematic, with a more even split

between cinematic and gameplay

than previous iterations

●
Continued trend of fail condition

Clash of Clans
:

9th Anniversary Party Theme

WHERE: Ranked #23 on YouTube

Interesting Components:

●
Highlights Clash of Clans 9th

Anniversary

●
Cinematic view & storyline based ad

of 3 Wall Breaker skeleton children

escaping to the anniversary party

●
Elements like gold coins, dancing

main characters (barbarians, archer

queen, goblins…) are used

throughout.

●
Party music in the background

Mobile Legends
:

Promo Codes & Anniversary Theme

WHERE: Ranked #25 on YouTube

Interesting Components:

●
A storyline of a Help Center rep

confirms the accuracy & amount of

the promo codes and free rewards

such as draws and scrolls to a furious

player (continuous trend of promo

codes)

●
Game characters, a game insight in a

phone and “Come to the summer

party” CTA at the end

●
Mobile Legends anniversary theme

at the end of the ad

Happy Colours
:

Valentine’s Day & Talking Cat

Interesting Components:

(
Left
)

WHERE: Ranked #14 on Facebook

●
Ad screen split into two parts, top

shows the actual video and the

bottom has 3 static images that never

change until the end

●
“Page flip” eﬀect

(
Right
)

WHERE: Ranked #16 on Youtube

●
A real cat talks and expresses its need

to unwind and plays on the app.

There is also a continued trend of a

paw tapping the screen

●
“It’s so smooth and calming” callouts

●
CTA at the end shows a search bar

with the app’s name typed in

PUBG MOBILE 1.5
:

Tesla Vehicle (New Update)

WHERE: Ranked #5 on Snapchat

Interesting Components:

●
Ad composed of various parts:

1)
Tesla branded vehicles available to

purchase as part of the latest 1.5

update. See more info on updates

on App Update Timeline

2)
Two split screen: top one showing a

gameplay scenario and the bottom

one a static image with CTA

buttons.

●
Rock music and expressive sound

eﬀects

●
Ad only ran for 1 day and it

achieved a position #9 on SC

Mech Arena
:
Sports News Format

(WW Launched in 2/8/21)

Interesting Components:

(
Left
)

WHERE: Ranked #18 on Facebook

●
Personalisation of characters and
robot

suits, with informal and comical

instructions in the background

(
Top Right
)

WHERE: Ranked on #9 on Instagram

●
Shows 2 friends deciding to play via

text, then 2 others joining via in-game

invites (eventually displaying 4 player

split-screen)

(
Bottom Right
)

WHERE: Ranked on #7 on Snapchat

●
Sports News commentator highlights

theme of the game

●
“Live” and “Replay” icons and a News

Ticker which shows news related to the

diﬀerent Mechs

Fidget Trading
:

Impatient 1v1

WHERE: Ranked #10 on Instagram and

#23 on Snapchat

Interesting Components:

●
First person gameplay with colorful

fidgets being thrown onto the board

●
Player continuously taps the “Deny”

button while opponent repeatedly

taps “Trade” implying that there is

disagreement

●
Player removes game pieces from

the board and continues to spam

“Deny” button

Arrow Fest
:

Bitmoji and Black & White

Interesting Components:

(
Left
)

WHERE: Ranked #2 on Facebook and

#2 on Instagram

●
Starts with real life arrow being

pulled out of Ballistics gel

●
Using footage of a real life player

on the top right corner, with a

Bitmoji in front of the face

(
Right
)

WHERE: Ranked #13 on Facebook for

Games Top Creatives in August 2021

●
Hypercasual gameplay based ad

in black and white and in mute

Texas Hold ‘Em
:

High-realistic Animation

WHERE: Ranked #14 on Chartboost

Interesting Components:

●
Hyper-realistic animation and slow

motion

●
Creates an environment of “high

stakes” and class

●
Music in creative similar to those

present in early 2000s action trailers

●
Woman bets her wedding ring in an

eﬀort to win, perhaps pushing

players to spend more/win more in

game

Merge Dragon
:

Buzzfeed-Style Quiz

WHERE: Ranked #32 on Adwords/Admob

Interesting Components:

Takes a page from the fun-ness of
Buzzfeed

quizzes into the game and their advertising

●
Keeps potential users intrigued and

piques interest on what dragon you

may be matched to

●
After quiz, gameplay is showcased with

merge mechanics

●
Light upbeat background music

Other Trending

Family Island
:

Emergency Volcano > Happy Base

WHERE: Ranked #15 on Mopub

Interesting Components:

●
Happy family vibe immediately shifts

to intense emergency as a volcano

erupts behind them

●
After a quick storm-filled journey,

Family is happy to arrive at an island

●
Base Building mechanics featured

with “Try it Yourself” CTA

Evony
:

C-suite CTA

WHERE: Ranked #25 on Adcolony

Interesting Components:

●
Man in suit playing the game –

perhaps to advertise to “whales”

who would spend more money on

IAPs and create an aura of prestige

●
No background music, rather,

narrated as if spoken by the man in

the suit

●
Fail scenarios, callout to solve

puzzles

Trading Legend
:

Showcasing Ghost Market

WHERE: Ranked #1 on Facebook and

#1 on Instagram

Interesting Components:

●
Showcases the Ghost Market

●
Voiceover narration showing

progression (with subtitles

throughout)

●
Square video with portrait

orientation (outer screen is zoomed

and blurred)

●
Fail video format with the first two

options but finishing on the last

option with a “Win”

●
CTA at the end shows a search bar

with the app’s name typed in

Match to Win
:

“Christmas in July”

Interesting Components:

(
Left
)

WHERE: Ranked #23 on Adcolony

●
Testimonial-based
advertisement

●
No music

●
“instant cash”

(
Right
)

WHERE: Ranked #6 on Adcolony

●
“Christmas in July” themed –

implying you can make lots of

money mid-year

●
Upbeat party music

Bingo Clash
:

Snuﬀing the Competition

WHERE: Ranked #25 on Applovin and

#15 on ironSource

Interesting Components:

●
Unique paper trend from Facebook

videos – typically used for surprises

or to casually communicate

something – instead takes jabs at

competitors and is a much more

“guerilla marketing” approach

●
Really packs a punch calling all other

bingo games lies and a waste of time

●
Callout to paypal and instant money

cashouts

Township
:

Farm Business as Usual

WHERE: Ranked #18 on Adcolony

Interesting Components:

●
Fail scenario alongside light farm

music

●
Eventual win scenario with

straightforward game play

●
People cheering when the township

is becoming successful

Widget Dragon
:

Old School Tamagotchi

WHERE: Ranked #9 on Snapchat

Interesting Components:

●
It shows the old school toy

Tamagotchi to remind users of it,

with a message displayed as “Do

you remember it” and “NOW, it’s

on your phone”

●
Gameplay based throughout the

rest of the ad

●
Ad only ran for 1 day and it

achieved a position rank #5 on SC

WHERE: Ranked #5 on Snapchat

Interesting Components:

●
Gameplay based ad

●
Instrumental version of the song

“Desperado” by Rihanna used as the

music soundtrack – targeted for a

Snapchat user base

●
Celebration music eﬀects for
winning

a game

●
Diﬀerent cartoon hand icons used for

the diﬀerent gameplay scenarios, for

example, one with a Spider-Man suit

●
Ad only ran for 1 day and it achieved

a position rank #5 on SC

Magic Finder 3D
:

Famous Pop Music as Soundtrack

Strong Pusher
:

Expressive Callouts & Pop Music

WHERE: Ranked #18 on Snapchat

Interesting Components:

●
Ad based on simple Hypercasual

gameplay

●
Expressive callouts directed to ad

watchers, informing the user the

game is very fun to reinforce desired

mentality

●
Famous Pop music used to attract

Snapchat user base (ily by Surf Mesa)

●
Positive messages displayed for

achievements such as “wow” and

“love u babe”

Zen Match – Relaxing Puzzle
:

New Game Released in July 2021

WHERE: Ranked #5 on Vungle

Interesting Components:

●
New Ad Campaign to promote Zen

Match, which released in 21st July

●
Match 3 gameplay based ad

●
Continued trend: instructions to the

user displayed on top of the screen

MPL
:

Leveraging Trendy Attestants

WHERE: Ranked #13 on Adcolony & #9

on Chartboost

Interesting Components:

●
Testimonial-type creative

●
Young, hip, guy wearing airpods –

leads potential users to believe the

app is an in-fashion place to be

●
Guy in ad calls app “so cool” a
couple

times to reinforce desired mentality

●
Mentions wide variety of games on

app rather than just one

MHA: The Strongest Hero
:

Anime TV Show like Introduction

WHERE: Ranked #2 on Snapchat

Interesting Components:

●
Presentation of series of action

images of the main character at the

beginning of the ad, as an Anime TV

show intro style

●
Followed by an introduction of the

main character Deku

●
Fighting scene shown is not fully

correspondent to the gameplay