The Campaign

Korean youth are at a unique point in their lives. It is no surprise that “Indie”spirit is what KR values much, as it represents little guy can follow their dream, so indie are popular in many social aspect. While Google Play hosting the indie game festival event, we encountered lots of indie game developers and inspired by their creativities, innovation and passion. We wanted to showcase Young Indie developer who has dream, so We brought the developer himself into the film to deliver sincerity. “Dream of Whale” follows the journey of a former architect, from his monotonous corporate job to live as an 'indie' game developer in a cramped basement office. The design points in this creative focus on setting up an ambience of joyful tranquility that characterizes the protagonist and his work(game). Also, stylistic elements inspired by the game are used to reinforce the message celebrating imagination and creativity.

Creative Execution

Google Play creates equal opportunities, that is the key impact we brought in Korea society. We orchestrated Google Play indie moment in Korea. We focused on making changes through various channel. We delivered the message of “Google Play supports young Koreans to be inspired with full of “Indie” spirit and to enjoy fun & innovative games by “Indie” developers. In April, we host an offline event called “Indie game festival by Google Play where developers can showcase their indie games with industry experts. More than 400 developers participated, with +12K visitors. We’ve selected top 3 winners, and followed their stories with Indie games. The campaign was composed of 3 short documentaries series. Each YouTube documentary film demonstrates the active role Google Play plays in supporting 'indie' developers, let them realize their vision and craft their dreams. The major target are young Koreans we leveraged YouTube and Social channel most.

The reaction to the campaign was overwheleming. More than a 16 million responses from users that they are inspired, they believe in google play that we support indies and Korean users.+5.6 increased brand score of social contributing index proves it. There was +1.2M organic reach through social viral, and brand favorability has increased by 6.6%. Major PR covered the event and campaign(+110 articles), and we discovered even non-gamer are reacted to this campaign. Korean users even built loyalty to developers, games, and to Google play platform Besides brand love, we could see the immediate business impact, that newly released indie game has increased 400% of its download. Our President invited one of featured indie developer to IT business conference, and celebrated indie as the future of Mobile gaming which can be one of next growth engine for young Koreans, and committing investment and support.

Google Play is actively promoting “Indie” spirit and “Indie Games” in Korea, as a brand of “Open game platform for everybody”. <Dream of Whale> is the story of one Korean Indie game developer. This documentary film demonstrates the active role of Google Play supporting 'indie' developers to realize their vision in a global setting. Throughout the film, beautiful in-game creatures and music encounter with users, along with the developer’s narrative. This heartwarming story resonated deeply with the Korean public, especially the younger generation. The story inspired young dreamers and entrepreneurs in Korea, enhancing the overall perception of mobile games.

Marketing golden rule: Knowing Your Users. Not only their behavior on Google Play Platform, but beyond their surface. Their dreams, aspirations, frustrations in daily life. 2017, Youth unemployment rate in Korea reached its all-time high of 11% unsurprisingly, young talent shifted their attention to stable jobs while only daydreaming of taking risks to follow their true calling. In this context, We decided to answer this question with our campaign. How can we be part of solution of Korean youth frustration? How can Google Play be a possible tool for change in our user's lives as a game platform. Indie game is the missing piece between Google Play and users. By featuring “Indie Games” and its developers, we discovered that the brand message around “Young Entrepreneurship” and “Open Platform” are highly resonating theme to Korean millennials and very relevant for Google Play brand to engage users emotionally.