NAMIDA’s M&C Manager Antti Linnola goes super at Gametime with Google
The first annual Gametime with Google event at Kaivohuone, Helsinki, on the 1st of June pooled the combined knowledge of 100 top decision makers in Finnish mobile gaming industry. Guest speakers from mobile game company giants, such as Supercell, Seriously and Next Games, provided valuable insight to the invitees eager to pick the lecturers’ brains while the international squad of Googlers on site offered their own business solutions to game development and market growth.
The series of captivating lectures started off with a short and sweet introduction to the contemporary Finnish game industry by KooPee Hiltunen from Neogames. Everyone knows of Finland’s unprecedented success in the mobile gaming industry but only few dare to take an educated guess what’s going to be the next big thing in the industry. (The secret answer is e-sports!)
KooPee Hiltunen from Neogames is an unparalleled expert of the Finnish game industry
Jörkki Hyvönen, the Head of Analytics at Next Games, offered a peek into the alpha analyst’s brain to the awe and bewilderment of the audience. However challenging his Big Data mapping could seem to the less-mathematically inclined minds, Hyvönen estimates his team of “analyst infiltrators” have saved their company tens of millions of euros. This guy might be onto something really BIG!
What’s cooking in the brilliant mind of Jörkki Hyvönen?
Seriously Digital Entertainment‘s Chief Creative Officer, Petri Järvilehto, climbed onto the stage armed with a fiendishly engaging multimedia presentation about Seriously’s ingenious marketing strategy with YouTube influencers. Their early decision to target this previously untapped blue ocean marketing battlefield has certainly proven more than fruitful to the company behind the Best Fiends phenomenon gone global. It is not always clear what your output will be when you are herding cats, an analogy they playfully use at Seriously about working with YouTubers, but often the result is something truly beautiful, definitely original, and if you’re really, really lucky, viral.
Influencing Influencers 101 by Petri Järvilehto
The final guest speaker before the free networking “Bonus Level”, Jaakko Harlas heads Supercell‘s investment and business development activities and discussed Supercell’s business partnership with Google together with Google Play’s Business Development Manager EMEA Tobias Knoke. Pro tip for working with Google – get your data ready to back up your case. It helps. Together, you may even come up with mutually beneficial new innovations.
Tobias Knoke from Google Play with Supercell’s finance aficionado, Jaakko Harlas
Since Knoke is responsible for developing the ecosystem of Google Play Games in Western Europe, after the final lecture representatives from every game company lined up to get a word to the man how to get their mobile game featured on Google Play. You should already know the answer to this conundrum; the key lies within the data and in the right kind of data, to be precise.
The evening entertainment was provided by Miika Kenttämies and the other talented Yousicians proving that their app can really teach you how to take your musical skills to the next level. Yousician is the perfect example how often the most innovative new ideas start from a hobby or a need to improve and lead up to a successful business.
The key is at your fingertips
From behalf of NAMIDA, big thanks to the lovely hosts Yacine Samb and Juho Juhantalo and the other good folks at Google for inviting us to exchange thoughts with other top decision makers in the Finnish gaming industry. See you again next year when it’s Gametime!
The Googlers
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