How Mattel163 unlocks scale with Unity Vector
In this Q&A, Devin Nambiar, COO of Mattel163, shares how the studio has partnered with Unity and leveraged Unity Ads to grow some of its best-known mobile titles, including Phase 10 Mobile. Watch the video or keep reading to learn how Mattel163 improved user quality, diversified UA strategy, and scaled D7 IAP ROAS campaigns with more predictable long-term value using Unity Ads powered by Unity Vector.
Can you please introduce yourself and share a bit about your role as COO for Mattel163?
Devin Nambiar (DN): “My name's Devin, I'm the COO of Mattel163. And in that capacity, I handle all of our R&D and publishing efforts across the studio.”
Can you give a brief description of Mattel163, and the games your studio develops and publishes?
DN: “Mattel163 is a global mobile free-to-play studio. It originated as a joint venture between Mattel, the iconic toy company, and NetEase, one of the biggest game companies in China.
Our focus has been to take Mattel's iconic IPs and franchises and bring them into the digital realm through mobile games and free-to-play experiences. So right now we've got three big games, UNO! Mobile, which is one of the biggest MAU games in the space, Phase 10 Mobile, and also Skip-Bo. We also recently launched UNO Wonder.”
How long has Mattel163 been working with Unity, as a whole and also with the Unity Ads network?
DN: “Mattel163 has been working with Unity from the beginning. Uno! Mobile, Phase 10, Skip-Bo, Uno Wonder, those were all developed on Unity's Engine. And on the Ads side, we're working with the Unity Ads platforms for roughly around the same period.
Unity's great because it encompasses the entire ecosystem. It's Ads and user acquisition, but it's also game development and the Engine. We really have a deep, not only working relationship with Unity, but a strategic partnership.”
How has Unity Vector impacted your UA campaigns?
DN: “Vector has impacted our campaigns very positively and I would say that it's two-fold. First is user quality and second is UA diversification. We're looking to bring in users who are going to meaningfully engage with the brands that we build games around. So user-quality has been a big part of that, particularly for our IAP campaigns.
Our games are both a mix of IAP and in-app ads monetization, but with the IAP users in particular, Vector has been really helpful in driving user quality. Vector has also helped to act as a hedge to allow more diversification into our UA strategy and the results that we've gotten have driven a long-term value in ROAS for us.
Using Vector, we've been able to target the right users who are going to meaningfully engage with our IPs and our games and are going to stick around for a long time.”
Which Vector optimization best practices moved the needle most and what was the impact?
DN: “One was on creative strategy and the optimization around that. The other one was ROAS calibration and how Vector helped us with that.
One thing that Unity and Vector brought to us was some data around how longer form video ads, 60 seconds plus, and sometimes video plus playable ads would actually be better. So this was an optimization best practice on creative strategy that actually moved the needle for us.
ROAS calibration is something else that Vector optimization has helped us with. Unity and Vector bring in a lot of competitive benchmarking data that allows us to calibrate the ROAS targets that we need to drive towards.”
How did the Unity team support you? What considerations did you discuss?
DN: “We have very regular touch points with the Unity team. They come with a lot of data, they come a lot with insights and benchmarking, which also helps us to see the direction that we need to go. They've always been willing to sit down and discuss the insights and the benchmarking data that they brought and figure out what is the best way to deploy that to contribute to our long-term growth.”
Mattel163 scaled Phase 10 with Day 7 IAP ROAS on Unity Ads powered by Unity Vector. Is there a specific or unique pattern to your audience that a D7 campaign can help with?
DN: “Phase 10 is both an IAP and IAA-driven game, and we want to find IAP users who are going to engage and retain, and to grow their LTV. So, for that reason, D7 ROAS campaigns were a good place for us to start.
We're seeing from the D7 ROAS campaigns with Vector that we're getting good, consistent and predictable LTV scaling.”
What metrics or feedback did you monitor to ensure the campaigns were performing?
DN: “Our payer conversion rates and retention rates of the users brought in with Vector have been meaningfully higher than our previous benchmarks. D7 retention rate on iOS, for example, improved by over 100%. On Android, it was a little less than 100%, but that's still an incredible improvement.
We saw payer conversion rates also improve, and we saw improvements in LTV of over 100%, long-term LTV as well.”
What impact did you see after launch?
DN: “We've scaled probably 20x our spend on these campaigns because we've seen these results continue to sustain. And also we feel that it's a predictable way to drive higher performance. So the results from the D7 ROAS campaigns with Vector were actually meaningful to us, and it allowed us confidence to continue scaling those.”
Mattel163 is known for reimagining renowned board game IPs. Why is it critical to connect the right players to these experiences, and how does Vector help you do that?
DN: “We're looking to bring in users who are going to meaningfully engage with the brands that we build games around. So user-quality has been a big part of that, particularly for our IAP campaigns.
Using Vector, we've been able to target the right users who are going to meaningfully engage with our IPs and our games and are going to stick around for a long time.”
Could you tell us about the overall value Unity has brought to Mattel163?
DN: “We really have a deep, not only working relationship with, but a strategic partnership. I would reflect on the Unity partnership that it's one of our deepest and longest most trusted partners.
As we move into other platforms, for example, PC and console, we're going to continue to embrace Unity's Engine to develop for those platforms as well. And we're really excited to also partner with Unity on the UA side once we start building more multi-platform and cross-platforming games.”