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Novy Unlimited, Inc. celebrates more than 10 years in business!
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“Every day is a new adventure.” - Stan Lee
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Fun with MARVEL Puzzle Quest
Starting in April, we've been collaborating with publisher D3 Go! for several MARVEL Puzzle Quest (MPQ) viral marketing campaigns. Since 2013, MPQ has captured the hearts of more than 20 million players with its Match-3 twist on Marvel's Super Heroes and Super Villains. We were thrilled to be a part of this year's major milestones!
Our collaboration focused on three major goals:
1) Bring more awareness to MPQ during the UI refresh, help inform new players, and celebrate long-time fans.
2) Celebrate the anniversary of Peggy Carter in MPQ and introduce her newest costume—Peggy Carter (Captain Carter), inspired by her variation in Marvel's What If...?
3) Help kick off the Anniversary season for MPQ—which turned 8 this month!
Our activities included handling wide variety of media campaigns, producing creatives (including a Peggy Carter reveal video and series of guides), implementing "The Puzzle Quest" hunt for prizes, and managing three influencer streams. In our DIY Developer section below, we've also provided some advice for working with influencers—so read on :)
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What better way to celebrate the spookiest time of year than with a Halloween-themed social media takeover? We brought the season of monsters, witches, and ghouls to MARVEL Puzzle Quest's social media profiles with themed banners and icons – featuring the spookiest characters the game has to offer: Blade (Daywalker), Venom (Eddie Brock), Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze), Wolfsbane (Rahne Sinclair), Morbius (The Living Vampire), and Knull (King in Black)!
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But the frightful festivities didn't stop there! We also helped D3 Go! promote the in-game Halloween activities during the takeover—such as the Covers Swap, where players have access to some of the spookiest, most terrifying covers available in MARVEL Puzzle Quest ... just perfect for Halloween!
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Inspired by the MPQ social media takeover, we decided to embrace the spooky spirit ourselves and decorate our very own social media profiles for Halloween!
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We also joined forces with D3 Go! to design "The Puzzle Quest"—an elaborate search for clues throughout MARVEL Puzzle Quest and beyond! Every few days, a new clue was revealed in the game—and the search was on. Each clue led to a new prize. Those who submitted the correct answer to all clues won a Peggy Carter (Captain Carter) costume reward. Novy marketing manager Julie Morley led this project—with the help of Novy technology manager Ben Hartmayer, who worked closely with Julie on the logistics associated with clues, prizes, and winner selection. Creatives for "The Puzzle Quest" activities and ongoing social media campaigns were produced by Novy marketing manager Julie Morley—along with graphic designers Justin Sadur and Nate Sullivan. Copywriters on MPQ campaigns include Alex Moshofsky, John Bardinelli, Jeffrey Allen, and Edward Kim.
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Anniversary Season in MARVEL Puzzle Quest arrived this month! MPQ is now 8 years old—and a brand new 4-star character joined the game: Blob (Modern): a powerful, durable, and agile fighter with a love for poetry. Marvel presented a special livestream to celebrate MPQ's anniversary: Featuring Josh Saleh and Noah Senzel (Associate Producer at Demiurge Studios) as the hosts! Together, they highlighted the latest Anniversary events in MPQ, took a closer look at the newest Anniversary character, and delved into the nuances of playing MPQ—while Novy community management team members Ben Hartmayer, Jeffrey Allen, and Jackee Anderson (led by Julie Morley and Steven Kasparek) joined the celebration in the chat with fun MPQ and Marvel-related trivia for in-game prizes!
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We also helped D3 Go! partner with art-centric YouTuber (and major Marvel fan) ADCArtAttack to create an "Anniversary Season" drawing of a character exclusive to MARVEL Puzzle Quest: Wolverine (Samurai Daken)! ADCArtAttack carefully showed his technique for drawing this character on the stream—and it was a hit! One lucky winner was even selected from the Twitch stream chat to receive this special drawing.
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Anyone who's familiar with James Willems of Funhaus (Rooster Teeth) knows that there's one game that's near and dear to his heart: MARVEL Puzzle Quest. D3 Go! partnered with James to host a livestream highlighting how to play MPQ for beginners, a glimpse at his very own roster, and an overall wholesome celebration of his favorite game (and addiction)! Novy community management team members Ben Hartmayer and Alexander Perry joined in the stream chat and hosted some fun trivia for in-game prizes.
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For the final reveal of D3 Go's "The Puzzle Quest" promotion for MARVEL Puzzle Quest, we partnered with James Willems again during the week of San-Diego Comic-Con @ Home to host a very special livestream on his YouTube channel—featuring trivia, prizes ... and the grand reveal of the Peggy Carter (Captain Carter) costume! Novy community management team members Ben Hartmayer, Alexander Perry, and Jeffrey Allen (led by Julie Morley and Steven Kasparek) handled the in-stream chat.
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≈ PEGGY CARTER VIDEO & GUIDE SERIES ≈
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Since 2013, fans have seen some incredible character reveals in MARVEL Puzzle Quest—including Peggy Carter reimagined as ... Captain America! Peggy debuted as Captain Carter in the Exiles Vol. 3 #3 comic, along with other Marvel media. Novy had the thrill of helping D3 Go! launch the newest costume in MPQ for Peggy Carter: Captain Carter—inspired by Marvel's animated series What If...?—with social media materials and even a special video announcing the character. The Peggy Carter reveal video was a group effort—with Jeannie Novak (producer), Julie Morley and Steven Kasparek (concept), Scott Coulter (editor), Chris Hamilton (storyboard artist and editor), Daniel Gonzalez (animator), and Bobby Vickery (composer) working together to make it happen!
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MARVEL Puzzle Quest now has a newer, cleaner, and more intuitive UI. With the anticipation of new players joining the game, Novy's Steven Kasparek led the way in preparing a series of "Keys to Success" videos that gave new players onboarding advice and showing off the new look to existing players. The series of 5 videos focused on providing an overview of the game, a guide to getting started, building up a roster, selecting optimal characters, and ways to succeed in the long term.
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Considering working with an influencer? We've got you covered! Here are a few tips for arranging your next influencer partnership:
- The Perfect Match: Partner with someone who is familiar with the game, brand or genre. This way, they're more likely to understand various gameplay nuances, have a more informed opinion when they talk about your game, and have the most reach within your target audience.
- Be Informed! We don't advise taking the "broad-brush" approach when it comes to influencers. It's best to do the research and really hone in on who likes similar games and the genre, learn as much about them as possible, and tailor the promotion to them (e.g., Does the influencer have a history of arranging giveaways or trivia activities during their streams? We suggest arranging one with the sponsored promotion to maximize engagement with their viewers!).
- Be Mindful of Your Budget! Influencer rates can vary quite a bit and for a variety of reasons. There isn't a standard rate for influencers and some even have representation with an agency, which could mean higher rates. It's best to have a budget of $500 at minimum to work with an influencer, but to anticipate spending much more – especially if you want to have a dedicated video or to work with multiple streamers.
- Plan for a Long-Term Relationship: When working with an influencer, there's the potential to make them a brand ambassador – for all your games! Try to establish a solid working relationship with the influencer with the potential to partner with them again.
- Express Gratitude & Engage: When your sponsored content is live, make sure to reach out on the influencer's social pages, YouTube channel, and/or Twitch channel to be an active presence. Give the brand life and a personality – and integrate yourself into their community and express how grateful you are to work with them. Their community will respond quite positively to this! Make sure to give them a shout-out on your social media profiles when possible as well.
- Keep a Schedule & Track Everything: If you're arranging multiple partnerships, make sure to organize them strategically and utilize tracking links (when possible) to monitor and maximize the results.
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Novy Unlimited, Inc. is a product of co-conspirators Jeannie NOvak and Luis LeVY. Launched in 2011, Novy is the first marketing and public relations firm to focus on indie games. Novy's divisions include PR, Marketing, Creative, Consulting, Production, Music, and Publishing.
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