“Zupee’s socially relevant games are aimed at revitalising casual gaming culture”

In conversation with Adgully, Gaurav Mehta, Chief Marketing Officer, Zupee, speaks  about how Zupee is constantly evolving and upscaling  by keeping the customers at the forefront, making online gaming accessible in regards to the technology and time utilised, the top trends witnessed in the online gaming industry as well as the potential opportunities, and much more.

What is your marketing approach to engaging and influencing your customers?

At Zupee, our aim is to create engaging and entertaining skill-based casual and board games that can be accessed by everyone, everywhere. With our product portfolio of culturally relevant games we wish to add moments of joy in the lives of players. ‘Classic games', such as Ludo and Snakes & Ladders, are deep rooted with a high nostalgia factor and known to be a part of our culture. Zupee games allow people torelive the same nostalgia of the classical Indian games and with our marketing efforts we aim to democratize our games across demographics, regions, languages and gender, so that it can be enjoyed by all users alike. At Zupee, we are constantly evolving and upscaling our platform by keeping our customers at the forefront. Moreover, with our marketing efforts we aim to contribute to the mental well being of our consumers by creating value addition via meaningful entertainment.

How did Zupee's marketing efforts help the brand penetrate deeper into the regional market?

Each geographical market requires a distinct marketing approach and at Zupee, we firmly believe that the charm and nostalgia of casual board games like Ludo and Snakes & Ladders help build a mass appeal across our audiences whether it is Tier 1, 2 or 3. 

What is your target audience? How are you capturing them through your campaigns?

Any smartphone user above 18 and with basic internet accessibility and fondness of playing games is our target user. A portfolio of skill-based casual and board games is able to engage a wider audience due to its common mass appeal and popularity. Having said that, India is at the heart of Zupee’s growth and we wish to tap into the nerves of every tier of the country – make games that the entire nation can play, which also resonates with one of our recently launched brand campaigns, ‘Sara India Khelega’!

Zupee’s portfolio of socially relevant games is targeted at revitalising casual & board gaming culture. Likewise with our campaigns we want to spread the culture of skill-based gaming through socially relevant games. Zupee is marketed as a quick in and out window to joy and meaningful entertainment as well as a break from the daily grind. Just like vitamins are important for life, so is entertainment in today’s time. Likewise, Zupee games act as multi-vitamins by addressing user’s need for engagement, entertainment & achievement. We constantly improve to ensure that our games are a combination of skill and entertainment, allowing our customers to make money while they play.

How has been the response to your previous campaigns?

Our recent brand campaigns aim at revolutionising the gaming culture in the country. These campaigns have been well received by the audience and have garnered good visibility for the brand helping raise overall brand awareness and the consideration scores amongst potential users. Not only have we witnessed a 3X business growth in the last one year, but also a huge shift of users coming from direct and organic sources.

How are you talking about your game offerings through your campaigns?

Our ad campaign promotes skill-based gaming in the country and also pushes the thought that gaming is inclusive. Our brand promise is to provide meaningful entertainment and spark joyin an increasingly high stress environment that we all live in. One of our recent brand campaigns ‘Saara India Khelega’, showcases the very same promise of people coming together and celebrating the brand promise. The campaign appeals to its viewers by showcasing Zupee’s connect with its customer base.

The entire idea behind incubating Zupee’s product portfolio is to make online gaming accessible in regards to the technology and time utilised with the option of smaller durations (requiring often times just a quick break of 8 to 10 minutes) of skill based casual and board games, (for example, Ludo Supreme and Snakes and Ladders Plus), which not only provides meaningful entertainment, but also induces cognitive learning with positive effects on the psychological well-being of a player.

The recently launched brand campaign 'Khel Jao Zupee’ with Sunil Grover establishes the same fact by targeting people across age-groups and calls upon the entire nation to enjoy the Zupee games. The campaign is built around the key insight that players can conveniently play Zupee games on the go due to shorter play times and enjoy them as bite sized entertainers even with mere 8-10 mins to spare. 

These campaigns are an investment behind the brand Zupee and aims at bringing joy to peoples’ lives through purposeful games that can engage, entertain and upskill. We innovate to ensure our games provide an intersection between skill and entertainment, enabling our users to earn while they play.

What is Zupee’s growth journey so far?

Since its inception in 2018, Zupee is amongst the pioneers of the digital skill-based gaming trend in India. Zupee is the fastest growing Indian online gaming company with 95% market share in the Indian gaming sector’s largest sector – casual & boardgame segment. Zupee has around 70 Mn installs as of now and has raised upwards of $121 million with a $600 million valuation. We have also partnered with Reliance Jio Platforms, under which Zupee will distribute its content to Jio phone users. Zupee’s Ludo Supreme was the 10th most popular game in India in 2021 in terms of active users, as per 2022’s Statista report.

How is USP different from other casual and board games/ counterparts?

Zupee was formed with a vision to bring moments of joy to everyday users by focussing on a meaningful form of entertainment. Our games, such as 'Ludo Supreme,' 'Carrom Ninja,' 'Snakes and Ladders Plus,' and 'Trump Card Mania,' are popular games that help develop family bonds, help you revisit and celebrate your childhood, and thus Zupee games are a testament to the social cultural fabric, offering gender neutral games that are completely safe to play and legal.

Our games heavily rely on the user’s skills, for instance, in Ludo Supreme, unlike traditional Ludo games, all 4 tokens are open to play from start rather than waiting for specific dice. Allowing users to strategize how to play all tokens without depending on the chance of getting the number. 

At Zupee, the company’s USP lies in transforming the casual and board games everyone has played. By being the first ones to augment culturally relevant games and by inducing skill elements to these childhood favourite traditional games like Ludo, Snakes & Ladder, we aim to make gaming not only fun, but also which helps a player upskill.

Zupee game studio creates inhouse games where our inhouse engineers have built 6+ games which are fair, multiplayer, real time and with a user-friendly interface.

Zupee has both free-to-play & pay-to-play game formats. We believe in empowering our users to choose amongst multiple gameplay formats at their own freewill. 

In addition, we at Zupee take all the measures to ensure player protection such as RNG certification, no bots play and payment protection, among others. 

What are some responsible measures that Zupee has taken while keeping consumers at the forefront?

Zupee is a responsible gaming company providing meaningful entertainment that brings moments of joy to its users. Zupee aims at promoting liable gaming and abides by all applicable laws and regulations when operating a skill based real money gaming company. We have designed our games to be free to play or to begin with a small ticket size as low as Re 1 and by doing so, we empower our users to choose as per their own free-will. The games are deliberately designed in short formats, lasting 8 to 10 minutes to encourage players to take frequent breaks and to ensure that no player becomes engrossed in gaming for an extended period.

We have the necessary monitoring in place, whether it's multi-level intervention via AI technology where Zupee users are notified if their time limit has exceeded to ensure they don't overspend on games, or professional assistance to monitor and counsel gamers.

Zupee takes all the measures to ensure player protection such as RNG certification, no bots play and payment protection, among others. 

Not only do we partner with leading fintech players to ensure safe transactions, but also have professional assistance in place to monitor gamers 24X7 and with a robust grievance redressal system. 

What are the top trends witnessed in the online gaming industry as well as the potential opportunities?

Structure, technological, behavioral, and economic changes are being embraced by the online gaming industry. Following the pandemic, the meteoric rise of social gaming and massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) has added fuel to the gaming industry's growth.

Cloud-based infrastructure combined with robust 5G networks is elevating the gaming user experience. The convergence of AI, blockchain, and AR/VR is causing seismic shifts in how gaming services are delivered to end users. Online gaming has evolved into a cultural phenomenon. The social and cultural implications are enormous.

Gaming streams and E-sports are the new norms in the world of online gaming. E-sports' maturation has increased the industry's lucrative and entertaining potential.

New monetisation methods, such as games as a service (GaaS) subscription model, in-game advertising, in-app purchases, and so on, are allowing gaming programmers to make more revenue than ever before.