Liam Labistour
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Case study P02

Setting strategy with the community: weekly town halls, a Las Vegas esports event and a $15M sell-out in 21 seconds

Through the 2022 crypto downturn the strategy stayed community first. We let players help choose what we did next, and they showed up for it.

Splinterlands logoSplinterlandsSr. Director, Growth MarketingOct 2021 – Dec 20243 min read
1,500+
Attendees in Las Vegas
$15M
Card packs sold in 21 seconds
40,000+
New players from one SEA campaign
200+
Billboards in Southeast Asia

Context

In 2022 the crypto market crashed, and most crypto games lost their players with it. Many responded by cutting back and going quiet. We did the opposite: we stayed on the ground with our players every day.

The idea was that a community that helps shape a game has a reason to stay with it, even when the market around it is falling.

The thesis

Do not guess what your community wants. Bring them real options, let them choose, and then deliver what they picked.

Weekly town halls

01 →Bring optionsTwo or three real playbooks
02 →Hear the communityLive town hall, every week
03 →Choose togetherGauge which one excites players
04 →ExecuteRun the favoured playbook
05Report backShare results at the next one
Each town hall started with what happened since the last one

Every week I hosted a town hall directly with the community. I would come with a few different playbooks for what we could do next, from partnerships and events to game features, and gauge which ones players were most excited about.

More often than not, we ran with the option the community favoured. That did two things: it told us what would actually land before we spent on it, and it gave players a real stake in the outcome, so they showed up to make it work.

What the community chose

  1. An esports tournament and expo in Las VegasHosted at HyperX Arena with more than 1,500 people in attendance.
  2. A Southeast Asia media takeoverMore than 200 billboards across the region, bringing over 40,000 new players into the game and its economy.
  3. New partnershipsMusic and sports partners that brought in new players through the artists and athletes they already followed.
  4. Launch momentsCard pack sales built as community events, with the timing and contents shaped by player feedback.

Each of these came out of what the community said it wanted. The Las Vegas event is a good example: players wanted a place to compete and meet in person, so we built an esports tournament that doubled as an expo for the game and the community.

Results

Our largest sale, $15M worth of card packs, sold out in 21 seconds. Other launches followed the same pattern: a validator node presale sold out in 11 minutes, and in September 2022 the company recorded three consecutive sell-outs in nine days.

The work also put Splinterlands in front of a much wider audience. I was featured in an HBO and Vice documentary series on crypto.

A sell-out that fast only happens when demand has been built well before the sale opens. The town halls, the events and the partnerships all fed into it.