How to create highly engaging social content with limited resources | Lawn Mowing Simulator VR Case Study
Background & Challenges
When I joined Curve Games, my first task was to create a strategy for the announcement and launch of Lawn Mowing Simulator VR across our social channels - however, I had to work within a few initial limitations.
Firstly - I didn’t have access to a VR Headset when I joined Curve Games, which meant I couldn’t capture content 💀 I didn’t want the team at Curve to send me one of theirs, because I figured as a freelancer, it was probably good for me to invest in one myself. This meant I only had key art and extended b-roll from recording sessions to work with, initially.
Secondly, after investing in a VR headset myself, I then learnt that I get motion sick in VR 🤪 So I was only able to capture in quick bursts.
This meant that, thirdly, I needed to market the game without being able to play the game effectively myself.
And finally, Curve’s channels had been focusing on cosy games, party games, and Indie RPGs up until the announcement of Lawn Mowing Simulator VR - this meant that I had an algorithm that wasn’t trained for the title that I was working on.
So how did I turn Lawn Mowing Simulator VR into one of Curve’s most-engaging, most-viewed titles on social?
Embracing the Absurdity
When making content for Lawn Mowing Simulator VR, I had to consider the following things:
It had been a couple of years since the original Lawn Mowing Simulator title was released, which meant that we were expecting a fresh batch of “you could just mow your lawn irl” comments all over again.
The comments might be more intense than last time, as there’s an added level of absurdity - the lawn mowing simulation is now in VR, making the player feel like they’re actually sat in a lawn mower rather than at a desktop.
We have a diverse audience of indie RPG & party gamers engaged with our socials, and we need to make them care about Lawn Mowing Simulator VR to make sure it gets boosted in the algorithm.
On the other side of the coin, managing the possibility that these audiences may boost our content to tertiary audiences instead of our primary audience in the algorithm.
These considerations led me to lean into the absurdity of our title. Lawn Mowing Simulator fans know the title is absurd (there was even a Dino Safari DLC for the original title!), so we knew it would engage that pre-existing audience. It also would help convert and defend our comments section from comments about the absurdity, all the while engaging cosy gamers through their niche sense of humour - tackling each of these challenges.
In the early weeks of the campaign, this took the form of absurdist posters (which proved popular throughout the entire run-up to launch), and by the end, it looked like a bad “New York, New York” parody (and this is a reminder: don’t let the fear of being cringe keep you from posting the video 🫡)
The takeaway is to know your audience, pre-empt how they’ll react, and build content for those reactions in a way that doesn’t feel defensive. Take a look at the posters over in Graphic Design - do they make you feel like we think we’re the most serious simulator on earth? Or do they feel like we’re a simulator that gets that some people might not understand us and that we’re just here to have fun with our community?
Embracing Repurposing Content
So, that’s one easy win for you. How about another?
It’s time to embrace repurposing content.
I understand that as social and community managers, if we’re not capturing and if we’re not editing, it can sometimes feel like we’re not making the most of our time. But we need to forget about ourselves in the equation. Any time you post a TikTok, that’s getting blasted out onto the FYP - not to your followers. Only 10-20% of your audience will realistically see that video.
So, if you’ve put hours into capture, why not recycle some of that capture? For me, it was something I had to do out of necessity. As I mentioned, I get sick in VR, so I had to repurpose as many old recordings as I could into brand-new videos. But maybe you’ve been doing recordings at the start of each month for the past three months, and don’t have time to record on your fourth month - borrow some footage from your first set of recordings!
Or maybe you’re a solo dev, managing your social presence by yourself. Perhaps you’ve not had time to record content this week because you had to take on some extra work in your second job. Repurpose!
I’d like to be clear, though, that I’m not advocating for laziness - but for you to maximise on time and resources. If you’re re-using footage, find another angle for it. Record a new voiceover. Try it out in a new trending CapCut template. Stick a Reddit story over it. Splice it up with some funny stock image assets.
There are a few reasons why you should still try and do something new. These are:
TikTok and Instagram try to sink duplicate content in the algorithm.
If, by chance, you hit those same 10-20% of followers who saw your first post, you want them to have something new to engage with
It feels good to make new things!
Of course, there are exceptions to the rule of “try and make something new”. Audiences on Twitter, especially in the gaming space, are used to repurposed content - and they don’t mind it, as long as it builds a relationship between the community and the devs. Throwbacks to previous builds, early artwork, and repurposing memes are all things that typically tend to perform well on Twitter.
However, if you're aiming to reach new audiences and bring them into your community - you should always be looking to make new content.
Embracing the Community
Finally, embracing your community will help build an easy content pipeline for teams with limited resources.
For instance, when we announced Lawn Mowing Simulator VR, I was in a tricky situation. It had been a while since the mainline Lawn Mowing Simulator title had been updated, and I knew many players were waiting for news on the original title.
So, I had to ask myself, “How do I position this within both a community and brand narrative?”, and the answer was easy. Since the original Lawn Mowing Simulator was first announced, fans have swarmed our discord server with requests for a VR version of the title, so I made this video highlighting the demand. This helped reassure the community that we were working with their wants and desires in mind. It also answered the question of “Where are the updates for Lawn Mowing Simulator?”, because building an entirely new game takes up a lot of development resources.
This was an easy win for us, however, it’s something you can only really do with a sequel. So, what do you do if this is your first-ever game?
Respond to comments as they happen.
This is easier when the conversation is on TikTok, as you can easily create reply videos. When the conversation is on Twitter, it requires a little more production effort, such as manually gathering responses, but it’s worth it! It’s also a chance to talk to your audience and inject some personality. You can see how I achieved this, here.
Lots of comments around the announcement of Lawn Mowing Simulator VR focused on The Simpsons predictions and King of the Hill references - which also allowed us to get in the replies of big meme accounts, like Criminal Simpsons.
This type of content is much easier when your ear is to the ground and you’re close to your community, so make sure you engage with posts mentioning your title frequently to encourage them to tag you in any UGC.
Conclusion
Our social campaign was a success for us - driving 5.59% average engagement across Instagram and the second-most impressions on the platform, just falling 1.01% shy of Curve’s flagship title of the year, Dungeons on Hinterberg, and saw similar success across TikTok and Twitter.
There is the growing idea that audiences are looking for curated chaos on socials now, which we were able to plug into Lawn Mowing Simulator VR’s social presence, and you can too, even if you have very little to work with. Just remember to embrace repurposing content, your community, and your audience’s idea of your title.
Whether you want to take some baby steps towards chaos or throw yourself fully into the storm - get in contact with me either through my contact form or by emailing me at: bradleyjodd@gmail.com
