In this episode of The Future of Consumer Marketing, host Andres Figueira interviews Ada Mockute Jaime, Chief Marketing Officer at Nordcurrent, a 23-year-old bootstrap family business that develops and publishes mobile games like Cooking Fever (600+ million downloads), Murder in the Alps, Pocket Styler, and Airplane Chefs. Ada shares how mobile gaming marketing operates more like direct-to-consumer brands than traditional gaming, requiring sophisticated retention strategies and community building across social platforms. With games spanning from time management to storytelling, Nordcurrent has mastered the art of creating lasting emotional connections with players while navigating the complex mobile app ecosystem where organic traffic attribution remains challenging.

Topics Discussed:

• Building 10+ year player retention through multi-layered game design

• Creating authentic community engagement on social platforms where players naturally gather

• Developing sophisticated user acquisition funnels that prioritize retention over installs

• Leveraging nostalgia marketing for games with generational staying power

• Navigating iOS privacy changes and app store attribution challenges

• Testing AI integration while maintaining character authenticity and player trust

Lessons For Consumer Marketers:

Treat Installs Like Email Signups, Not Sales

Mobile game marketing mirrors DTC brands where the initial conversion (install) means little without long-term engagement. Ada’s team measures success through 28-day retention curves rather than download numbers, recognizing that app store traffic attribution makes organic growth difficult to track. This creates a more complex funnel than traditional e-commerce but teaches valuable lessons about lifetime value optimization.

Build Multi-Layered Engagement Systems to Prevent Churn

Nordcurrent prevents player churn through multiple engagement layers within each game. Cooking Fever includes restaurants, gardens for growing ingredients, daily casino spins, and community hubs. This approach keeps players engaged even when they hit difficulty barriers, similar to how subscription brands create multiple value touchpoints to reduce cancellation rates.

Meet Your Community Where They Already Are, Not Where You Want Them

While PC gamers congregate on Discord and Reddit, mobile game players (primarily women aged 32-45) engage on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. Ada’s team abandoned trying to create new community spaces and instead built robust social media presences where their audience naturally spends time, including player-created Facebook groups they support but don’t control.

Use Soft Launches as Market Validation, Not Just Bug Testing

Mobile games undergo 6-16 month soft launches in specific regions to test not just technical performance but market fit. Games that don’t hit retention and monetization KPIs get shelved regardless of development time invested. This approach to market validation could benefit any consumer brand testing new products or markets.

Leverage Nostalgia as an Acquisition Channel

Cooking Fever’s 11-year history created unexpected organic marketing opportunities when players began creating TikTok content about “the game that got me through hard times.” Ada’s team amplified this user-generated nostalgia content, attracting both returning players and their family members who remembered the game, creating a multi-generational user base.

Balance AI Efficiency with Character Authenticity

Nordcurrent uses AI for user acquisition creative testing to reduce production costs before investing in high-quality assets, but avoids AI in community-facing content due to player sensitivity. When they slightly updated a main character’s appearance, players launched online protests. This shows the importance of maintaining brand consistency in elements customers have emotional connections to.

Create Different Ad Hooks for Different Player Motivations

Rather than one-size-fits-all advertising, Ada’s team creates multiple creative approaches targeting different psychological triggers: vanity (“I could do better than that player”), skill demonstration (watching expert gameplay), and social proof. This segmented creative approach increases conversion efficiency across diverse audience segments.