CASE STUDY: BLACK FOR PS2 and XBOX
Black was an unsigned first person shooter for the Playstation 2 and Xbox that was under development at Criterion Studios. The first person shooter market can be a very lucrative one if a game reviews well, but the market is very overcrowded.
Black was hugely innovative with a fully destructible environment and stunning sound effects which added to the sensation of actually discharging a fire arm.
The mission set for Panache PR was to create a buzz amongst the games press particularly in the US. This is a very big market and the magazines and websites that cover games over there are important opinion formers for publications throughout the rest of the world.
It was decided that Black would debut at the E3 Expo in Los Angeles in May 2004 but that it would only be shown to around a dozen top tier games journalists behind closed doors. The rationale behind this was to create an aura of mystery and exclusivity around the game and get people at the show speculating and talking about the game.
Black had the use of a meeting room at the convention centre, through its connection with Criterions Renderware and I scheduled appointments with only the key magazines and websites. Having worked with the US games press at E3 for ten years at that time I deployed my personal connections to ensure that some of the games industry's most influential journalists would take the time to have a look at Black.
Alex Ward, Criterions Creative Director, who had retained me and would be handling the press demos was under strict instructions to only show the games to journalists who had made appointments through me. Should anyone else ask to see the game at the show he was to check with me before he allowed them to see the game. Of course, unless they were pretty important they were denied access!
This strategy and the fact that the game demo was first class ensured that Black was one of the E3 2004's most talked about games. We also took the decision not to release any visual imagery at that time to further increase the mystique of the game. Try this link for an example of coverage.
On the back of the E3 demo we were also offered the front cover of Game Informer magazine the USA's biggest selling computer games magazine for an Autumn issue.
The postscript to this case study is that Criterion was sold to Electronic Arts a couple of months later and so I had no further involvement with Black. It was released early in 2006 and reviewed very well. It also shot to the top of the sales charts all over the world including the USA.
CASE STUDY: BBC NEWSROOM SOUTHEAST FEATURES TWO PANACHE PR CLIENTS ...EVENTUALLY!
This case study demonstrates that sometimes PR can be a long game. Back in 1999 Guildford could boast no less than seven games development teams, four of whom were represented by Panache. Edge magazine is a high production value multi format magazine which is published by Future Publications. The magazine is very much a game industry bible and it is seen as being very prestigious to be featured in it.
Over a couple of months, I persuaded them that would be a good idea to write article on all these Guildford games developers. I naturally included everyone based in Guildford not just my own clients in order to secure the article.
The journalist duly came down visited all the companies and a photo shoot was arranged in the local Tescos (which is where everyone bumps into each other). This in itself, was pretty good PR for all my clients. Although when I was sent a box of the relevant issue to give out to everyone featured, I realised that there was still more PR mileage to be had in the proliferation of local developers. The article had turned out very well and I was sure that it was a good solid local media story as well as a games industry story.
Therefore, I held some of the copies back and sent them with a covering letter to a wide variety of local media to encompass local newspapers, radio stations and also TV news magazine programmes.
A piece in the Surrey Advertiser did appear but I heard nothing from any other outlet. Then about six weeks later I got a call out of the blue from a producer at Newsroom South East. Sega's Dreamcast console was due to launch in the UK and they wanted to tie this in with some local interest. So could they come at film at two of my clients offices the following day? They had noted everything I had sent them and were just waiting for the right tie in.
Naturally the answer was yes and filming took place at the offices of Lionhead Studios and Criterion Studios.
What I believe this case study shows is that results from any PR initiative may not be immediate but can ultimately be very substantial. |
