Vodaphone UK and Absinthe Pictures Raise the Bar for Games Marketing

Electronic Gaming Business, May 5, 2004

As everyone in gaming knows, marketing in this industry is all about communicating the game play experience, getting players into the game before they actually get in the game. Both winners of EGB's Electronic Gaming PR & Marketing Awards found their own paths to this elusive goal and clearly raised the bar for game promotion in 2003. We are pleased to announce that Vodaphone's UK PR Team wins this year's honor for Overall Best PR Campaign while Absinthe Pictures' The Hulk Trailer wins Best Ad Creative.

Vodaphone Turbo-Charges Mobile Game Adoption

The basic marketing challenge facing the mobile game platform is getting customers to try a phone-based game and appreciate this among the many possible functions of their next-gen handset. To promote gaming revenues in its Vodaphone live suite of mobile data services, the Vodaphone UK team devised a nationwide mobile gaming championship in the last half of 2003 that would bring mobile games to the customers in a series of regional service of mobile and generate press interest in the crowning of the first UK mobile gaming champion.

The crew devised a Vodaphone live Arcade that was planted in 10 cities where contestants competed in three games on the most advanced handset to become regional champions and advance to a London final. The events were supported by local marketing and press coverage to attract about 20,000 users, 10% of whom entered the contest. Leveraging the UK's tradition of devotion to local teams, the strategy garnered tremendous PR buzz and consumer interest. In eight of the ten cities, local vendors reported a 90% rise in Vodaphone live handset sales during the week of the event.

By getting games into the hands of a wide demographic, Vodaphone helped focus the market on this high margin, eminently sticky segment in the mobile business. During the course of the championship, revenues from games began catching up to ring tone sales in Vodaphone live and finally exceeded ring tone revenues as the championship finals were held.

Vodaphone's regional strategy helped drive press coverage that an independent PR audit valued at about GBP2 million of ad buys. Its 174 pieces of coverage exceeded the hits generated by Nokia's concurrent and massively funded N-Gage campaign.

By leveraging grassroots press and consumer interest and by finding a way to get phone users to try a mobile game, Vodaphone clearly moved the needle on their own sales as well as the acceptance of the mobile gaming platform.

More than a Movie

Absinthe Pictures has already made a name for itself in this business by understanding how promotional trailers for games must at once use and depart from the conventions of familiar movie trailers. The Hulk trailer (for Vivendi Universal Games) took its style from the film release's trailers, creating a seamless integration with the brand by using the familiar, deep-throated moviepromo voice-over and narrative set-up. Absinthe worked with the film team to ensure that the game trailer shared the same look, music, and even the sharp editing style of its director Ang Lee.

While an effective game trailer of a major media license like The Hulk needs to establish continuity with the lead property, it also needs to promote the game as a unique experience. Once Absinthe links the game with the movie, it does an exemplary job of weaving product attributes like stealth game play, diverse level environments and multiple fighting moves into a clean narrative flow. Unlike too many game trailers, The Hulk does not lean on cut scenes but instead creates a storyboard of in-game scenes that illustrate key points of the game play experience that are reinforced by the voice-over. At the same time, the game scenes communicate well the quality of the game engine, its atmosphere and unique visual style.

The final product is one of the most sculpted and exciting game trailers we have ever seen. It has a building rhythm that follows the dramatic rules of a good film trailer. It never stops to explain things too much, nor injects hamhanded testimonials about the game's authenticity from the film's stars or director. Most importantly, it is a highly compressed piece of product promotion that covers all of the major product attributes and renders the flavor of the game play but in a compact narrative flow that leaves us wanting to grab the controller. Absinthe worked on a modest $35,000 budget and had to create this trailer early in the game's development cycle to serve as one of the first public promotions of the The Hulk property. It may have been one of the better pieces of creative to come out of an otherwise uneven film and game combo.

[Copyright 2004 PBI Media, LLC. All rights reserved.]