Case Study: Ubisoft - Red Steel
Challenge
Red Steel received tremendous buzz and excitement from its 2006 E3 coverage and Ubisoft aimed to rekindle and leverage that enthusiasm by developing an online program that would serve as a creative outlet for the game's enthusiasts.
Solution
The "Dojo of Pain" program served to promote Ubisoft's Red Steel, a launch title for the new Nintendo Wii video game platform, to a range of consumers including casual gamers, Nintendo "fanboys" and more traditional First-Person Shooter (FPS) gamers. The program strategy involved three core elements:
Release control of the marketing message. Try to guide it, but understand that by asking fans to create content means that you need to step back.
Play on their turf. Don't try to move consumers from the places they already frequent online; instead, provide tools that allow them to bring content into their existing environments.
Leverage the story of the game in the marketing experience. The program started months before anyone had played the game, so themes, naming and storyline elements from the game were integrated into the program.
The "Dojo of Pain" program leveraged elements that were employed for Red Steel's other marketing channels (program URL included print ads, television, and a mobile marketing campaign), leading to an integrated marketing effort that magnified brand messages both online and offline.
An offline component was the New York City launch party for the Nintendo Wii platform at the Toys "R" Us in Times Square. Affinitive gave the Dojo of Pain program a presence at the event with games, interviews, and prizes that provided a high level of excitement for consumers. Exclusive video footage created by Affinitive increased brand awareness and word of mouth for Red Steel and was picked up and shown by the popular website 1up.com.
The engaging consumer experience of the program was driven primarily by the 30 "lessons" (activities) that were created. These activities were similar to mini-contests in that consumers were prompted to create and submit user-generated content over a two-week period with the best entry earning a prize and all other entries earning points for completion (redeemable for prizes).
The program finale was the "Tournament of Doom", where members competed in a single elimination video creation contest. Each round members would vote on which member would pass to the next round with the ultimate winner taking home a brand new Nintendo Wii console.
Results
- 3,000 links sent by members generating 41,000 clicks to Ubisoft content
- 150+ user-generated videos were created, with over 500,000 YouTube views
- 30 "lessons" generated 4,100 submissions, including photos, videos, graphic designs, flyers, movie posters, and costumes
- 42% of registrations via member referrals
- 3,000+ Google results for "Dojo of Pain"
