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EXAMPLE REPORT
PREAMBLE This example report shows typical elements included in a monthly report by ICO Media. The content and topics discussed change depending on client and month.
The report is based on actual data, captured with ICO s i -house developed PR tools and deals ith “trike “uit )ero: Dire tor s Cut s shorte ed ““): DC performance in March 2014, one month before the game was released on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in April 2014.
The actual report starts with the following slide. The visual style of the graphs are different in client reports but the same information is present.
Please note that the competitor analysis on slide 13 and 14 is not always present in our reports
Born Ready Games gave us the permission to use their data for this example report.
Online Games Consulting & Services 1 !
PRESS REPORT March 2014
ICO Media [email protected] +44 207 193 51 58
Office 6, 10 fleet street, Brighton BN1 4ZE UK www.icomedia.eu
Online Games Consulting & Services 2 !// INTRODUCTION
March was a big month for Strike Suit Zero: Director’s Cut with the launch date being communicated, coverage on the back of Microsoft’s ID@Xbox announcement from GDC, and additional media attention via PlayStation’s upcoming games announcement.
Analysis and feedback is located at the end of this report.
Online Games Consulting & Services 3 !// SUMMARY OF PR ACTIVITIES
Strategic PR planning between ICO and Born Ready Games
Preparation, localisation and distribution of a press release with launch date and dev diary on 27th March to over 1000 contacts
Distribution and hosting of assets on dedicated newsroom and via Gamespress
Preparation of launch press release and assets
Arranged and edited special feature for German magazine Making Games
Arranged Push Square website interview and edited answers
Competition planning with VG24/7 website
Managed review code requests from media and YouTubers
Online Games Consulting & Services 4 ! EXPLANATION: What is reach?
The Reach is a formula ICO uses to evaluate the number of people that might have been reached by media communication during the month. Since it is just an estimate and many variables are to be considered, the number itself is t of much use, but the reach can be useful in analysis:
Some countries have very concentrated media landscapes, and therefore they will appear as quite small in the normal geographic distribution, but since all their media are quite big, the reach calculation gives a clearer picture of their importance.
Coverage can go up or down, and reach o t always follow the same trend. Over time, the reach is a better indicator of the efficiency of a PR campaign than the coverage itself. For example: High amount of coverage with low reach means that mostly small media are covering the game, while a low amount of coverage with very high reach lets us know that large media are publishing news about the game.
Online Games Consulting & Services 5 //! COVERAGE EVOLUTION: April 2013 - March 2014
600 Articles Reach 1600
1400 500
1200
400 1000
300 800
600 200
400
100 200
0 0 Mar'13 Apr'13 May'13 Jun'13 Jul'13 Aug'13 Sep'13 Oct'13 Nov'13 Dec'13 Jan'14 Feb'14 Mar'14
SOURCE : ICO PARTNERS
Online Games Consulting & Services 6 //! GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION MARCH - No. articles
TOTAL COVERAGE : 427 ARTICLES
150 126 30% 125
100 75 18% 75 53 12% 50 32 23 22 7% 5% 17 15 25 11 11 5% 6 8 8 4% 4% 5 5 3 3% 1 3 3% 1 2 1% 1% 2% 1% 2% 1% 0% 1% 0% 0% 0
SOURCE : ICO PARTNERS
Online Games Consulting & Services 7 //! GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION MARCH - Reach
TOTAL REACH: 1359.5
500 403.9 29% 400
276.6 300 20%
200 155.4 124.9 11% 9% 83 94.2 7% 100 6% 58.3 23 29 18.4 34.2 4% 30.1 12.4 11.1 3 2% 10.1 4 2.5 2% 2% 1% 1 2% 2 0% 1% 1% 0% 0% 1% 0% 0% 0
SOURCE : ICO PARTNERS
Online Games Consulting & Services 8 //! TOPIC DISTRIBUTION MARCH – Number of articles
TOTAL COVERAGE : 427 ARTICLES
200
158 37%
150 136 32%
100 75 18%
50 31 27 7% 6%
0 GENERAL PLAYSTATION TRAILER LAUNCH DATE XBOX ID PLAYSTATION RELEASE ANNOUNCEMENT LIST
SOURCE : ICO PARTNERS
Online Games Consulting & Services 9 //! TOPIC DISTRIBUTION MARCH - Reach
TOTAL REACH: 1359.5
600 504.8 37% 417.1 30% 400
240.1 17%
200 125.4 9% 89.7 7%
0 GENERAL PLAYSTATION TRAILER LAUNCH DATE XBOX ID PLAYSTATION RELEASE ANNOUNCEMENT LIST
SOURCE : ICO PARTNERS
Online Games Consulting & Services 10 //! MEDIA TYPE DISTRIBUTION - Number of articles
TOTAL COVERAGE : 427 ARTICLES
400 343 80%
300
200
100 36 29 19 7% 8% 4%
0 GENERAL INTEREST GAMES MEDIA TECH FOCUSED OTHERS
SOURCE : ICO PARTNERS
Online Games Consulting & Services 11 //! MEDIA TYPE DISTRIBUTION - Reach
TOTAL REACH : 1359.5
1250
996.6 72% 1000
750
500
170.7 250 141.3 12% 10% 68.5 5%
0 GENERAL INTEREST GAMES TECH OTHER
SOURCE : ICO PARTNERS
Online Games Consulting & Services 12 //! COMPETITOR ANALYSIS - Number of articles
RANGE : FEBRUARY - MARCH 2014
120
Strike Suit Zero Elite: Dangerous EVE Valkyrie
100
80
60
40
20
0
SOURCE : ICO PARTNERS
Online Games Consulting & Services 13 //! COMPETITOR ANALYSIS - Reach
RANGE : FEBRUARY - MARCH 2014
350 Strike Suit Zero Elite: Dangerous EVE Valkyrie 300
250
200
150
100
50
0
SOURCE : ICO PARTNERS
Online Games Consulting & Services 14 //! PRESS FEEDBACK March
GENERALPRESSFEEDBACK
Mar h s coverage consisted mainly of three main news stories: The announcement of a launch date with 158 articles (37% of total coverage); Mi rosoft s ID@Xbox announcement with 136 articles (32%); and “o y s list of upcoming PS4 titles with 75 articles (18%). Other minor topics included general articles about the game 31 (7%) and the PlayStation-Trailer with 27 articles (6%).
Geographically, Germany saw the most published articles with 126 (30%), followed by France with 75 articles (18%), Italy with 53 articles (12%) and the UK with 32 articles (7%). Comparing the number of articles published and the overall reach of articles most countries saw a similar ratio between both metrics. The biggest difference was noted in the UK. The country makes up for only 7% of published articles but 11% of the total reach, indicating that fewer, but more high-profile, outlets published news about Strike Suit Zero.
The vast majority of articles came from dedicated gaming websites. Those outlets published 343 articles (80% of total coverage) in March, followed by tech focused sites with 36 articles (8%) and general interest sites with 29 articles (7%).
Online Games Consulting & Services 15 //! PRESS FEEDBACK March
PRESSFEEDBACK BY TOPIC
Mentions in OnLive announcement The announcement of O Li e s comeback into the gaming arena yielded some coverage for Strike Suit Zero as the game was among the first games to take advantage of the new CloudLift and OnLive Go features the platform will offer. Media such as Develop, RockPaperShotgun and Digital Spy all picked up on the news and mentioned Strike Suit Zero.
Push Square Interview After ICO reached out, UK specialist PlayStation website Push Square conducted an interview with Born ‘eady s Community Manager Jamin Smith via email. The interview allowed Born Ready to communicate its restructured campaign and visual makeover for new-gen hardware to a target audience. The interview also provided a bit of an exclusive for Push Square as the use of the PS4 o troller s touchpad use had not yet been revealed. To a lesser extent, the PS Vita remote play functionality had not been revealed before either.
Online Games Consulting & Services 16 //! PRESS FEEDBACK March
PRESSFEEDBACK BY TOPIC
Oculus Rift support A couple of specialist websites ran with stories on Strike Suit Zero and the Oculus Rift this month. Spanish website realovirtual.com reported on improvements stated to be coming to the Oculus version on Strike Suit Zero. The website said [Bor Ready Games] already have a list of pending changes and encourage the community to continue providing feedback and reporting pro le s .
Trophies and Achievements published French website jeuxactu.com published the trophy list for Strike Suit Zero: Dire tor s Cut - including what the gold, silver and bronze trophies will be. We did not see this news published elsewhere and the site did not reveal its source for the information.
Online Games Consulting & Services 17 !// COVERAGE EXAMPLES: DATE ANNOUNCEMENT
VG 24/7 (ENGLISH); EUROGAMER (ENGLISH)
Online Games Consulting & Services 18 !// COVERAGE EXAMPLES: DATE ANNOUNCEMENT
JEUXACTU (FRENCH); GAMEKULT (FRENCH)
Online Games Consulting & Services 19 !// COVERAGE EXAMPLES: DATE ANNOUNCEMENT
4PLAYERS.DE (GERMAN); IPLAYED (GREEK)
Online Games Consulting & Services 20 !// COVERAGE EXAMPLE: ID@Xbox
WIRED UK (ENGLISH)
Online Games Consulting & Services 21 !// COVERAGE: PUSH SQUARE INTERVIEW
Online Games Consulting & Services 22 !// COVERAGE: TOTAL XBOX PREVIEW
TOTALXBOXPREVIEW
Official Xbox website Total Xbox ran a preview of Strike Suit Zero towards the end of the month. Deputy Editor Edwin Evans-Thirlwell called the game Bor ‘eady s Space Opera and was enthusiastic when discussing its improvements with creative director Jim Mummery.
The article finished on a high as Evans-Thirlwell stated his anticipation of getting the game: “trike Suit Zero launches later this year. Don't know about you, but I can't wait to get it out of the hangar.
Online Games Consulting & Services 23 //! ANALYSIS & SUGGESTIONS
Co erage of “trike “uit )ero for this o th as e e etter tha the last o th s stro g sho i g, ith i di idual arti les o pared to last o th s .
A perfe t stor of a ou e e ts the release date, ID@Xbox fro GDC a d “o y s PlayStation release list) meant the game was mentioned in a number of big topics in March. Article reach for this month also reached its highest yet: peaking at 1,357 compared to Fe ruary s .
ID@Xbox Mi rosoft s ID@Xbox announcement saw SSZ mentioned in a number of articles, and also as a featured title in some (page 22 of this report highlights one particular example). The announcement saw SSZ featured in a list of games signed up to the ID@Xbox program. ID@Xbox stories accounted for almost a third of coverage this month (136 articles) and was the second-biggest news topic next to the release date announcement sent by ICO. Coverage was dominated by Germany (29%), France (18%) and Italy (17%)
PlayStation 4 Games List “i ilar to Mi rosoft s a ou e e t, Play“tatio a ou ed a list of ga es o i g to P“ this year. The news was mainly picked up by non-English websites, especially in countries like Germany and Italy. SSZ was featured in 75 articles discussing the release list, accounting for % of Mar h s total o erage. Coverage was dominated by Germany (32%), Italy (20%) and France (12%), closely followed by the Netherlands (11%) and Poland (8%).
Online Games Consulting & Services 24 //! ANALYSIS & SUGGESTIONS
Launch Date Announcement The a ou e e t of ““): DC s lau h date as the iggest si gle e s topi this o th, accounting for 37% of all coverage in March.
Despite ““): DC issi g it s pre iously a ou ed Mar h release i do , o ly a ha dful of websites picked up on this, though none presented this in any negative way. Most stories also mentioned the revamped campaign, improved visuals and two additional Strike Suits that were placed prominently in the news alert sent out. Many also attached the developer diary asset that was released at the same time.
The announcement received especially strong coverage in Germany (30% of total coverage), France (18%), Spain (13%) and the UK (10%).
ICO furthermore divided the coverage from the launch date announcement into 2 categories: General articles announcing the game and articles posting the dev diary which was released alongside the press communication. The general announcement articles accounted for 108 articles (68%), while the dev diary generated 50 articles (32%).
Online Games Consulting & Services 25 //! ANALYSIS & SUGGESTIONS
Suggestions for review code management After ICO s outrea h to outlets for re ie ode i last o th s press release a d this o th s launch date announcement, ICO now has over 70 websites requesting a PS4 review code and over 60 requesting an Xbox One review code.
If avilalbe ICO suggets sending review codes to journalists two weeks before the launch of the game and to set an embargo on the launch day of SSZ: DC. This way journalists have sufficient time to play to game without a need to rush. Early review codes and an embargo will also have to effect of several reviews going live on the launch day or close to the launch day of SSZ, raising visitilbly for the game overall.
Apart from media already asking for review codes ICO will also reach out to general gaming sites, sites listed on metacritic and space related sites with codes.
Online Games Consulting & Services 26 //! UPCOMING ACTIVITIES
Preparing and drafting of the out now of press release Distribution and management of review codes to European outlets
Distribution of launch assets via multiple channels
Coordination of launch giveaways (both physical and codes)
Ongoing media relationship management
Regular skype calls with Born Ready Teams to discuss upcoming PR operations
Online Games Consulting & Services 27 !
WWW.ICOMEDIA.EU OFFICE 6 10 FLEET STREET BN1 4ZE BRIGHTON UNITED KINGDOM
[email protected] +44 207 193 51 58
Online Games Consulting & Services 28