Ico Partners

Guerrilla Marketing Promote your game with little money, much insanity and maximum impact

@Olima Thomas REISENEGGER

MORE GAMES

but…

… not more websites Some games get more love than others @Olima 5 @Olima 6 Trials of the Blood Dragon – Media Coverage

250

E3 Reveal 200 + Release

150

100 Number of online articles ofonline Number 50

10.07 08.06 10.06 12.06 14.06 16.06 18.06 20.06 22.06 24.06 26.06 28.06 30.06 02.07 04.07 06.07 08.07 12.07 14.07 16.07 18.07 20.07 22.07 24.07 26.07 28.07 30.07 01.08 03.08 05.08 07.08 09.08 11.08 SOURCE : ICO PARTNERS

@Olima 7 @Olima 8 Trials of the Blood Dragon – Media Coverage

250

E3 Reveal 200 + Release Demo announced

150

100

Demo released Number of online articles ofonline Number 50

@Olima 9 Content Overview

1 What is Guerrilla marketing?

2 How to do Guerrilla marketing

3 Media & sales impact

4 5 free Guerrilla marketing ideas

@Olima 10 Thomas Reisenegger

• Currently - PR Manager ICO Partners, Brighton UK League of Legends, SMITE, Endless Space 2, Endless Legend Armello, Fragments of Him, The Lion’s Song, Blackwood Crossing

• consol.AT / consolPlus 7 years freelance video game journalist

• Austrian Award „PR Panther“ in Youngster Category Launch PR campaign for iOS/Android game Diskobolos

• Talks about games PR at GDC, Digital Tapei....

@Olima 11 What is Guerrilla marketing?

How to do Guerrilla marketing

Media & sales impact

5 free Guerrilla marketing ideas Guerrilla Marketing is:

low-cost unconventional marketing tactics

@Olima 13 Key to master PR:

Handle your PR ammunition wisely Must have news beats

• Game announcement

• First screenshots

• First trailer

• Beta start / preview possibilities (even if press only)

• Release date announcement

• Release announcement (+ launch trailer)

@Olima 15 Why care about Guerrilla Marketing?

• Extra PR beat

• Reach very different target group

• Small budget

• Untapped field

@Olima 16 Best practice examples Punch Club

• Userscore: 80% Metascore: 73% • Generated over 300 articles in 4 weeks1 • First week: 100.000 sold / $1 million revenue2 1 ICO Partners / 2 Tinybuild twitter

@Olima 18 Punch Club

Unlocks Punch Club „No press needed“ article

@Olima 19 Saints Row IV – Very special edition

@Olima 20 Zombie Match Defense Arcade

@Olima 21 Risks of Guerrilla Marketing

• Often breaks taboos

• Not always 100% legal

• Not always results in good PR – Don‘t believe that “there is no such thing as bad publicity“

• Budget varies greatly

@Olima 22 Worst practice examples Bad: Watch Dogs

@Olima 24 Really bad: PSP

@Olima 25 Even worse: Call of Duty: Black Ops III

@Olima 26 Worst

@Olima 27 What is Guerrilla marketing?

How to do Guerrilla marketing

Media & sales impact

5 free Guerrilla marketing ideas What do they have in common?

@Olima 29 Guerrilla marketing as part of communication strategy

@Olima 30 Guerrilla Marketing is NOT about making one good PR stunt

It‘s a mindset to help establish

your brand name Guerrilla marketing as part of communication strategy

@Olima 32 Goat Simulator – PR beats

350

300

250 Release

200

150 Announcement Release

100

0 Aug 14 Sep 14 Nov 14 Mrz 14 Apr 15 Mai 15 Aug 15

@Olima 33 Guerrilla marketing ideas How to come up with ideas?

• Get inspired by other industries or businesses

• Talk to a lot and very different people

• Creativity techniques

• Follow the news and grab the low hanging fruit

@Olima 35 Square Enix tweets about Pokemon GO

@Olima 36 Square Enix tweets about Pokemon GO

Lara Croft Go - Media Coverage 90 Deux Ex GO announced 80

50 Tweet 40 Apple Design Award

No of articles of No 30

@Olima 37 3 golden characteristics of good ideas

GAME FIT

SUPRISING, FUNNY OR NEW EMOTIONALLY TOUCHING

@Olima 38 What is Guerrilla marketing?

How to do Guerrilla marketing

Media & sales impact

5 free Guerrilla marketing ideas Example 1: Surgeon Simulator Surgeon Simulator – Coverage April 2014 to June 2016

120

Anniversary 100 I Am Bread announcement Edition launch

PS version 80 announced

I Am 2 million sales announced

60 Bread EA

No of No articles 40

Jul14 Jul14 Jul15 Jul15 Jul16

Jan 15 Jan 15 Jan 16 Jan 16 Jan

Jun14 Jun14 Jun15 Jun15 Jun16 Jun16

Okt14 Okt14 Okt15 Okt15

Apr14 Apr14 Apr14 Apr15 Apr15 Apr16 Apr16

Sep 14 Sep 14 Sep 14 Sep 15 Feb 15 Feb 15 Sep 15 Sep 15 Sep 16 Feb 16 Feb

Dez 14 Dez 14 Dez 15 Dez 15 Dez

Mai 14 Mai 14 Mai 15 Mai 15 Mai 16 Mai 16 Mai

Aug 14 Aug 14 Aug 15 Aug 15 Aug

Mrz 15 Mrz 15 Mrz 15 Mrz 16 Mrz 16 Mrz 16 Mrz

Nov 14 Nov 14 Nov 15 Nov 15 Nov

@Olima 41 Surgeon Simulator – Trump DLC

@Olima 42 Surgeon Simulator – Coverage April 2014 to June 2016

120

Anniversary 100 I Am Bread announcement Edition launch

PS version 80 announced

I Am 2 million sales announced

60 Bread EA

No of No articles 40 More than 100 articles

13 mill let‘s play views 20

Jul14 Jul14 Jul15 Jul15 Jul16

Jan 15 Jan 15 Jan 16 Jan 16 Jan

Jun14 Jun14 Jun15 Jun15 Jun16 Jun16

Okt14 Okt14 Okt15 Okt15

Apr14 Apr14 Apr14 Apr15 Apr15 Apr16 Apr16

Sep 14 Sep 14 Sep 14 Sep 15 Feb 15 Feb 15 Sep 15 Sep 15 Sep 16 Feb 16 Feb

Dez 14 Dez 14 Dez 15 Dez 15 Dez

Mai 14 Mai 14 Mai 15 Mai 15 Mai 16 Mai 16 Mai

Aug 14 Aug 14 Aug 15 Aug 15 Aug

Mrz 15 Mrz 15 Mrz 15 Mrz 16 Mrz 16 Mrz 16 Mrz

Nov 14 Nov 14 Nov 15 Nov 15 Nov

@Olima 43 Surgeon Simulator Trump Visibility

• Over 30.000 successfull operations

• Bump in player numbers

Number of Steam players (1 year overview)

@Olima 44 Example 2: April fool‘s done right April Fool‘s Jokes 2016

160

140

120

100 articles 80

Number of Number 60

0 DARK SOULS III WITCHER 3 GUILD WARS 2 CLUSTERTRUCK FINAL FANTASY 14 ARMA WARHAMER VERMINTIDE SOURCE : ICO PARTNERS

@Olima 46 SUPER TRUCK

LINK

@Olima 47 Clustertruck Media Coverage

40 SUPER TRUCK

25 SUPER TRUCK articles mentioning Custertruck 20 Several bigger Youtubers post let's plays

15 Number of articles of Number 10

0 14. JAN 21. JAN 28. JAN 04. FEB 11. FEB 18. FEB 25. FEB 03. MRZ 10. MRZ 17. MRZ 24. MRZ 31. MRZ 07. APR

Clustertruck SUPER TRUCK SOURCE : ICO PARTNERS

@Olima 48 Clustertruck official Youtube Views

SUPER TRUCK

PRE-ALPHA TRAILER

views on the official channels official the on views GREENLIGHT TRAILER Youtube

LEVEL 7 PLAYTHROUGH Number of Number 0 20.000 40.000 60.000 80.000 100.000 120.000

SOURCE : ICO PARTNERS

@Olima 49 Clustertruck – Wishlist development

SUPER TRUCK

@Olima 50 Clustertruck – April fool‘s breakdown

• Over 35 articles (by far strongest beat) • Over 100.000 views on offical channel • Over 2 million views from let‘s players

• Wishlist bump • Over 60.000 newsletter subscribers • Over 100.000 SUPER TRUCK downloads

@Olima 51 Effects of Guerrilla Marketing

Attention

Image Sales

@Olima 52 What is Guerrilla marketing?

How to do Guerrilla marketing

Media & sales impact

5 free Guerrilla marketing ideas 1 Business cards • Business Cards

@Olima 55 • Business Cards

@Olima 56 2 Get on Tinder Hatefoul Boyfriend

@Olima 58 3 Hire a pickpocketput Putpocket your game

@Olima 60 4 See how BREXIT plays out @Olima 62 5 Twitter gif Adventure Twitter gif adventure

@Olima 64 Guerrilla Marketing – 5 Takeaways

Extra PR amunition

It‘s a mindset

Grab the low hanging fruit

Define a primary goal for each stunt (views, sales…)

Try, try, try Thanks for your attention WWW.ICOMEDIA.EU OFFICE 6, 10 FLEET STREET BRIGHTON BN1 4ZE, UNITED KINGDOM

[email protected] +44 (0)20 7193 5158