| Title | THE XBOX LOOPHOLE |
| Brand | MICROSOFT |
| Product/Service | XBOX |
| Category |
A07. Use of Events and Stunts |
|
Entrant Company
|
McCANN LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
|
|
Advertising Agency
|
McCANN LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
|
|
Production Company
|
BLIPPAR London, UNITED KINGDOM
|
Credits
| Rob Doubal |
McCann London |
Co-President/Chief Creative Officer |
| Laurence Thomson |
McCann London |
Co-President/Chief Creative Officer |
| Sanjiv Mistry |
McCann London |
Creative Director |
| Jamie Mietz |
McCann London |
Creative Director |
| Thomas Ilum |
McCann London |
Interactive Creative Director |
| Andrei Andreescu |
McCann London |
Creative Developer |
| Alejandro Campos Lamas |
McCann London |
Art Director |
| Roberto Fabre |
McCann London |
Art Director |
| Jess Mallett |
McCann London |
Copywriter |
| Harry Peacham |
McCann London |
Planner |
| Sailesh Jani |
McCann London |
Business Director |
| James Latham |
McCann London |
Business Director |
| Tom Oliver |
McCann London |
Account Director |
| Giuseppe Mormandi |
McCann London |
Creative Producer |
| Chris Cartwright |
McCann London |
Agency Producer |
| Michael Thomason |
McCann London |
Head of Art |
| Carl Warren |
McCann London |
Designer |
| Rob McDonald |
Craft |
Retouching |
| John Martin |
Craft |
Retouching |
| Paul Jenkinson |
Craft |
Editor |
Brief Explanation
Destiny was the biggest new game franchise in history. But PlayStation had bought all the Destiny advertising rights. Forbidden from advertising the game in any channel, our client Xbox was left out in the cold. How could we advertise something we weren’t allowed to advertise?
Our insight: We weren’t allowed to advertise Destiny THE GAME, but there were no rules against creating and advertising another product called Destiny.
The idea: We created “Destiny: The New Fragrance By Xbox”, which gave us license to use the media channels that we were banned from, and so the campaign launched with Blippar-responsive press.
Results and Effectiveness
It trended worldwide on sites like Reddit and Forbes, and some influencers even called it a new genre of advertising – “non-vertising”. The campaign gained 72 million media impressions, 250 000 social media impressions and over 100 000 unique site visits on day 1 alone. Just $6000 paid media led to $3.8 million million earned media. In fact, over 34 pages of articles about the campaign were indexed on google. Xbox got 50% share of Destiny sales, and Destiny became the fastest selling new franchise in Xbox history. All without ever advertising the game.
Creative Execution
The idea launched with social posts and a high profile press execution in a widely circulated magazine. However, it was not a regular press ad. By scanning the image of the Destiny fragrance with the Blippar app, a hidden message was revealed on people’s phones, explaining why we had to use guerilla tactics to hide the game in plain sight, and drew them through to purchase. Our audience could also visit a campaign microsite to access the message and retail links.
Insights, Strategy and the Idea
PlayStation paid to control the media landscape. Which meant Xbox was banned from advertising Destiny the game in any medium, either above- or below-the-line. Our strategy was to find a loophole that enabled Xbox to boldly use those forbidden channels. We knew that if we could do that in a lateral enough way, our audience of gamers would spread the campaign message for us.