Chief Creative Officer, McCann UK, and Co-President
Laurence Thomson
McCann London
Chief Creative Officer, McCann UK, and Co-President
Sanjiv Mistry
McCann London
Executive Creative Director
Jamie Mietz
McCann London
Executive Creative Director
Jim Nilsson
McCann London
Copywriter
Jacob Björdal
McCann London
Art Director
Jim Nilsson
McCann London
Director
Jacob Björdal
McCann London
Director
Karen Crum
McCann London
Head of Strategy
James Appleby
McCann London
Senior Planner
Fanni David
McCann London
Senior Planner
Thomas Keane
McCann London
Planner
Dan Howarth
McCann London
Head of Art
Matthew Thomas
McCann London
Designer
Nazima Motegheria
McCann London
Designer
Clare Prager
McCann London
Project Director
Anna Curtis
McCann London
Project Manager
Rob Smith
McCann London
EVP & CCO, McCann UK
Sailesh Jani
McCann London
Managing Partner
Nicole Robinson-Spaude
McCann London
Senior Account Director
Lynne Carter
McCann London
Account Director
Andy Wynn
McCann London
Account Director
Robert Stockton
McCann London
Senior Account Manager
Conor Lloyd
McCann London
Senior Account Manager
Anastasia Imam
McCann London
Account Manager
Lucy Manning
McCann London
Account Manager
Eloise Thompson
McCann London
Account Executive
Sergio Lopez
Craft/McCann
Chief Production Officer EMEA
Sophie Chapman-Andrews
Craft/McCann
Lead Executive Producer
Kin-man Ly
Craft/McCann
Executive Producer
Ellis Faint
Craft/McCann
Head of Studio
Alex Dougan
Craft/McCann
Head of Studio
Alex Dougan
Craft/McCann
Producer
Harvey Winter
Craft/McCann
Junior Producer
Jeremy Reichman
Craft/McCann
Producer
Liam White
Craft/McCann
Print Producer
Angelo Tsolkas
Craft/McCann
Producer
Pam Oskam
Craft/McCann
Art Buyer
Julie Hughes
Craft/McCann
Art Buyer
John Martin
Craft/McCann
Studio Imaging Director
Rob McDonald
Craft/McCann
Senior Retoucher
Matt Dollings
Craft/McCann
Senior Editor
Paul Jenkinson
Craft/McCann
Senior Editor
Sabina Dallu
Craft/McCann
Editor
Holly Webster
Craft/McCann
Creative Researcher
Robbie Maynard
Craft/McCann
Print Studio Manager
Tai Smith
Momentum
Creative Technologist
Duncan Harris
Freelance
Photography
Josh Taylor
Freelance
Photography
Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?
‘Visit Xbox’ is relevant for Brand Experience & Activation because it let the world experience a games in a completely different way: as tourists.
To promote graphically enhanced games to a new audience, Xbox transformed into a travel brand across every touchpoint, letting people experience gaming tourism through live-stream guided tours of games and the first-ever travel guide to games, co-written and published by Rough Guides.
The executions didn’t just establish Xbox as the ultimate platform for beautiful gaming worlds, they droves sales of our destinations.
background
Xbox’s belief is that gaming should be for everyone. Yet for decades, videogame marketing has always focused on hero characters, guns and explosions. But gaming has become so much more. The graphics in Xbox games are now almost life-like, open-world games are vast, and developers are increasingly including photo modes in their games.
How could Xbox attract a wider audience who didn’t care about guns and bombs?
Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)
To bring in that new audience, we created a brand new reason to buy videogames.
Not to play. To visit.
Xbox transformed into a travel brand, promoting not the gameplay, but the locations available in games – all built around a groundbreaking partnership with one of the world’s biggest travel guide publishers, Rough Guides. Together, we created 'The Rough Guide to Xbox', which functioned like a travel guide to a country (what to see, when to go, what to buy etc.), but for the first time, this advice was entirely for virtual worlds.
It changed how customers experience games, and we amplified that shift across all channels, with tourist board-style commercials and OOH ads, experiential in-game guided tours, selling console bundles as package holidays and even applying for official tourist board accreditation.
Describe the strategy (20% of vote)
To promote Xbox One X Enhanced games, Xbox faced a tough challenge: how do you promote complex technical benefits like 4K, HDR, and 60 FPS, to a mainstream audience?
Xbox had to look beyond the normal way of promoting games. To justify the purchase of Xbox’s high-spec console and games, we had to get people to appreciate Xbox One X Enhanced games in a new way.
So Xbox decided to transform into a travel brand, thereby changing how people discover, experience, and purchase games. We no longer promoted games – we promoted destinations.
These beautiful game locations spoke to the audience on an emotional level, giving them a new reason to buy Xbox One X Enhanced games: not to play, but to visit.
Describe the execution (30% of vote)
Xbox partnered with Rough Guides to do something they'd never done in their almost 40 year history of publishing travel guides: create a fully-functioning Rough Guide to virtual destinations.
Our writers and researchers spent months exploring Xbox's worlds, noting down points of interest in order to make the 'Rough Guide to Xbox' work as a genuine reference book and travel companion, just as a 'Rough Guide to Paris' or a 'Rough Guide to Italy' would. Except the villages to explore, monuments to visit, sights to see and info on money, accommodation and getting around are all in Xbox's richly-detailed games.
Each chapter is about a different Xbox game, and gives the reader vital travel advice for that world - from hidden bars to grab a drink in Sea of Thieves, to elusive wildlife to spot in Anthem, to unmissable churches and temples in Shadow of the Tomb Raider.
List the results (30% of vote)
- Debuted in 29 countries and counting.
- 4x average response rate
- 55% increase in traffic