VISIT XBOX: THE BIRTH OF GAMING TOURISM
Title | VISIT XBOX: THE BIRTH OF GAMING TOURISM |
Brand | MICROSOFT |
Product/Service | XBOX ONE X ENHANCED |
Category |
B04. Use of Print or Outdoor |
Entrant
|
McCANN LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
|
Idea Creation
|
McCANN LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
|
Production
|
McCANN LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
|
Production 2
|
CRAFT LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
|
Production 3
|
FIRE WITHOUT SMOKE London, UNITED KINGDOM
|
Production 4
|
MOMENTUM WORLDWIDE London, UNITED KINGDOM
|
Production 5
|
CLOCKWORK Johannesburg, SOUTH AFRICA
|
Additional Company
|
MRM METEORITE London, UNITED KINGDOM
|
Additional Company 2
|
ATTENTION SEEKERS London, UNITED KINGDOM
|
Credits
Rob Doubal |
McCann London |
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 collaborated 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