Title	VISIT XBOX: THE BIRTH OF GAMING TOURISM
Brand	MICROSOFT
Product/Service	XBOX ONE X ENHANCED
Category	B05. Use of Print / 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

Name	Company	Position
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 Direct?

This is relevant for Direct because it targeted a new audience, who didn't care about weapons and hero characters, to buy Xbox's richly-detailed games by creating a new reason to engage with them: Not to play. To visit. With a campaign centred on a call-to-action - 'Visit Xbox' - Xbox directly asked the audience to reappraise it as a travel brand. It wasn't about selling games, but selling destinations. Through a Rough Guides travel guide to gaming locations, in-game tours and much more, we made people act like gaming tourists – discovering, buying, and experiencing games in a new way.

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 target a new audience who didn’t care about guns and bombs?

Describe the creative idea (30% 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 an audience could 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)

How do you talk about tech benefits like 4K, HDR, and 60 FPS, to a new mainstream audience, who didn't resonate with the specs, or even the conventions of videogame advertising like hero characters and weapons? To justify the purchase of Xbox’s high-spec console and games, we had to get people to appreciate the richness of Xbox's games in a new way, beyond the normal way of promoting games. So Xbox underwent an unprecedented brand transformation: a gaming brand became a travel brand. For the first time, we began promoting not the gameplay, but the locations available in games, appealing to people on an emotional rather than rational level. It changed how this audience discovers, experience, and purchases games. It was no longer about promoting games as things to play – but as destinations to see - all wrapped up in the tourist board-esque call-to-action 'Visit Xbox'.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

The media approach emulates the travel sector - a tourist board-style commercial, DOOH executions, press ads, contextual ads on flight search sites, application for tourist board accreditation, and livestreamed guided tours. But the centrepiece is a groundbreaking partnership with global travel guide publisher Rough Guides. Together, we created the first-ever travel guide to gaming worlds – The Rough Guide to Xbox, a fully-functioning travel reference book, working just like a Rough Guide to Paris or Italy, which gamers could use to discover the best sightseeing in Xbox games. Everything channel to a .com site that lets people discover and buy games in a new way. Instead of searching by title or genre, customers browse games by location (like cities, beaches, and more). And to further drive sales of consoles and games, Xbox also promoted console bundles as package holidays.

List the results (30% of vote)

- Debuted in 29 countries and counting. - 4x average response rate - 55% increase in traffic