History Worth Playing

Background

The Computer Spiele Museum in Berlin is the first museum dedicated to the history of video games. But it is a small museum with limited resources, far from the main tourist routes in the city. The museum’s exhibitions are exhaustive and interesting, but the museum lacks visibility.

The mission was to put the museum top of mind, on the to-do list of future tourists planning to visit the city. Due to limited resources, it was important to create an original campaign that appealed to the nostalgia of the target, influencers and media, turning the campaign into a news story, that would quickly help to take it further.

Idea

The best way to explain the story of video games is by playing it. That’s what the museum offers and it’s exactly what was the aim of the campaign. Therefore, a video game was hidden behind every action in the campaign. A 2kb video game for the legendary 80s console, the ZX Spectrum, was shared which could be recorded on a cassette or by using any recording app to upload the game to the campaign website, using the computer’s microphone.  The campaign graphics and posters showed the code to copy and play. A real product was even produced: cassettes containing the games. Widespread interest was awoken by turning a traditional advertising campaign into a platform to distribute retro video games. 

The main targets were Berlin’s residents and the German, Spanish and British visitors interested in the subject.  There was a limited media plan, but it was used in a surprising and innovative way. Radio ads that included 16 seconds of a code to be recorded, prints and posters with big columns of code to be copied, a website that turned a modern computer into a classic ZX Spectrum to be able to recreate the experience, and the sending of video games for the ZX Spectrum to influencers and media. All of this turned us into a news story, not only in specialised media, but also in the general media. Even the radio programmes where they hadn’t invested used the radio ad as content for their shows to give their audience the chance to experience the action alongside podcasts and influencers on social media.

Results

Everything began on March 1^st with a press conference with media coverage from the three countries where the campaign was to be launched. The choice of the markets was logical (as the three places with most visitors to Berlin) but also strategic, as English and Spanish would be able to connect with dozens of countries.  The campaign began with visibility in the shape of news stories both in the gaming sector and in the general news. Simultaneously, the radio ads, the prints and the posters were launched. Influencers in the markets where they were investing started to receive cassettes with the games and publish the news on their networks.  To conclude the campaign, the museum created a permanent installation, turning a short-range FM broadcast into a game to attract the public who wanted to discover the history of video games explained in the campaign. 

The campaign reached an audience of 28 million, not just in Europe but also Latin America— another region that loved the ZX Spectrum in the 80s — and across the world.

History Worth Playing generated more than 700.000 euros in earned media.

Access to the museum website increased by 50% at the end of the campaign.

90% of the 120 cassettes sent out (to journalists, bloggers & social media influencers) became news.