The Birth of Gaming Tourism
Xbox
Issue 54 | March 2020
Agency
McCann London
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officers and Co-Presidents Laurence Thomson, Rob Doubal Executive Creative Directors Jamie Mietz, Sanjiv Mistry Creative Directors Jim Nilsson, Jacob Bjordal Senior Creatives Jim Nilsson, Jacob Bjordal, Juan Peirano, Hetu Negri Head of Art Dan Howarth
Production Team
Chief Production Officer Sergio Lopez Executive Producer Kin-man Ly Head of Studio Ellis Faint Producer Alex Dougan Junior Producer Aurelija Salickaite Print Producer Steve Tester Producer Jamie Cooper Project Director Clare Prager Senior Project Manager Hannah Graff Project Manager Anna Curtis Director Craft/McCann Ben Twiston-Davies Production Company Fire Without Smoke Post Production Craft London
Other Credits
Chief Client Officer Rob Smith Managing Partner Sailesh Jani Senior Account Director Nicole Robinson-Spaude Account Director Melanie Vickers Account Manager Anastasia Imam Account Executive Eloise Thompson Head of Strategy Karen Crum Senior Planner James Appleby Designers Matthew Thomas, Angelika Juszczyk Publishing Company Rough Guides Partnerships Agency MIAI PR Agency Assembly
Date
January 2020
Background
Xbox believed that gaming should be for everyone. Yet for decades, videogame marketing had focused on heroes, guns and explosions. But gaming had become so much more with life-like graphics and even photo modes in Xbox games.
Idea
How could Xbox talk to a new audience who didn’t care about guns and bombs? The solution was to get people to buy videogames not to play but to visit.
Xbox was transformed into a travel brand, promoting not the gameplay but the locations available in their games.
This was given legitimacy in a groundbreaking partnership with one of the world’s biggest travel guide publishers, Rough Guides.
‘The Rough Guide to Xbox' described what visitors should see and buy and when to go, but the advice was entirely for virtual worlds from games like Halo 5: Guardians, Metro Exodus and Forza Horizon 4.
Console bundles were sold as package holidays through tourist board-style commercials, OOH ads and experiential ingame guided tours inviting people to “Visit Xbox”. Gamers could travel to incredible destinations, explore the architecture and meet the locals without leaving home.
Xbox even applied for official tourist board accreditation.
The campaign was launched at “Destinations”, the UK’s largest holiday and travel event where visitors to the stand could explore Xbox locations and listen to audio excerpts from the book.
“The Rough Guide to Xbox” was available to purchase from the Microsoft Store online.
Results
To drive sales of consoles and games, Xbox also promoted console bundles as package holidays. Instead of searching by title or genre, customers could browse games by location (like cities, beaches, and more).
Advertising generated four times the average response rate, increasing traffic by 55%.
Our Thoughts
I love this idea on so many levels and hope juries do too. Firstly, the strategy. It’s a stunning departure for the games industry.
I am in the target audience. I have long been in awe of the incredible abilities of game developers but have no interest at all in death. So, I have bought the book because it is a wonderful showcase of their talent. Secondly, the creative execution.
It’s a book that gets people to reappraise the digital world. And contrary to all predictions, print is very much alive and kicking because people look at books (and magazines) in very different ways (and places). The craft skills on display are absolutely cracking. You get both wit and wow from the faithful replication of the Rough Guide look and feel with the astonishing landscapes of the games.