Xbox Equality Controller
Microsoft Xbox
Issue 61 | January 2022
Agency
Serviceplan Group
Creative Team
Global Chief Creative Officer Alex Schill Creative Director Art Pavel Bondarenko Creative Director Copy Daniel Steller Global Creative Strategist Maximilian Schöngen
Production Team
Art Director Theresa Fechler Senior Art Director & Illustrator Tudor Cucu Business Director Diane Schulz Senior Motion Designer/ Head of Film Dennis Fritz Motion Designer Kevin Lausen Head of Design Ben Hug Media Designer Till Felix Production Company Effectiv Team SFX GmbH
Other Credits
Managing Partner Leif Johannsen Managing Partner Patrick Matthiensen Managing Partner Lars Holling Account Director Ann-Kathrin Frohloff Client Head of Social Good Jenn Panattoni, Xbox Director Gaming Communications, Xbox Sophie Orlando Marketing Lead, Xbox Maxi Graff Global Communications Manager, Minecraft Rebecca Gordius
Date
March 2021
Background
Women make up approximately half of the gaming community. They are successful in eSports and hold leadership positions in the gaming industry. Nevertheless, female gamers still have to fight prejudice and sexist discrimination. Many lose the fun of playing and some have to deal with significant psychological consequences.
Idea
To show “Gaming for everyone” isn’t just a slogan, Xbox launched a worldwide initiative during Women’s History Month to support and celebrate women in gaming.
The most sacred piece of the console, the controller, was tweaked to become a statement of equality. The controller's B button was replaced with the equal symbol.
When gamers pressed it, they heard inspirational and supportive messages from the most famous and successful women in the gaming industry – including Bonnie Ross, CVP, Founder and Head of 343 Industries; Helen Chiang, CVP, Studio Head at Minecraft and Sarah Bond, CVP, Gaming Ecosystem, Microsoft.
Their messages give female gamers strength and self-confidence. The limitededition controller was designed in special packaging, created by internationally renowned illustrators, and was sent to the world's biggest gaming influencers, giving the message for equality the reach it deserved.
Results
100 Equality Controllers were sent to influential female gamers in 23 countries on four continents. In unboxing videos and reviews, they talked about their own personal experiences of sexism in gaming.
Important and influential specialist media took up the topic and reported on it.
With 100+ million contacts, 90+ million send outs in the form of wallpapers and gamer themes and an increase in search queries by 1500% (#womeningaming or #gamingforeveryone), the topic was brought to public attention and made women in gaming more visible.
Our Thoughts
There was a time when Direct Mail was a massive industry. In its day, the Sears Roebuck mail order operations building in Chicago was the biggest building in the world. Now demolished. But even though volumes of DM may have shrunk, it continues to be an astonishingly dynamic medium as this Xbox campaign shows.
If you mail 100 influencers something both relevant and personalised, they can introduce you to their millions of followers.
It's chain-effect media. But the tweets, posts and Twitch videos that led to wider media interest in the story, which led to more conversations in social and, ultimately, to greater brand love, all started with a thoughtful, rather beautiful mailing.