Client: THQ

What they wanted

THQ want to be positioned as a serious publisher in the hardcore PC games market. They have a number of hardcore PC products one of which S.T.A.L.K.E.R had been in production for a number of years. THQ needed to reignite the interest and belief in this product to build confidence that the game will be released.

Fresh thinking

We created an immersive experiential product microsite in keeping with the style of the game, where the latest content and assets would be released in stages running up to the launch of the game.

This was supported by an extensive 2 phase online advertising campaign using various formats and targeting the hardcore gaming sites across Europe. A concept of subliminal messaging and eerie imagery from original artwork and Chernobyl gave the user a feel of the game’s locations. The creative would take them through 3 stages for pre-awareness building momentum through the creative and messaging without revealing the product or publisher giving them stand out on the gaming sites. Once the game was released we entered the 2nd phase of the campaign revealing key imagery from the game.

A key element of the campaign was to create 2 high impact viral movies. The 1st viral was seeded a week prior to launch and the 2nd will be placed on the THQ portal on THQ TV. The viral contains spoof URLs that automatically direct to the official site allowing us to track views and generate a simple ROI figure. Filming these gems was a lot of fun but that’s another story!

What happened?

Product site has seen a fantastic response with approx 868,634 visits to the site from Jan – March 2007, with the online advertising yielding massive click through rates. The viral was well received and is still being viewed (even though it was banned from YouTube) on sites such as Break and Yahoo Video.