With a release date that kept being delayed and a long development period, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl was one of the most highly anticipated games of all time. We needed to capitalise on this without letting its valuable mystique turn into scepticism among gamers. So we used it to our advantage by devising a strategy where the release date was central. This built confidence in our target audience, who were hardcore gamers aged 16 – 34, and further heightened their anticipation. With a lead-in time of several months we chose to drip feed information in stages, teasing and revealing scenes from the game little by little. Central to this campaign were countdown clocks booked on a tenancy basis on key gaming sites – a media first. Hardcore gaming sites and PC only sites were targeted, especially those where the game’s released date had been discussed for months, so we knew our audience would be warm.
The result generated huge intrigue. The first phase caused users in forums to speculate what the creative was promoting. As the creative revealed more about the game the speculation increased. The campaign proved to be extremely cost-effective with an average CPM of £1.98. An excellent 21,397 clicks were clocked up with a number of placements achieving CTRs of over 1%.