Square Enix, publisher of the Tomb Raider game series, has appointed entertainment marketing specialist agency Brand & Deliver to secure UK brand partnerships for its upcoming title, Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

Following the success of the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot and 2015’s Rise of the Tomb Raider, Shadow of The Tomb Raider will bring Lara Croft’s origin story to a conclusion. The multi-award winning Tomb Raider franchise has sold over 63 million copies worldwide.

B&D has been tasked with using its data-driven approach to source and activate commercial partners for Shadow of the Tomb Raider. It will use its expertise in entertainment partnerships to drive awareness and revenue for the title. Brand & Deliver will also work to secure UK partnerships on other major Square Enix titles over the next 12 months.

Ros Carmoody, Partnerships Director at Brand & Deliver, says: “Lara Croft is one of the most iconic characters in gaming. We’re thrilled to be supporting the final chapter of Lara Croft’s origin story in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and to be working with such a well-loved franchise. We’re looking forward to producing some really exciting campaigns.”

Elizabeth Blackman, Head of UK Marketing at Square Enix, adds, “We’re excited to bring to fans Lara Croft’s defining moment, and we’re working with Brand & Deliver to help secure partners that will make this release the biggest one yet.”

Brand & Deliver is a full service creative marketing agency delivering experiential, digital, film, design, partnerships/promotions and marketing to a range of organisations from blue chips to start ups. Brand & Deliver is employed by a number of leading technology and entertainment companies to handle promotional partnerships, B2C and B2B event activation, branding and product marketing. Current clients include AMD, Rovio Global, Warner Brothers, LG, Sony Pictures and Three.

Square Enix Ltd. develops, publishes, distributes and licenses Square Enix, Eidos and Taito branded entertainment content in Europe and other PAL territories as part of the Square Enix group of companies. The Square Enix group of companies portfolio of intellectual property includes Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Tomb Raider, and Space Invaders.

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Coca-Cola European Partners (CCEP) has linked up with video game publisher EA and its market leading football game FIFA 18, for a massive on-pack promotion celebrating the soft drink brand’s sponsorship of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Running across the whole Coca-Cola portfolio, the promotion – designed to appeal to the 14 million people expected to tune in for each game – will see unique codes printed on promotional packs of Coca-Cola Classic and Coca-Cola Zero Sugar from now until June 17th. Consumers can enter the codes online to unlock exclusive in-game content within FIFA 18 for the Xbox One and PlayStation4 consoles. They will also be entered into a draw to win a rare player and Coca-Cola jersey for their team.

CCEP says research shows that more than half the UK population are planning to watch this year’s World Cup.

The promotion will be supported by a £2.5 million marketing campaign that includes POS, digital, social and out-of-home advertising.

Simon Harrison, customer marketing director at Coca-Cola European Partners, says: “89% of consumers watched the 2016 UEFA Euros at home and 33% consumed soft drinks during matches. Our latest promotion is designed to capture the excitement of the nation ahead of the 2018 FIFA World Cup by partnering with the world’s biggest sporting game.”

Coca-Cola European Partners is the world’s largest independent Coca-Cola bottler. CCEP is the sole licensed bottler for products of The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC) in Andorra, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Iceland, Luxemburg, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.

CCEP makes, sells and delivers the following products in GB for TCCC: Coca-Cola Classic, Diet Coke, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, Fanta, Dr Pepper, Sprite, Schweppes, Fuze Tea, HONEST, AdeZ, Abbey Well, glacéau smartwater, Powerade, Oasis and Appletiser. In GB, it also makes, sells or delivers Monster, Relentless and Capri-Sun.

The Coca-Cola Company is one of the longest-standing corporate partners of FIFA, with a formal association since 1974 and an official sponsorship of the FIFA World Cup that began in 1978. Coca-Cola has had stadium advertising at every FIFA World Cup since 1950. FIFA and The Coca-Cola Company have now extended their long-time partnership to 2030.

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Savoury snack brand Mattessons Fridge Raiders has partnered with the world’s biggest gaming franchise, Call of Duty, for the launch of Code Strike, a mobile game that will test gamers’ code breaking skills.

The promotional campaign supports the global launch of Call of Duty WWII. It was created by Saatchi & Saatchi London.

Special promotional Call of Duty packs of Fridge Raiders will also be available on shelf with UK exclusive 2XP codes which will enhance the gaming experience. These codes can only be redeemed by downloading the Code Strike app.

Set within Bletchley Park during WWII and created in partnership with Bletchley Park Trust and The National Museum of Computing, Code Strike features numerous puzzles which have all been specially designed to test key abilities required to be a real code breaker, such as: reaction speeds, memory recall and reasoning plus computational thinking.

The game has been designed to reflect and celebrate Britain’s history of code-breaking and in particular the efforts of the Allied war effort during WWII. In 1942, Bletchley Park recruited a team of code breakers with a cryptic crossword featured in The Daily Telegraph. It was in this iconic location that Alan Turing, regarded as the father of modern computing, and other Allied code breakers broke the German Enigma code.

Included within Code Strike is a hidden challenge that only the most capable of code-breakers will be able to unlock. In partnership with Cyber Security Challenge UK, an initiative established to strengthen the national pool of cyber skills, 15 elite codebreakers will be fast tracked to a prestigious face-to-face competition, and could even be recruited into the next generation of cyber defenders.

Building on last year’s campaign, Snacker Hacker, which taught 70,000 coding lessons to teen gamers, this initiative is the fourth campaign from Fridge Raiders to target the gaming community.

Alastair Gibbons, Senior Brand Manager at Mattesons brand owner Kerry Foods, says: “Our ambition is to make fridge raiders to gaming what popcorn is to film. Over the past five years we’ve seen significant commercial and brand-health growth from targeting gamers and we’re excited to see the success of our Call Of Duty partnership over the next coming months.”

Will John, Creative Director at Saatchi & Saatchi London, adds: “We’ve always looked to collaborate with gamers, to showcase their creativity and skills. We’ve let them co-create a meat-snacking helmet. We’ve helped them develop an A.I. robot. We’ve even taught them how to code. Now we’re powering them up into code breakers.”

The campaigns are rooted in research that revealed that 61% of UK teens game and snack after school – and that when they get home, they open the fridge door first. This latest work supports Mattessons’ ambition to make Fridge Raiders the ultimate protein-rich gaming snack for hungry teens.

To launch Code Strike, three 30 second films have been created for VOD and Social, targeting gamers on Twitch and gaming YouTube channels and will also appear at DOOH sites at Tesco and ASDA stores nationwide as well as in selected Student Unions.

Continuing the relationship with YouTuber Ali A, which began with the successful FRHANK campaign for Fridge Raiders in 2014, Mattessons has created a Facebook live event to launch the app.

The Code Strike APP is available now to download on iOS and Android.

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To mark the launch of highly-anticipated videogame Prey on May 5, computer and video game retailer GAME teamed up with legendary music brand, NME, to create an exclusive Augmented Reality (AR) audio visual cover wrap for NME’s free weekly magazine.

When viewed through the Scan-It feature on the free-to-download GAME app, the cover wrap becomes interactive, bringing the game to life, and allowing readers to truly get a sense of its atmospheric soundtrack.

Prey, from publisher Bethesda, has been launched for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 computer entertainment system and PC at a recommended price of £44.99. GAME has an exclusive package including a Steelbook and Prey soundtrack selections CD.

GAME Retail is the UK’s leading videogames retailer. NME is one of the UK’s most famous and influential youth brands, covering music and culture since 1952. Initially a weekly newspaper, NME now reaches 8.5 million people via the website, social and other offsite distribution, video channels, app, live events and the free weekly magazine.

Prey is a first-person action-adventure video game developed by Arkane Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. The game is set on a space station where research is carried out into hostile aliens; the aliens escape and players have to survive while finding a way off the station.

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Xbox has installed a series of Christmas lights that form the first-ever game trailer consumers can actually walk through. The lights – installed in the shopping plaza in London’s Brunswick Centre – don’t feature traditional festive imagery. Instead, they tell a story about hordes of flesh-eating zombies, to promote the new Christmas-themed zombie game Dead Rising 4.

The game was developed by Capcom and published in partnership with Microsoft. It launched on Xbox One and Windows 10 PC on December 6^th 2016.

The night before the official launch, the game’s online fan-base worked together to switch on the lights. By interacting with a cryptic Facebook Live stream of a zombie hand suspended above a button, Xbox followers moved the hand downward to press the switch and turn on the display, revealing the trailer to the world.

Created by advertising agency McCann London, the Dead Rising Lights consist of nine panels of lights, suspended consecutively above a busy shopping plaza. The lights switch on and off in sequence to reveal a brand new narrative to gamers. As with all Xbox game trailers, it begins with the PEGI age rating logo and concludes with the iconic green Xbox end-frame.

The direct-response switch-on mechanism was part of a fully-integrated campaign revolving around the light installation, comprising:

• Live streaming on Facebook Live, Twitch and Periscope.
• A festive event to mark the turning-on of the trailer.
• Geo-fenced Snapchat filters.
• An immersive, interactive 360° video so that those unable to visit the London installation can remotely experience it.

Adrian Simons, Director of Global Windows and Devices at Microsoft, says: “Most Christmas lights are switched on by celebrities, but in this case the honour went to Xbox’s global fan-base. And they are not just any lights, they bring to life a new form of game trailer which we believe is a world first. This is a fun, bold and innovative undertaking in keeping with our commitment to our fans – and it’s all done in the true spirit of the game.”

Laurence Thomson, Chief Creative Officer at McCann London, adds: “We wanted to reinvent the game trailer to connect with today’s gamers. What better way to celebrate the festive season and the launch of Dead Rising 4 than a gory Zombie apocalypse lit up in glorious technicolor? By subverting the traditional Christmas light display, we’re kicking the schmaltzy Christmas advert out of the window and instead appealing to gamers’ tongue-in-cheek attitude.”

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PlayStation UK is running a nationwide tour aimed at bringing its Virtual Reality titles to gamers.

Visiting six locations throughout the UK, The Future of Play Tour features a series of experiential PlayStation 4 events offering gamers the opportunity to participate in the immersive world of PlayStation VR.

The roadshow kicked off at the end of September with a launch at EGX, the UK’s biggest gaming event, which took place at Birmingham’s NEC, followed by two pop up experiences in Buchanan Galleries in Glasgow and Meadowhall shopping centre in Sheffield.

The tour, put together for PlayStation by experiential specialists Circle Agency, has been designed to allow the maximum number of visitors to be able to trial, with 20 playable stations available for both pre-booked appointments and walk in trials.

Circle Agency and PlayStation then transformed East London events space Kachette into an immersive venue where fans could experience a range of PlayStation VR titles. As part of the official launch week celebrations, the pop up event was open from Wednesday October 12^th through Sunday October 16^th. Titles which gamers were able to sample included race game DRIVECLUB VR, Gotham-themed adventure Batman: Arkham VR, survival horror Resident Evil 7: Biohazard and alien shooter Farpoint.

Outside of the PlayStation VR area, gamers were also able to see the latest cutting-edge technology from Sony up close, with the PlayStation 4 Pro, the world’s most powerful console, on display before its official launch on November 10^th.

A host of experienced brand ambassadors were on hand to walk visitors through the games and offer advice on the PlayStation VR headset, the PlayStation 4 consoles and accessories.

Tom Whitaker, Group Marketing Manager at Sony Interactive Entertainment UK, said: “PlayStation VR changes the way we play games and trying it is fundamental to understand that. We wanted to let as many people as possible experience The Future of Play Tour, to showcase what PlayStation has in store this year.” 

Claire Stokes, Founder and Managing Director at Circle Agency, added: “If ever there was a product that suited an experiential marketing strategy at launch, this is it.  Virtual Reality is a product that is extremely difficult to comprehend without the opportunity to experience it first-hand.  Being able to provide that opportunity for gamers nationwide has been an absolute thrill.”

The Future of Play Tour is set to appear at Cabot Circus in Bristol from October 20^th to 23^rd and then at the Old Granada Studios in Manchester from 27^th to 30^th October.

There is also a supporting website, www.trypsvr.com.

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Rockstar, the energy drink made by AG Barr, has teamed up with new console game ‘Gears of War 4’ for an Xbox on-pack promotion.

Running across one million cans of 500ml Rockstar Original (plain and 99p price-marked packs) throughout October and November, the promotion gives UK consumers the chance to win a pack containing an Xbox One S console, Gears of War 4 game and gaming headset every day for 61 days.

A separate daily draw will select three consumers who will each win a digital copy of the game.

Entry is by inputting the unique codes found on can ringpulls at gears4.rockstarenergy.com/gb/

In addition, the ringpull codes also enable consumers to claim in-game rewards for Gears of War 4, including game skins, weapons and extra Experience Points.

Finally, the promotional cans are limited edition, design by US graphic artist Jessie Hernandez.

AG Barr’s head of marketing Adrian Troy says: “Gears of War 4 is set to be the biggest launch from Xbox this year, supported by a £4m marketing spend. With over 33 million gamers in the UK spending an average of 13 hours gaming each week, this on-pack promotion will really strike a chord with energy drinkers.”

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PlayStation offered gamers the chance to experience exclusive previews of PlayStationVR and its latest titles at video games event EGX Rezzed at London’s Tobacco Dock over the weekend of April 7^th to 9^th 2016.

EGX Rezzed, hosted by Eurogamer’s parent company Gamer Network, is one of the UK’s leading video games events, attended by thousands of gaming fans to London’s Tobacco Dock. Following on from the success of EGX 2015, which took place at Birmingham’s NEC in September, PlayStation again brought in experiential marketing experts Circle Agency to activate its presence.

Circle Agency transformed one of the vaults at Tobacco Dock into a fully immersive area where gamers could experience PlayStation’s latest technology, PlayStationVR, and test their skills on a host of different titles, including RIGS: Mechanized Combat League, PlayStation VR Worlds, Playroom VR, Battlezone, Rez Infinite and SUPERHYPERCUBE. EGX Rezzed was the first UK consumer event where fans could experience many of these titles first hand, in advance of the PlayStationVR’s October 2016 release.

Twelve gaming stations were set up, showcasing six different titles, along with an indie section to demo smaller, independent games. A photo booth was installed to present fans with a GIF of themselves wearing the VR headset, which could be shared on social media to help boost brand engagement. For those looking to take a break from all the on-screen action, a ‘chill out lounge’ offered soft furnishing and free PlayStation branded refreshments.

Claire Stokes, MD and founder of Circle Agency, commented: “We were really excited to help PlayStation activate at EGX Rezzed this year, as it provides the perfect audience to showcase PlayStationVR first hand. With so many devoted gamers in attendance it was vital that we created an immersive, stimulating and rewarding experience that left them wanting more.  In this instance our job was to ensure that the process of facilitating demand for trials was as seamless as possible, and that we created lots of opportunities for those who experienced it to shout about this great technology.”

Although Playroom VR was available for walk-ins to trial on arrival, fans could also pre-book a slot before the event to trial the full catalogue of games available and to ensure they didn’t miss out.

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Xbox ran a unique experiential challenge last week, to mark the UK launch of “Rise of the Tomb Raider” – expected to be one of the biggest selling video games of 2015.

The Microsoft-owned games console brand challenged eight Lara Croft fans to survive 24 hours on a billboard, while being subjected to the harshest weather conditions as voted for by the public.

Staring at 1.00pm last Thursday, viewers were able to watch the contestants fight against the elements, inspired by the critically-acclaimed latest installment of the Tomb Raider franchise, “Rise of the Tomb Raider,” which is set in Siberia.

Part advertising hoarding, part live experiment, the experience was a unique one, both for contestants and viewers. The contestants, standing on tiny ledges in the air, formed part of the billboard’s artwork and headline “Survival of the Grittiest”. They had to endure arctic cold, strong winds, wild snowstorms and intense heat, with the last fan standing winning a trip inspired by Rise of the Tomb Raider.

Viewers were also able to vote on the weather conditions which the competitors were subjected to – including arctic cold, intense wind, wild snowstorms and sudden heat. Survival Billboard was streamed on survivalbillboard.com.

Xbox selected the eight from thousands of applicants from across the UK, alongside ultimate Tomb Raider fan, Jade Jolie.

The campaign was created by m:united and McCann London, with the live event put together by m:united and Momentum London. Production is by m:united and CRAFT London, website by m:united and MRM, the media agency EMT and consumer PR by Edelman. m:united is the agency created by marketing services group IPG to handle its Microsoft account just over a year ago.

The ‘Tomb Raider’ franchise has sold over 45 million copies worldwide and inspired one of the most successful video game film adaptations in history, grossing over $300 million at the global box office, with protagonist Lara Croft becoming a global icon.

Exclusive to Xbox in 2015, “Rise of the Tomb Raider” launched in the UK on November 13^th 2015.

The Survival Billboard campaign kicked off in October with call-for-entries ads that focused on its “Terms & Horrible, Horrible Conditions”, which explained every painful facet of the challenge, from hypothermia to hallucinations. Just as intended, the ads discouraged most people, but attracted over a thousand applicants.

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