CDV Entertainment. Social Media Roadmap
CDV is a games distributor/publisher with offices in the UK, USA and Germany. Their speciality is games for 'hardcore' gamers on all platforms, including the Nintendo Wii and DS.
CDV is breaking into the UK market with two titles: Mushroom Men - Rise of the Fungi (for the DS) and Mushroom Men - Spore Wars (for the Wii). CDV UK wanted to promote awareness and build brand loyalty around the Mushroom Men games, due to launch in Spring 2009.
The challenge
Nintendo platforms are traditionally known for catering for a more mainstream or 'casual' gaming marketing, whereas the Mushroom Men games are aimed at a more 'hardcore' audience.
As Nintendo is not the first platform of choice for more 'hardcore' gamers, Qube's first challenge was to engage the interest of this audience who may not even consider Nintendo games to be relevant to their interests - awareness of the Mushroom Men games themselves could only be effectively promoted once this was achieved.
The results
"The site looks great and we're really happy with the result."
Matthew Walker, UK Marketing Manager, CDV Entertainment
What we did
Qube created a Social Media Roadmap setting out how to engage the interest of the 'hardcore' gaming market: a war against 'shovelware' (hardcore gamer speak for mainstream, 'casual' games).
This tongue-in-cheek campaign aimed to come up with the top 100 worst offending casual games. Characters from the Mushroom Men game led the call to action.
Social Media Roadmap
Community mapping
We found and mapped where the target audience spent time online in social networks, blogs and forums. We listened to these communities and monitored what they were talking about and their interests. We identified key influencers.
Technology plan
We developed plans for a micro-site to enable the online community to engage with the campaign. This would allow people to participate in numerous ways, from submitting their own games to the Top 100 list to commenting on others or simply voting entries up or down.
Marketing & PR plan
Blogging
We created a focus for the debate in a blog on the micro-site. We chose a small number of games developers and publishers to lead the conversation on the blog with a plan for the wider community to join in.
We developed a strategy to join conversations elsewhere on the web with influencers likely to advocate for Mushroom Men's 'war against shovelware' campaign and encourage them to spread the word.
Co-creation
There were also competitions planned to engage the more active users - for example visitors could enter their own ideas for a new Mushroom Men character into a public 'vote-off', the winning entry would go before the game developers for inclusion in a future release.
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