TUNIC - PR, Influencers, Social, Paid, Creative
The Challenge
The Zelda-like action-adventure game TUNIC had an excited but small following; their publisher Finji needed to reach a wider audience with the game’s launch
The Solution
Working closely with Finji, ICO developed a global communications plan to create strong release hype across eight regions and languages. This included a joint PR campaign aimed at top-tier print and online outlets, Influencer marketing that went beyond, a beautifully crafted and thoughtful press kit, and targeted Paid Media and Social Media campaigns.
This all contributed to a fantastically rich and positive reception generating 848 articles, 1.6 million impressions, 5.3 billion unique monthly views.
TUNIC was nominated for five and won two BAFTA awards in 2023.
Press
ICO landed top-tier print, online, video, and podcast coverage from prestigious outlets from December 2021 to March 2022. For launch, we sent out 506 review codes, 42% becoming published reviews - one of which was an illustrated review! Interviews, reviews, podcasts and video content resulted in a significant press presence.
A total of 848 articles
5,302,304,748 UMV
Press Kit
We created a well-received meaningful, and engaging press kit. Recreating the gaming manual from TUNIC alongside a map, pins, notebook, and a hand-made fox finger puppet by various independent makers. Each part had little secrets to discover and language to decipher - including a cryptic puzzle piece.
However, rather than spending the full budget, we also donated a percentage of the press kit cost to wildlife and school charities on the journalist’s behalf.
The press kits were shared on social media, boosting the game's visibility. We then assisted with outreach and moderation of Finji’s Discord, answering questions.
Influencer Marketing
The influencer campaign utilised creative content such as cosplay and fan art, alongside featuring gaming content via streams.
47 activations from 39 content creators created 640k+ impressions across USA, UK, France, Spain, Germany, Brazil and Canada.
We also enabled it so the artistic partnerships were showcased on the PlayStation 5 system:
Paid Media
Partnering with IGN, ICO ran a paid campaign on IGN's Fixed PC and Xbox channels in the U.S. It performed better than expected, with a final delivery rate of 109%, with the Fixed Roadblock performing best at 125%.
Social Media
A link conversion campaign split between Twitter and Facebook covering EFIGS. Twitter resulted in 1,165,369 impressions, 6,670 link clicks, a 0.57% CTR, and an average CPC of £0.18. Facebook had 493,149 impressions, 18,378 link clicks, a 3.72% CTR, and an average CPC of $0.10.
