Get Journalists To Cover Your Game

Lessons from Online Dating, Praying and ‘No Man’s Sky’

Thomas Reisenegger @Olima

@Olima

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@Olima

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Number of Steam Games Released

11 Games Per Day

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SOURCE : ICO PARTNERS

Number of Monthly Articles – Games Media 2016

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Top 20 games All other gamesSOURCE : ICO PARTNERS

Number of Monthly Articles – Games Media 2016

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Thomas Reisenegger

● PR Manager & Consultant at ICO PartnerLeague of Legends, SMITE, Endless Space 2, IndieCade Europe, Armello, A Normal Lost Phone

● 7 years as a freelance video game journalist

@Olima

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Is PR the right thing for you? – 3 ways to victory1

How to get your game covered – 5 golden rules

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Topics

Understanding the media landscape – 5 key insights

@Olima

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Is PR the right thing for you? – 3 ways to victory1

How to get your game covered – 5 golden rules

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Topics

Understanding the media landscape – 5 key insights

@Olima

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3 communication roads to victory

Marketing- AAA - Casual- Copycat- Mobile

Community- Long running- Early access- Niche

PR- Classic premium- Hardcore F2P- Critic’s game- B2B

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Is PR the right thing for you? – 3 ways to victory1

How to get your game covered – 5 golden rules

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Topics

Understanding the media landscape – 5 key insights

@Olima

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1. How much coverage isgood coverage?

@Olima

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Average launch coverage per game type (number of articles)

1.494

231

AAA GAMES TRIPLE-I GAMES

SOURCE : ICO PARTNERS

@Olima

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No Man’s Sky is NOT an indie game

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2. Who talks about which platforms?

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PS4 vs. Xbox One in media coverage

PS4 = 35% more coverage than Xbox

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Playstation 4 Xbox OneSOURCE : ICO PARTNERS

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Different markets prefer to cover different platforms

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3. Console and PC mediavs.

mobile media

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Media Coverage

Clash Royale

Global launch

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Media Coverge

Clash Royale Goat Simulator

Global launch

Games for gold

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Media Coverage

Clash Royale Goat Simulator Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Global launch

Global launch

Games for gold

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4. What are the mostcovered VR devices?

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Number of media articles – VR Headsets

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Oculus Rift HTC Vive VR Playstation VR

SOURCE : ICO PARTNERS

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5. Who decides which gaming newsgets picked up?

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Top tier UK / US media Other western media

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Is PR the right thing for you? – 3 ways to victory1

How to get your game covered – 5 golden rules

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3

Topics

Understanding the media landscape – 5 key insights

@Olima

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Make your game Tinder ready

Rule 1

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Galactic Junk League

Build Whatever Ship You Want and Battle Your Friends.

Galactic Junk League

Galactic babies and battle-ready space toilets. Build and battlespaceships in any shape.

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ready

1. Make clear why the other person should care…

within 10 seconds

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icopartners.com/gif-guide

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ready

1. Make clear why the other person should care…

within 10 seconds

2. Better to be amazing for a few people...

than okay for many

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Problem

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Think in headlines (bring clicks)

Rule 2

$

$$

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$ $

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Be relatableNo Man’s Sky

No Man’s Sky trailer shows massive universe

New No Man’s Sky Trailer Invites You to Explore Game’s 18 Quintillion Planets (Gamespot)

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Paint a mental imageNo Man’s Sky

No Man’s Sky shows off procedural generation, everything is unique

No Man’s Sky - The game even the developers haven’t seen all of

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Refer to other games(if there is demand for it!)

Northgard

Finally something new for Settlers fans – Viking strategy game Northgard announced (Gamestar)

@Olima

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Refer to other cool thingsMemoranda

A Beautiful Point ’n’ Click Adventure Inspired by Japanese Author Haruki Murakami Short Stories (Kotaku)

@Olima

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Guerrilla MarketingPolygod

Polygod is free for those with certain The Binding of Isaac achievements

@Olima

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There is always a new story

● Feature focus: In Hyper Light Drifter every second is a stunning wallpaper

● Dev focus: Owlboy, the indie platformer that took 10 years to build (Guardian)

● Erment focus: Only One Person In The Entire World Has Unlocked This Steam Achievement (Kotaku on Devil Daggers)

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Write emails people want to read

Rule 3

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@Smeijerhof121 @Olima42

Catchy subject line

Game text / pitch

Gif or Youtubevideo preview

Call to action

Attention

Interest

DesireAction

The perfect mail pitch – AIDA template

Reference to more info and assets

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Pitch to the right people

Rule 4

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Know which god you are praying to

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Official blogs

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Streamers and YouTubers● Only care about your game, not your story

● Must be easy to record● Space to insert selfie window

● Have a windowed mode

● Be able to hide user name

● Implement special features for influencers

@Olima

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Make something pull-worthy

Rule 5

@Olima

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Pull PRPush PR

Make something pull-worthy and push it

@Olima

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Media landscape – 5 key facts

1. English m media - opinion leader

2. PS4 gets 35% more coverage than Xbox One

3. Average launch coverage:1500 articles AAA, 230 articles for III

4. media < PC and console media

5. VR: Oculus gets more coverage than HTC Vive

@Olima

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Get your game covered – 5 golden rules

1. Make your game ready1. 10 second rule, also

2. Get not

2. Think in headlines (like 18 quintillion headlines)

3. AIDA email template - (attention, interest, desire, action)

4. Know the god you are praying to

5. Makes something pull-worthyand push it

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W W W. I C O M E D I A . E UB R I G H T O N

U N I T E D K I N G D O M

C O N T A C T @ I C O M E D I A . E U+ 4 4 ( 0 ) 2 0 7 1 9 3 5 1 5 8