Game Crazy Holiday Season Marketing

During the 2007 holiday season, Game Crazy, one of the largest video game specialty retailers in the U.S., was looking to reposition itself as a valuable and trusted source for gaming information and a retail destination for parents and grandparents looking for gift solutions for their kids. Cone was charged with helping them achieve this through the creation of an integrated public relations plan to drive brand awareness and generate media coverage.

Cone comissioned an online survey of 8- to 17-year-olds to find out what games and systems were on their holiday wish lists. The results were used to create press materials targeting national print, broadcast and online media outlets, as well as outlets in priority Game Crazy markets. With the help of two spokespersons, Cone also conducted satellite media tours and delivered 100 Wii systems to Portland, OR for a Christmas Eve raffle event.

Media outreach resulted in:

• 274 media stories worth 153.9MM impressions and a total measurable ad value of $1.6MM
• Sales increased 96% over the previous year and the entire Thanksgiving weekend was up 76% over the previous year
• 19 national media placements, including two stories in USA Today, an article in CNET, eight national broadcast placements and eight stories in national core gamer media
• Christmas Eve morning event covered by every major news outlet in Portland, KATU (ABC), KGW (NBC), KOIN (CBS), KPTV (FOX) and NWCN

The holiday campaign has been conducted each year since.