Marketing Campaign Essay

The campaign that I have chosen to discuss is the next big hit from the Rockstar series “Max Payne”. This is the third instalment of the series and it’s set to be bigger and better than its predecessors. The advertising campaign the campaign had budget of just over £15milion. The game was set to be released on the 15th of May 2012 with the campaign beginning on the 15th of February. It was an international campaign covering most economically developed countries.

However though out this report I will be only talking about how it was advertised in the UK.

The campaign with a budget of over £15 million was always going to be huge and with the UK being one of their main focuses not a penny less than necessary was spent. The promotional mix consisted of Cinema adverts, bus shelters, billboards as well as TV and Newspapers. The Cinema advert used the soundtrack Tears by Health. The advert was the centre of the campaign as this would be seen by the majority of people and has the possibility of making the biggest impression upon the viewer.

The billboards as seen in the top right corner were also very important. Rockstar used many designs for their billboards and could be seen in all the big cities around the UK with many in Southampton, Liverpool and London. Bus shelters were used especially in smaller towns. For example in Farnborough the main bus route had a Max Payne poster on all their stops. This means that the campaign was very large giving the game a much better chance of receiving high numbers of sales.

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National Marketing Campaign

The Target audience for this advert would of course be the same as to which the game was made. This being a third person shooter game containing drugs, sex and violence would be aimed at teenagers and young adults. The gender this game would mainly appeal to is male. Therefore the games advertising campaign would be very masculine and of a nature that suits young adults. For example the billboard seen above is very aggressive with big bold font and a bit of action as well.

In the Max Payne campaign they would be very specific with the jargon used making sure it appeals to the target audience. An example of this would be “Rockstar Games Presents”. This is used in the adverts and billboards because it is something that people can represent and associate themselves with. For example if people have brought Rockstar games before then they will know what they are like and if they have a high opinion then they may be more likely to by the game being launched. Other jargon such as “from the makers of Red Dead Redemption” also has this effect as well as also allowing people who don’t know Rockstar but instead know the game.

The livery used in this campaign is also very affective as mentioned earlier the billboard pictured above uses big font that stand out. The colour is white which makes it very clear on the background. It could also represent how Max Payne being a hard down by victim losing his son and wife is pure at heart. The image in the background is also very important as it shows who Max Payne is so people can associate the character created with the game. It also has a very realistic feel to the billboard. It appears to almost be a billboard for a film. This represents that the game will have a very realistic approach/feel to its game play.

The objective of Rockstar is to create a brand in which people can associate with the best of gaming. The campaign definitely try’s to create this image. For example in the TV advert they use very powerful imagery of game play to show of the amazing affects alongside deep moments in the story to engage the audience and draw them in. As already mentioned the campaign has an almost movie like feel to it creating a very realistic game that attracts the target audience.

Overall I think the campaign is very effective as it is very appealing to its target audience which I can agree because of being who the game is aimed at. The realistic approach makes it seem like the game would be very real which not ever playing it I cant agree with. However on reading reviews it has very high praise. The livery and the jargon used within the promotional mix are also in my opinion very effective. In conclusion a highly successful campaign especially as it currently stand 2nd in the UK sales chart.