THE EARLY REVIEWS WERE IN, AND THEY WERE BRUTAL.
We had to change our plan of attack, and do it quickly.
Initial impressions of Ryse: Son of Rome, an important Xbox One launch title, were mixed. Critics were not impressed. Existing promotions were not working.
Gamers were quickly losing interest.
We discovered that there was one thing gamers agreed on: the game looked gorgeous and Rome was a great setting. We seized on this insight and developed an email that shined the spotlight directly on the stunning beauty and visceral brutality of ancient Rome.
Traffic to related sites on Xbox.com spiked, reaching more than 20 times the norm.
Tens of thousands of gamers pre-ordered the game through the web response pages.
Tens of thousands of gamers pre-ordered the game through the web response pages.
WEBBY: HONORABLE MENTION
The email itself was an image—devoid of any copy—with a set of glowing icons. When an icon was clicked, it launched a web response page that featured an actual in-game screenshot, along with a brief description and a pre-order CTA.
To convey the massive scope of the game world and the awesome rendering power of Xbox One, the image size was locked for online viewers. As a result, we forced viewers to scroll around to see it all. They became explorers, experiencing firsthand the epic majesty of Rome and getting a taste of Microsoft’s next generation of Xbox.
