CASE HISTORY AND SAMPLE CLIPS
Key to Success: Differentiating Your Title
Bohle Pumps Up Christian-Values in Promoting Game
Left Behind Games approached The Bohle Company to promote the first in a series of Christian-values PC games based on the 16 best-selling novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, describing the possible end of the world.
In additional to getting the game featured at launch in a story on the front page of the Los Angeles Times on the opening day of E3, The Bohle Company scored hits in Newsweek, the New York Times, AP and even on the Jon Stewart Show – more than 400 features in all in less than 8 months.
In producing this game, Left Behind faced several obstacles:
• Video game experts expressed doubts that a start up company could create a title good enough to sell to gamers, much less one with Christian messages
• Naysayers said the company wouldn’t have the resources to sell-in a product with a “Christian message”
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PR OBJECTIVES:
• Generate interest in the title among males 18 – 34, the traditional gamer market
• Interest Christian parents in buying a morally-based game for their teens
• Raise the value of the company, a penny stock achieved through a reverse merger into a public shell
• Establish a game franchise, setting the stage for subsequent titles based on the book series
PR STRATEGIES:
• Leverage middle America media to appeal to the core audience for the title
• Use industry trade shows and face-to-face meetings with game reporters to be sure editors understood LBG’s vision
EXECUTION:
After nailing down our messaging, TBC put LBG spokespersons on the road, securing more than 40 face-to-face appointments, across a wide range of media, including reporters at, business, consumer, entertainment, enthusiast and game trade publications. Coverage in the game and consumer media also created pre-launch buzz.
We followed up with targeted pitching, honing in on large national outlets. While enjoying widespread coverage in national outlets, the team made sure middle-America cities were getting the information as well. A highly-targeted radio media tour using a company with extensive Christian entertainment expertise jumped consumer interest.
RESULTS/EVALUATION:
• More than 400 feature stories, including pieces on Reuters, Newsweek, USA Today, The Associated Press (3 stories), The Washington Post, Readers Digest, The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times with a total circulation in the hundreds of millions.
• 200 plus broadcast pieces, including affiliates from all the major TV news networks, as well as CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox. Additional segments with MTV, E!, the BBC and Canadian TV to name a few (see attached broadcast grid).
• On the strength of its PR campaign, LBG was able to sell into more than 10,000 retail locations including Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Target, Circuit City, GameStop, EB Games, EB Canada, Costco and CompUSA outlets – a first for a Christian video game.
• The stock price started at $4.00 when TBC came aboard, it jumped all the way to $7.44 at launch – an 86 percent increase while TBC was commissioned.
