2006 BEST INTEGRATED MEDIA CAMPAIGN WINNER

CAMPAIGN - The Lara Croft Challenge

AGENCY - Ikon Communications

CLIENT - Atari

SPONSORED BY
www.mcn.com.au

OBJECTIVE

Also the Entertainment & Leisure and Best Demonstration of Results winner, the success of the Tomb Raider: Legend launch depended on a purely media-driven solution. Despite the tough gaming market and the poor performance of the previous Tomb Raider game, Atari set a three-month sales target of 20,000 units. To achieve this, Tomb Raider: Legend needed to become the biggest selling game in Australia in 2006 to date. Furthermore, the Tomb Raider franchise is a marque brand. The reputation of the game and Atari's credibility rested on the success of this campaign. To meet this challenge, the game needed to be embraced by hard-core and casual gamers.

CAMPAIGN

The answer to all of Tomb Raider's problems lay in reviving positive interest in Lara Croft, the game's leading lady. Despite positive exposure such as appearing in Land Rover commercials, on Time magazine covers and being played by Angelina Jolie, Lara Croft had developed an image problem. Appearing in Playboy was just one of numerous incidents contributing to Lara being seen as "the masturbatory dream girl for geeky gamers".

Croft needed to be brought to life in a way young Australian men could relate to and engage with. A safe, traditional campaign would not suffice. Atari needed to be brave and focus its advertising budget on a specific project - the Lara Croft Challenge. A search for the Aussie girl who possessed the attributes of Croft, formed the basis of the campaign. Emap and FOX8 were selected to run the challenge. Emap's websites provided the interactive platform and "recruitment" ads and editorial appeared in FHM and Zoo Weekly.

Girls were targeted directly through New Woman magazine. FOX8 produced the TV and DVD content for the campaign. A 90-minute DVD was cover-mounted on the June issue of FHM, containing bonus footage, a photo gallery and game trailers.

RESULTS

Despite the tough environment the campaign achieved its aims, with unit sales 17% above target, and the game's sales making it the number one in 2006 to date. Strong media exposure meant the game maintained strong sales over the first three months of release - despite typical sales patterns showing sharp decline after two weeks.

JUDGES COMMENTS

"A challenging brief in a tough market where Lara had lost her gloss caused the agency to rethink the audience and the connection points to them. The campaign reinvigorated Lara as a desirable gaming character to drive sales."