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2006 ENTERTAINMENT AND LEISURE WINNER

CAMPAIGN - The Lara Croft Challenge

AGENCY - Ikon Communications

CLIENT - Atari

SPONSORED BY
www.magazines.org.au

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OBJECTIVE

To launch the seventh iteration of Atari's Tomb Raider game - Tomb Raider: Legend - a purely media driven solution was required. 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

Lara Croft, the game's leading lady, was suffering from 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". The answer to all Tomb Raider's problems lay in reviving positive interest in Lara Croft. 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 strong single idea that emanated across many channels and delivered a great result in a cluttered category."

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