Shows including PAX South make for interesting challenges in the PR world. Traditional media tend to avoid it due its smaller size and meager attractiveness for those huge and juicy announcements. Knowing this ahead of time however, meant that Wonacott and 505 Games were able to capitalize on the event’s quirks by shifting our focus almost entirely towards attracting the attention of influencers.
To make this happen, both teams decided to divide up the tasks. We handled inviting and scheduling these influencers (and a few traditional media targets) to the 505 Games booth to get a first-ever hands-on preview of then unannounced game Memories of Mars, the high-octane competitive sport of the future Laser League and the latest title from industry legends Warren Spector and Paul Neurath Underworld Ascendant. 505 Games instead took the time to organize an influencer mixer and build-out well-organized meeting room space. Kudos to them by the way, everything came out great and made the three-day event run incredibly smoothly.
Getting facetime with influencers at the mixer made for an excellent opportunity for us to expand our already bolstering Rolodex (no one still uses these… right?) of contacts in the Twitch, Mixer and YouTube communities. We met a lot of great folks – over 100 influential contacts showed up – that are genuinely passionate for videogames, especially the upcoming titles for 505 Games.
We secured appointments with nearly 50 influencers – It was great to see such a diverse crowd stopping by the booth, representing multiple platforms such as YouTube, Twitch and Mixer. Hitting audiences across all three major platforms is an ideal outcome and we were especially impressed with how genuinely and vocally excited these folks were to see our games! To top this off, we also met with over 25 traditional media – an excellent way to top off this extremely media-lite show.
As for 505 Games’ lineup, Laser League was a complete KNOCK-OUT during the event – seriously, watching people play this game is just as exhilarating as actually getting your hands on it. Memories of Mars’ unique blend of exploration, survival mechanics and multiplayer base-building mayhem made for some incredible moments. And Underworld Ascendant is… well… it’s being made by Warren Spector and Paul Neurath people! It was damn near impossible to not fanboy out watching the actual creators of “immersive sims” showoff an emergent RPG that legitimately looks ready to redefine the genre.
Handling an influencer-heavy show is certainly skin to navigating uncharted waters for many people. These new entertainment mediums can be borderline scary to engage with, but our showing at PAX South is a perfect example of how to best engage the interest of these burgeoning communities and audiences.
Long story short, 505 Games is ready to crush 2018 and PAX South was just the beginning. We’re practically shaking with anticipation for the coming months and cannot be happier to be taking this ride with our friends at 505 Games.