GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME), the world’s largest video game and entertainment software retailer, will launch a new branding campaign on October 1, 2007, with The Richards Group. The agency handles all of GameStop’s brand and creative development, strategic planning, and media planning and buying. The campaign, Power to the Players, is comprised of two television spots, nine print executions, and online and viral components.
“We’re very excited about Power to the Players and the direction it is taking GameStop,” said Tom De Napoli, vice president of marketing for GameStop. “The Richards Group understands our customers and has underscored our position as the gaming industry leader. The campaign truly connects the dots between our customers and our expertise and passion for gaming.”
The television spots are in the style called “machinima,” which is the art of using scenes from pre-rendered gaming engines and assembling them into a film. The first spot, “The Breakup,” features a gamer, in the form of his heroic avatar, who works through the complex emotions of breaking up with an old video game that he once loved to trade it in for something new. The second spot, “The Drop,” is in classic film-noir style. During the spot, an alien from the “Enemy Territory: Quake Wars” game is plotting an ambush and has its plans foiled by a human soldier acting on inside information from GameStop.
“Power to the Players is GameStop’s first comprehensive, national advertising effort, resulting in a campaign that is sure to attract a lot of interest and attention within the industry,” said Dave Kroencke, principal for The Richards Group. “This campaign is unique because it is a first for the company – it’s introducing a completely new look and tone of communicating to GameStop’s audience. The overall message of the campaign makes a bold promise that we believe no other gaming retailer can live up to: GameStop brings Power to the Players in everything they do.”
The campaign’s creative team includes Lynda Hodge, creative director and art director; David Canright, creative director and copywriter; and Alison Wagner, agency producer.
“GameStop gives players more power in many different ways, so we were able to explore a wide variety of messages within the campaign during creative concepting,” said Canright. “Each message of the campaign requires its own tactics to best communicate it in a way that is engaging, relevant and memorable to all players, from hard-core to casual. Every time we sit down to write, it feels like a fresh new challenge.”
About GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME)
Headquartered in Grapevine, Texas, GameStop Corp. is the world’s largest video game and entertainment software retailer. The company operates 4,954 retail stores across the United States and in sixteen countries worldwide. The company is the gaming resource offering players the most popular new software, hardware and game accessories for next-generation video game systems and PCs. The company also operates GameStop.com and EBgames.com, which were named among Internet Retailer’s Top 50 Retail Sites of 2006. GameStop’s magazine, Game Informer, a leading multiplatform video game publication, has become the 29th largest consumer publication based on circulation size. Besides featuring some of the most trusted news, previews, reviews, and strategies in the industry, Game Informer breaks the mold with profiles of the people behind the games. General information on GameStop Corp. can be obtained at the company’s corporate Web site, www.gamestop.com/corporate.
About The Richards Group
The Richards Group, located in Dallas, is the largest independent branding agency in the nation. In addition to GameStop, agency clients include the standard-setting brands of Advance Auto Parts, Amstel Light, Bridgestone Firestone, Chick-fil-A, Fruit of the Loom, The Home Depot, Motel 6, Skybus, Red Lobster and Zales. Total billings for the agency were $1.2 billion in 2006. The Richards Group can be found at www.richards.com.
Contacts:
GameStop Corp.
817-424-2130
chrisolivera@gamestop.com
or
Anya
Mailandt
The Richards Group
214-891-5206
anya_mailandt@richards.com
