THE CHALLENGE
In a gaming market being fed a constant diet of new games, how do you keep the 9th iteration of an iconic game as fresh and interesting as it always was?
THE SOLUTION
Our research indicated gamers respect brains as well as beauty. Reviving interest in Lara for the game’s mostly young male audience would ultimately revive interest in the game. To do this we “hero-ed” the smarts of Lara (sex appeal was implicit), rather than focusing on the game itself.
Our campaign centred on a world-first, virtual challenge. Pitting gamers against each other in a digital artifact hunt we created a revived buzz around the character and imbued Lara with new meaning, focusing on her intelligence. Gamers would solve daily riddles to find ‘artifacts’ hidden within Google Earth and each clue was inspired by relevant Tomb Raider game play and delivered via a desktop “Lara Croft” widget.
THE RESULTS
Overall, a revived franchise through sales objectives exceeding 9.6%, 286,616 brand experiences, 42,662 widget downloads, and over 180 pages of forum content. Importantly, this concept is being considered globally by Eidos.
