Grand Theft Auto 4’s Marketing

Rockstar’s starting point

• Massively successful series• Internationally known brand• Huge fan base and established online

communities• Specialist press eager to cover the game• Mainstream press interest due to the

series’ success• Criticism from mainstream press over

GTA’s content

Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto IV, released April

2008, sold 6 million copies during its first week,

bringing in $500 million. It cost Rockstar $100

million to produce, 1,000 people worked on the

project, and it took three-and-a-half years to

complete.

Challenges for Rockstar

• No easy hook – such as 80’s Miami (as in Vice City) or 90’s California (as in San Andreas)

• No cultural short cuts – in terms of references or obviously related films

• Set in present day so no retro feel for music or look

• Strength of game: the realistic setting – a harder sell

• Managing the controversy• Maintaining interest up to release• Ensuring that the hype matched the final product• Not giving too much information away before the

release – so not to spoil it for gamers

Strategy

• Guerrilla and viral marketing• Drip feed information to the specialist and

mainstream press.• Co-operative marketing with Microsoft and retail

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/30226/Microsofts-GTA-marketing-push-as-big-as-Halo-3

• TV, press and billboard advertising• Liaise with the fansites and fan community –

Gouranga.com• Build-up to a Hollywood blockbuster-style launch

day

Specialist Press• Carefully choreographed demos without

any “hands on” time• Controlling the amount that is seen and

experienced and therefore could be written about

• Giving exclusive content to get magazine covers – synergy between media types

• Controlling the reviewing environment by putting journalists up in a hotel

Making of the series in high-brow games mag Edge - on sale March 2008 – a month before GTA 4’s release

April 2007 – Official PlayStation Magazine has the first UK look at GTA 4

March 2007 – world exclusive first look at GTA 4 in US games mag Game Informer

Mainstream press

• R* management giving interviews to broadsheets and high-end magazines – Variety, The Times

• Exclusive content given to men’s lifestyle press (FHM etc), film magazines.

• Details of soundtrack released to music press

GTA Announcement

• Rockstar and Take Two announced the release of GTA on 9th May 2006

• The release date was initially confirmed as 19 October 2007

• 1st March 2007 – launch of the website with countdown to release of first trailer

• 29/03/07 Logo and ‘Things will be different’ trailer

‘Things will be different’• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMr43kdRiSg

• Focuses on the environment – spoof New York• Introduces new Eastern European lead

character• Present day and very realistic • The trailer uses a similar cinematic style to

Godfrey Reggio's 1982 documentary film Koyaanisqatsi and used Philip Glass's original music http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PirH8PADDgQ

Delay

• 2 August 2007, Take-Two announced that Grand Theft Auto IV would miss its original release date of 19 October 2007 contrary to their previous statements, and would be delayed to their second quarter (February–April) of 2008.

• Take-Two's Strauss Zelnick attributed the delay

to "almost strictly technological problems... not problems, but challenges." It was revealed that technical difficulties with the PlayStation 3 version of the game contributed to the delay, along with storage problems on the Xbox 360

Delay• On 24 January 2008, Take-Two announced that Grand

Theft Auto IV would be released on 29 April 2008.

• Grand Theft Auto IV was simultaneously released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in Oceania, Europe and North America on 29 April 2008.

• As the release date approached, Rockstar Games and Take-Two marketed the game heavily through various forms, including television ads, Internet video, billboards, viral marketing, and a redesigned website. A special edition of the game was also released for both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360

Further trailers• "Looking For That Special Someone" 28/06/07

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psxIBzrGAjE• "Move Up, Ladies" 06/012/07

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haLIkADUs3Q• "Good Lord, What Are You Doing?" 27/03/08

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9rh5gV_dro • Up to 13 other ‘teaser trailers were release

introducing places or characters http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdkEwObpriQ

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnseF_88Rig

Unveiling the box art

On 27 November 2007 Rockstar released the image of the box art and a video of a team of artist recreating it on a wall in warehouse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxcWwK10i5M

Advertising

• Mural in New York

• TV advertising campaign• Print advertising• Radio ads• Billboards

Guerilla Marketing

• Wanted posters of characters from the game.

• On the poster the email address of the Liberty City Police Department

Response from LCPD

Stickers and Graffiti

GTA 4 graffiti being painted

Spoof websites / Viral Marketing

Rockstar encouraged fans to send recordings of themselves ranting about anything - which would then make it into the final game on the Talk Radio channel WKTT,

Our-own-reality.com

Website focusing on the celebrities from Liberty City

Limited edition Liberty City licence plate available to those who pre-ordered with Amazon.com

Point of sale promotions

Special Edition GTA 4 – with soundtrack, duffel bag and a safety deposit box that contains the game.

To encourage consumers to pre-order GTA (place a deposit on copy of the game before its release), Rockstar ran promotions with retailers offering exclusive GTA branded products.

Use of fansitesRockstar are particularly good at engaging with their fanbase especially with GTA fansites. Throughout the build up to GTA4’s release they sent assets (screenshots, information) to the fansites and even invited the editors over to New York to play the game before its release. www.thegtaplace.com/feature/gtaiv-fansite-event

A Chihuahua Hotdogs t-shirt and Pisswasser Beer glass – both brands from the GTA universe – sent to the editor of gtagaming.com

The Future – GTA V

• November 2011 – First GTA V Trailer, small statement from R* about the game. Official website splash page.

• July 2012 – First 2 GTA V screenshots• August 20th, 2012 – Further 3 screenshots

titled “transport”• August 22nd 2012, another set titled

“leisure”• August 24th, 2012, a set titled “Business”

The logo

Transport

Transport

Transport

Leisure

Leisure

Leisure

Business

Business

Business

Business

Viral marketing: Epsilon Program