PAX East Green Screen Booth - PUBG
PAX East in Boston had several heavy hitters this year, but the stand out, in most opinions was the giant footprint for PUBG, also known as, Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds. The game itself is similar to the Hunger Games, you fall from a plane in a parachute, and land in a vast area with 100 other players. All of these players have one objective: to be the last (wo)man standing, by any means of killing necessary. And people can’t get enough of it. What started with one man, who developed a game, with little to no marketing, has exploded into this years game sensation. How did this happen? This is the an extreme result of grassroots, unmarketing. We often spend time with clients trying to help them realize the goal of organic content sharing and word of mouth. This is where it worked. This is PUBG’s first real hit at marketing, but they were already on the forefront of everyone’s mind because of word of mouth. Twitch channels helped this in part. By streaming their wins, players were casting out a wide net to other users on the platform. Soon everyone wanted to be a part of PUBG. As I write this, the local news is playing in the background, discussing its overnight success. Thank your friends, thank your streamers, thanks for the “influencers” who made this happen.
How can you apply this to your marketing? Create content that is unique and shareable. Take your activation to a level. Don’t simply offer the status quo and ask people to share, bring something to the table that attendees WANT to share. Never underestimate the power of community sharing.
Alright, let’s bring it back to PAX east. Last week in Boston, PUBG showed up in the final hour and dropped a huge footprint on the trade show floor. 100 synced computers for a massive live and onsite competition. The lines were hours long but attendees did not care, everyone wanted a chance to be the last man alive in this epic tournament. Our team was brought in to help create a reprieve for line waiters, and winners (and losers) of the game. We brought in a digital green screen booth, with instant RFID badge scanning. While waiting in queue, or after you had fallen in the game, you could come by and snap a photo in the game scene. Once your photo was snapped, it was instantly emailed at the social sharing stations. We even had Deadmau5 stop by to visit attendees and get his photo snapped!
Interested in learning about how we can help your team with an experiential marketing plan? Send us over an email. We love taking on challenging projects and never shy away from a grassroots plan. Let’s make something clever.
