Building Massive Consumer Awareness

Seattle-based Big Fish Games approached Communiqué PR in 2006 for critical PR consultation. At that time, in the rapidly growing video/online casual games market, it was essential that Big Fish Games secure a market lead and drive massive consumer awareness. Casual games are usually played for a short duration of time - typically from five to 20 minutes - although, because they are addictively fun and easy to master, it's not uncommon for people to play for longer periods of time.

PR objectives

When Communiqué PR began working with Big Fish Games, the company was focused on growing its share of the casual games market and building brand awareness with consumers, game developers, prospective partners and future investors.

Given this, the public relations objectives were threefold: To secure massive coverage in publications read by consumers, drive coverage in games industry publications, and to reach potential partners and future investors by sharing the story and vision of Big Fish Games and its executives.

Our strategy

Communiqué PR developed a multi-prong plan to reach key audiences needed to accomplish the company's business and communication objectives. We educated consumer media about the growing and oftentimes secret passion of their readers - playing casual games. We tied casual gaming to key lifestyle trends and consumer habits and demonstrated that this growing form of interactive entertainment was disruptive to other businesses. We partnered with Big Fish Games to identify a steady stream of announcements that would be relevant to industry press. We also ensured that industry media received access to new game releases and complementary resources including art work and customer testimonials to bring the story to life.

Results

The strategies and tactics we employed generated broad consumer coverage with outlets including Associated Press, Family Circle, Gamasutra, Game Informer, IGN, Inc, KING5 News, Kotaku, MSNBC, the New York Times, NPR, Parade Magazine, PaidContent, Reader's Digest, Reuters, Seattle Business, Self, TechCrunch, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal, as well as many other outlets.

The company's reputation as a leader in online interactive entertainment has been instrumental in attracting customers, key partners and additional investment funding. Today Big Fish Games is a known and trusted brand distributing more than 1.5 million games per day worldwide. Company revenues have grown from $24 million in 2006 to $84.1 million in 2008. In August 2008, Big Fish Games successfully secured $83.3 million venture funding.