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CCP Games’ Eve Online And A Media Relations Win

04/29/2013 By Jayme Soulati

EVE Online logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Virtual gaming is nothing I’m familiar about, but how executives of CCP Games tell their story, share messages and a mission statement are. On the eve of Eve Online’s debut of DUST 514, the CCP Games media relations team scored a huge win.

This article in Bloomberg BusinessWeek showcases why and how the company is a phenom in the gaming community. Instead of getting excited about Eve Online, something that’s alien to me, I instead took a look at its similarities with social media. Virtual gamers addicted to Eve, an Icelandic space game, formation of …still in the dark?

This article from BusinessWeek will shed some light on the subject, and it’s a must read.
.

You might read it for any of the following factors:

  • Gamers who live life to play games in a virtual world without governments or rules adopt online personalities often stronger than in real life.
  • Spaceships are built and asteroids are mined for minerals to build the ships. In Russia, tycoons hire kids in real life to virtually mine the asteroids for arbitrage and ship building.
  • A counsel of gamers is selected to meet in person every six months in Iceland with CCP Games, the founders of Eve, to discuss how the game should evolve.
  • Serious relationships are formed in the game. When one of the gamers died in the Benghazi attack on the U.S Embassy and shared his last message with the world whilst playing Eve, thousands of people in the Eve community united and flew their ships to the same quadrant and spelled RIP VILE RAT like space candles.
  • The community raised $127,000 for Sean Smith’s family.

Inside Media Relations

In the midst of this 5-page, single-spaced story in BusinessWeek, the public relations factors are also impressive:

  • The co-founders shared the company mission statement, “To make virtual worlds more meaningful than real life,” and proceeded to give the reporter full opportunity to showcase the culture of CCP that knows its success is due to the 500,000 gamers (more than the population of Iceland) who subscribe.
  • The company has hired a real economist to monitor economic activity of Eve, and numerous economic studies by academics have been undertaken about the world of Eve online.
  •  The company feeds its employees (because food is expensive in Iceland) and families of employees come to eat at the company, too.
  •  The interactivity by the company with the elite Eve counsel occurs over three intense days. The gamers have a voice, and they influence how Eve evolves.
  •  Providing access to customers/game players to media for such an in-depth story is highly unusual for most companies; yet, the story is told primarily from the customer/player perspective.

 

Thoughts About Media Relations

Earning a story the likes of this one is practically a once-in-a-lifetime experience. All the factors for national media relations and the stories media love have to be in place.

Factors for National Publicity

1.    A large corporation with global reach
2.    Oodles of fanatical customers (yes, half-million would be good)
3.    A product like an online game that makes grown men stay up all night and vacation in Iceland in the dead of winter in the dark.
4.    A youthful executive team interested in giving back and opening the doors wide to showcase company secrets.
5.    Customers who do nothing but laud the product

To even begin to get to that point once factors are all secure, you need a Message Map. (I haven’t done a plug in awhile, get ready.)





is a service many types of companies need to launch, re-launch, and re-energize.

I applaud the PR team that earned the story in BusinessWeek for CCP Games. I was so inspired when I read it that I had to write about it when I’m not even a gamer and probably never will be.

Social media is enough of a game for me; yet, I see the similarities between virtual gaming and social media engagement. It’s like playing roulette; the wheel never lands on the same place twice.

What do you think about games, social media, and media relations? Got any stories about your wins you can share?


Related articles
  • ‘EVE Online’ Player Stories Will Turn Into TV Series
  • That’s logical: CCP Games to launch Dust 514 on May 14
  • CCP Games and Dark Horse Team Up for EVE Comic and Sourcebook Projects
By

Filed Under: Media Relations, Technology Tagged With: Bloomberg Businessweek, CCP, CCP Games, Dust 514, Eve, Eve Online, Iceland, Sean Smith

Using Comics In Annual Reports To Cut Clutter

04/22/2013 By Jayme Soulati

Credit: Loew's Annual Report via BusinessWeek.com

Credit: Loew’s Annual Report via BusinessWeek.com

In Bloomberg Businessweek April 22 – 28, 2013, a story about a comic book as an annual report was fetching enough to inspire this morning’s article. 

 The funny thing was, I read the name of the corporation using a comic book to inform shareholders as Lowe’s, my favorite giant hardware, lawn and garden store. Alas, the brand is Loews, just a transposition error.

 Loews is a holding company for hotels, sells business insurance, and produces energy. Imagine writing an annual report for a company as diverse as this.

 Its comic book annual report, also being called a graphic novel, stars Lotta Value, an investment hunter, who gallivants around Loews’s holdings and business units on adventures.

The creative team obviously had to think harder for this one. One critic of comic books in the article said the illustrations are “dead.” I’m impressed, but who am I?

Earned Media

Actually, I’m most impressed with the public relations team that earned nearly a two-page spread in Bloomberg Businessweek for Loews’s first foray into comic books as an annual report; complete with all the illustrations used in the “13-page graphic novel.”  

Corporate communications teams that write annual reports need to dig up inspired creativity to cut through communications clutter for shareholders, stakeholders and other interested audiences.  

 Using comics, however, is a crapshoot. Just the drawings alone have to be remarkable. For a corporation as diverse as Loews, the illustrations and copywriting have to be way above on the creatosphere.  It boils down to whether the concept appeals or if the communications team just doesn’t care.

 Bloomberg Businessweek’s take on all this is pretty believable, so I’m going with that:

 “The bottom line: Loews wants to attract more individual investors to its stock, which has returned an average of 16 percent annually for the past 50 years.”

 Using drawings and stories for annual reports means the company is ready to take a few risks and keep on going. With the birth of PI Lotta Value, the corporate communications team has a whole lotta (heh) opportunity to develop more communications vehicles featuring these cartoons. 

 I wonder if Lotta Value will become the next inspiration for a new TV series ala The Walking Dead? 

 The-Walking-Dead-Michonne.jpg

Michonne of The Walking Dead
By Jayme Soulati
Related articles
  • Apple Bans Comic Book That Features Gay Sex Scenes
  • Comic Book Villains Mashed Together with Real Life Villains
  • 4.6 Million Comics Ordered For Free Comic Book Day 2013 In May
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Filed Under: Planning & Strategy, Public Relations Tagged With: annual report, Art, Bloomberg Businessweek, Comic book, Comics, corporate communications, Earned Media, Graphic novel, Loew, Lowe, Public Relations, Retailers

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