HYPERtext linking technology and communications

Situation Analysis

South Korean game developers are respected within the global gaming community for developing quality games that appeal to a wide variety of gamers. Despite this reputation, South Korean games often fail to attract a large following due in part to the developers’ restricted budgets, which limits their ability to successfully launch their games internationally. In an effort to address this and raise the profile of South Korea as a leading game developer, the South Korean government agency Korea IT Industry Promotion Agency or (KIPA) created a Web portal to feature new games and partnered with Text 100 introduce the portal to the U.S. market.

Execution

To gain widespread awareness for the portal, game&game (www.gameNgame.com), in the U.S., Text 100 focused attention on prominent bloggers and other peer media influencers rather than taking the message to traditional media. The team targeted sites such as Joystiq, MMORPG.com, Gamustra and Geek.com. The strategy proved to be the right one; peer endorsement brought gamers to gameNgame.com and the quality games kept players coming back.

Utilizing relationships with peer media, Text 100 introduced a variety of game genres to U.S. audiences, including sports, action, fantasy and massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPG) such as the popular Silkroad and Space Cowboy. One key message was that gamers have the opportunity to try out a wide variety of games and interact with players around the globe – all through this new free service.

Evaluation

Two months after the public relations initial launch, gameNgame.com continued to enjoy a consistent level of traffic that the South Korean government attributed to the PR effort. KIPA has allocated resources to continue public relations efforts to drive traffic to gameNgame.com and will utilize public relations and peer media to introduce a subscription-based service for loyal gamers.