Taking Deus Ex Beyond the Core
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Deus Ex global executive brand director Andre Vu took some time out of his day to chat with GamesIndustry.biz about the pre-announcement "Project CKP" marketing campaign they ran on Twitch for Mankind Divided, the steps they've taken and continue to take in order to broaden the franchise's audience, and more. A bit of what to expect:
"I do believe that, in general, the exposure of a game announcement shouldn't be limited to its core audience," Vu said. "Deus Ex: Mankind Divided's themes (transhumanism, technological progress, world conspiracies etc.) are universal, and I do believe that it can touch a wider audience, even moving beyond gamers themselves. Ultimately, we feel we made the right decision, as the Project CKP campaign was picked up by both mainstream and enthusiast press as they speculated on what game was about to be announced. As a result, the game has now become more widely known amongst both gamers and non-gamers alike, something that we are very proud and excited about."
Vu said the campaign exceeded the team's rosiest expectations, with more than 1.7 million views from more than 1 million unique users, and more Twitch followers in 48 hours than unspecified "AAA competitors" had managed in the lifetime of their channels.
"We were also pleasantly surprised to see other major brands, such as Old Spice, deciding to run a similar campaign only one week after us," Vu said. "This proved that we were right to follow this innovative approach, and that sometimes taking risks can definitely pay off!"
Even if audiences didn't know exactly what game they were seeing promoted, Vu said it was still critical that the marketing campaign echo the franchise's thematic pillars. The entire marketing and brand strategy is intended to echo everything about the franchise, including the in-game content and themes.
"We wanted the audience to experience the current state of the world in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, which is referred to as the Mechanical Apartheid," Vu said. "What was also important to us was that one of the core parts of the Deus Ex experience, choice and consequence, was reflected throughout the Twitch stream. This was done through the use of interactive votes, where players could decide which path would be taken by the characters within the Twitch stream, and view the direct consequence of their choice."
