"What if the Zelda CD-i games were good?" asked no one.
Well, Seth Fulkerson had an answer, and in 2023 I had the pleasure of running LRG's marketing campaign for Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore, one of the biggest indie underdogs of the year.
Reaching Fans with Targeted Ads
Arzette isn't your average game, so we knew that standard ads just wouldn't cut it.
Instead, we hit fans who were around for the original Zelda CD-i titles in a familiar, nostalgic place: print ads that filled their social media feeds and gaming sites that stopped them dead in their tracks.
I created the "Fine Art" campaign to get "back to the basics." Arzette's gameplay and cutscenes weren't the only thing that was reminding gamers about the way things used to feel--our ads did the same, taking them back to the time when print was king, and attention spans were long enough to read more than just a tweet.
This was also my way of leaning into the fact that the game only has one HD asset, because that was never what the fans were here for. We knew they wanted this style, and they loved seeing more of it!
LRG is no stranger to site takeovers on pages like Fandom and IGN. I built these ads for pre and post launch support, since Fine Art was primarily focused on the game's launch window. There were creative variations for all of the sizes shown below, with an A/B test showing that the print ad was more effective at driving clicks to our Steam page.
Creating Memorable Activations
Nintendo Life's press kit photo
Nintendo Life's press kit photo
Everyone loves creating buzz in the press, but how do you do it with a game that's a spiritual successor to some of the worst games of all time? Simple. You double down.
No stranger to weirdness and left-field releases, having developed the definitive edition of the infamous Plumbers Don't Wear Ties one year prior, these were not uncharted waters. Instead of shying away from the infamous nature of the old CD-i titles, we instead gave the press a taste of what it was like to play games with the console's worst controller, as well, alongside several other curated goodies and a hand-crafted mini magazine featuring an interview with the game's developer and producer.
This earned media opportunity built up the hype for fans, leading to influencers like the Game Grumps telling us that they wanted in on this bizarre, terrible control scheme.
Later that year, the controller returned in gold as a prize for our Arzette speedrun challenge at our first-ever NYC pop-up shop, held in an exclusive "Assassin's Case."
These paid and organic social ads combined with our engaging trailers, fan content, and event activations to drive the most sales for an LRG digital title at the time of release.
The controller came back in a gold-colored variant, only available to the best speedrunners at our LRG x SOHO pop-up in NYC! These "assassin cases" were a hit!