Vice City Wireless Promotion a First for the Games Industry

This is the first use of MMS within the games industry and represents a significant step forward in the use of wireless promotion.

Marketing agency YourRelease Ltd (YR) has helped Rockstar and Take 2 achieve a first in the games industry. During the first 2 weeks of November fans of the GTA series will be able to get exclusive Vice City MMS backgrounds, logos, ringtones and picture messages completely free. The wireless portal has been placed on the Games Radar home page and will be giving away 10,000 worth of promotional mobile goodies every day.

This is the first use of MMS within the games industry and represents a significant step forward in the use of wireless promotion. These images and logos are exclusive and can only be obtained during this promotional period" says Seth Jackson, Marketing Manager at YR. They should help increase the excitement and buzz around what is already an astonishingly popular game. Every time someones phone rings or they put it down on the table they are letting people know about the game. With the MMS element they can use the images to create their own personalised messages. Its viral marketing in its purest form."

YR had created a simpler wireless portal for the Take 2 club earlier in the year. This gave away tones and logos for Mafia, Hidden and Dangerous and GTA3. The move to a much larger scale promotion for Vice City was a reflection of the success of these earlier promotions and a willingness to embrace the new breed of MMS compatible phones.

Julian Hoddy, Online Marketing Manager for Take 2 says Using the mobile medium to reach our game hungry market has been greatly overlooked by Videogame publishers. After running several successful mobile campaigns in association with YourRelease, and coupled with the massive ROI, were now converted to the benefits this untapped medium offers."

In total the promotion will give away over 100,000 worth of MMS images, ringtones, logos and picture messages during the two week period.

YR is currently working on a wireless promotion for Take 2s Vietcong expected early 2003, and their Serious Sam Xbox title releasing this Xmas.