This idea is relevant for Entertainment because it redefined the way in which video games could entertain people, connecting with consumers in a whole new way. While the category norm was to focus on gameplay and action, in order to target a wider audience Xbox pushed the boundaries of the gaming industry by transforming into a travel brand, giving people a new reason to buy games – not to play them, but to go sightseeing in them – a feat achieved thanks to the campaign’s centrepiece ‘The Rough Guide to Xbox’ – the first travel guide to virtual worlds.

Although Xbox is an established brand amongst the gaming community, there was still a need to expand brand affinity beyond its hard-core audience. For a brand that believes gaming should be for all, the main objective was to attract a new audience who didn’t care about action and weapons in videogames, which traditionally was the focal point of videogame marketing, and was traditionally the source of its entertainment.

We created a new reason to be entertained by games. Don’t play. Visit.

Because games had become so beautiful and detailed, we began promoting them as genuine travel destinations. In a ground-breaking partnership with one of the world’s leading travel publishers, we created The Rough Guide to Xbox – the first travel guide for virtual worlds. This enabled people to engage with games in a new way, building brand affinity with a whole new audience. The transformation was completed with a range of online and offline travel-led experiences that all made people enjoy video games as viable tourist destinations – particularly useful after Covid-19 hit and travel restrictions were put in place.

To target a new mainstream audience, tech benefits of Xbox like 4K, HDR, and 60 FPS wouldn’t resonate, and neither would the conventions of videogame advertising like action and weapons.

We had to get people to appreciate the richness of Xbox's games without talking about gameplay. So the major strategic shift, moving from the rational to the emotional, was to unlock a new, previously untapped side to games to give them a new reason to buy. Graphics had evolved to such an extent, and game worlds had become so vast, that we could now think of them not as things to play, but as places to visit.

The Rough Guide to Xbox - the first travel guide for virtual worlds – was the centrepiece of a wide-scale new campaign to make people be entertained by games in a way they never had before.

Launched in January 2020 at a major travel expo, sold online, and amplified with films, OOH, in-game guided tours based on the book, console bundles re-framed as vacation packages, a gaming photography exhibition, video call backgrounds and much more – this was a campaign that started well before Covid-19 but gained added utility once the world could no longer travel.

- Debuted in 29 countries and counting

- 4x average response rate

- 55% traffic increase

- 67% above average engagement rate

- Conde Nast Traveler, the bible of the travel sector, praised our travel guide for establishing gaming tourism as a legitimate trend.