We introduced an unprecedented new call-to-action: own your design. With one click, gamers could claim ownership of their design. Which meant the more people who buy your design, the more money you earn. It changed behaviour. With a vested interest, gamers started behaving like entrepreneurs, essentially selling our product for us. They spotted gaps in the market, claiming designs that would sell within their communities. Sports teams, flags, current events, even charitable causes … if it had a fanbase, someone owned a design around it. Gamers then made direct marketing campaigns to sell to their social networks, while Xbox made bespoke ads to promote people’s designs in-store, OOH, online, on the Xbox dash, on TV and in print. It created a positive feedback loop, all leading to more site visits, more designs, more sales. By letting our target audience claim ownership of their design, in the end everybody profited.

On the website, people could customize their controller, then were asked to claim ownership of it. If others buy that design, you’d earn money. Every designer had artwork to make direct marketing campaigns for their controller on social networks. Xbox supported gamers using owned and paid media (including OOH, TV, in-store, dashboard, print and banners) to promote people’s controllers with bespoke ads. The new model empowered our audience to think strategically. They claimed controllers around things with fan bases, like Manchester United, Trump, and the Minions. The campaign initially began with Influencer social activity, starting from 1 April 2017, with the ‘claim your design’ feature released online on 1 May 2017, simultaneously with call-to-action online display ads and a feature on the Xbox dashboard. Retail support then kicked in on 30 May 2017, and print ads began appearing in the July and August 2017 editions of trade magazines.

- Design Lab controller sales increased by 350%

- 41% response rate (41% of site visitors claimed ownership of a design, leading to increased engagement)

- Average amount earned was $95.24

- The top earner made $1,131

Xbox’s target audience was gamers who were interested in creating customized controllers on the Design Lab site, but were put off by the price and didn’t follow through to purchase. To target these people, we introduced an unprecedented new call-to-action: own your design. So now if others buy your design, you’d earn from it. The response rate was phenomenal, with 41% of users claiming ownership of a design, then behaving entrepreneurially, creating their own direct marketing to their social networks. Overall, the vested interest built a deeper relationship with our audience, resulting in a 350% sales increase.

At a time when our target audience was concerned about the cost of gaming, Xbox had to convince them to buy controllers that cost 50% more than normal ones. Furthermore, Xbox was not the first brand to allow its audience to customize a product, so that alone was not enough to overcome the price barrier. Hence, our strategy was to tap into the sense of pride that gamers felt when designing their controller, and intercept them at that touchpoint. If we were asking them to essentially design our product, then the relationship should be reciprocal. So our approach was to treat our audience as professional designers, letting them claim ownership over, and have the ability to earn from, their controller design. This new approach of giving them a vested interest served as a compelling incentive to interact more with Design Lab, create more controllers and sell them to their networks.

Back in 2016, Xbox launched Design Lab, an online store for customising controllers. However, in 2017, they approached us with a problem: Design Lab’s customisable controllers are relatively expensive, retailing at 50% more than standard controllers, which was proving to be a barrier to purchase for the target audience. With concerns amongst these gamers around the high cost of gaming, how could Xbox take cost out of the equation, in order to increase sales of Design Lab controllers?