We transformed the customer journey by letting gamers claim ownership of their design. So now, the more people who buy your design, the more money you earn. It changed behaviour, turning gamers into entrepreneurs, who spotted gaps in the market to claim designs that would sell. Sports teams, flags, current events, even charitable causes … if it had a fanbase, someone owned a design around it. Gamers promoted their controllers on their social channels, 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 rethinking the brand’s core touchpoint and letting customers profit from what they designed, in the end everybody profited.

On the website, people could customize their controller, then claim ownership of it. If others buy that design, the designer would earn money. Every designer received artwork, enabling them to market their controller on social channels and forums. 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 the global gaming community to think strategically. They claimed controllers inspired by 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% of site visitors claimed a design

- Average amount earned was $95.24

- The top earner made $1,131

This idea is relevant for Brand Experience & Activation Lions as it fundamentally reimagined the Xbox Design Lab brand’s customer journey. By changing the retail experience to allow customers to own and earn money from their controller design, the idea instigated genuine change in consumer behaviour and audience engagement, which led to greater success for the brand, increasing the controller sales by 350%.

At a time when the gaming community was growing concerned about the cost of gaming, Xbox had to convince gamers to buy controllers that cost 50% more than normal ones. Faced with that audience barrier-to-purchase, the strategy was to tap into the sense of pride that gamers felt when designing their controller, and then make a bold leap from there. If we were going to ask them to go to the effort of essentially designing our product, then the relationship, we surmised, should be reciprocal. Hence, our approach was to essentially treat our audience as professional designers, giving them ownership over, and 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 the customization tool, create more controllers and sell them to their networks.

In 2016, Xbox launched Xbox Design Lab, an online store that let gamers customise controllers. In 2017, they approached us with a problem – Design Lab controllers are relatively expensive, retailing at a price 50% more than standard controllers. With concerns within the gaming community around the high cost of gaming in general, how could Xbox take cost out of the equation, in order to increase sales?