Client: Sega of America (San Francisco)
Client: Sega of America (San Francisco)
PR Team: Access Communications (San Francisco)
Campaign: Dreamcast launch
Time Frame: Late 1998 to Sept. 9, 1999 launch and several days
thereafter
Budget: dollars 5 million
Product Launch.
Sega of America (SOA) faced a daunting task in getting video game
consumers to give the company a second chance with its new Dreamcast
game machine. Once an industry leader, Sega had stumbled badly in recent
years and by 1998 had less than 1% of the game market.
Strategy
Access, Sega’s PR agency since 1997, began its Dreamcast efforts late
last year, following the system’s launch in Japan. Using import
Dreamcasts for demonstrations, the agency courted the gaming-enthusiast
press, and later the mainstream press, to build excitement for the Sept.
9 North America launch.
By early August awareness of the Dreamcast launch was high. But with the
media watching closely, Sega was hit by two potentially unsettling
events - the departure of SOA president Bernard Stolar in mid-August and
the discovery on the day of the launch that some software disks would
not work on the new machine.
Given their recent troubles, Sega and Access knew the media and
consumers were looking for any signs of chinks in the company’s armor.
For Stolar’s departure, they decided to meet the issue head-on. The PR
team briefed retailers and financial analysts before the news became
public to reassure them the departure would not affect the launch.
’Our message to the media was that yes, Bernie was great in organizing
the management and laying the groundwork, but that work was already
done,’ says Access VP David Karraker. ’Now the train has left the
station, and nothing is going to stop it.’
The defective software disks required a faster response. Sega traced the
problem back to a particular factory. While the problem was minimal,
affecting less than 1% of disks, the Associated Press ran a story about
it on Sept.
10. Sega and Access decided to counteract with some news of their
own.
Tactics
Charles Bellfield, SOA director of marketing, says, ’Whenever any
nonpositive news came out, we immediately put out some positive news in
terms of new sales records being broken.’ On Sept. 10, the company
announced Dreamcast had generated dollars 97 million in sales in 24
hours, surpassing Star Wars: The Phantom Menace as the largest
single-day launch in entertainment history.
’Star Wars was a great benchmark because it was still fresh in the minds
of most people,’ says Bellfield. Sega followed that up with a release
noting 372,000 Dreamcasts had been sold in the first four days,
reinforcing the product’s early success.
The PR team used the Internet as a key component, not only to
disseminate information about replacing faulty software, but also to
build overall Dreamcast awareness through news groups and e-mail
announcements.
Results
While Stolar’s departure and the defective disks received some play,
most media focused on the system itself. In the 96 hours following the
launch, 904 TV news segments were run, generating 286 million audience
impressions. Included were pieces on ABC World News Tonight, Good
Morning America, CBS Today and CNN.
Time, Business Week and U.S. News & World Report each devoted features
to Dreamcast, while Newsweek did two full-page stories. Coverage in
major newspapers included The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal
and Los Angeles Times. USA Today has run 10 Dreamcast-related stories
since early September. ’Our key messages were played back in 90% of all
media coverage,’ Karraker adds proudly.
Future
Sega and Access are going back to major outlets to tout Dreamcast as the
’must have’ holiday gift. Long-lead magazines were courted back in June
and July, and the team is currently pitching shorter lead media with the
Christmas-buying message.
