Being an adult strategy game that looked like a kid's game, the communications goal was to produce a dramatic launch that left young adults in no doubt this was a highly sophisticated game. So we set out to create a week of surreal confusion, not only to describe the game's story, but to communicate the game's play experience.

The idea behind the launch of Pikmin was driven entirely by the media strategy. A creative agency was only appointed after Nintendo had approved Starcom's radical communications strategy. This was to use radio only, an extremely brave route as the perceived wisdom in one category was that visual media were always required to show game footage.

The choice of media to launch Pikmin was radical. But the decision to use radio was not taken just to be different for the sake of being different. The Starcom team realised an adult strategy game that looked like a kid's game was best suited to the media that let its target audience visualise it for themselves. To reinforce the fact that this was an adult game, the advertising was deliberately sophisticated. A week-long teaser culminating in a two -minute commercial – a first for radio. Sales figures, 19% over target, showed what a good media idea this was.