We’ve tripled our shopper base in 8 months leading to revenue growth of over double-digit € million

(Aug 2012 to Mar 2013)

PS Plus is twice as well known now.

(16% predisposed to buying games online from PS Store vs 8% pre-campaign)

For every € spent, we got three back.

(ROI of 3:1, retargeting reducing CPC by 50%)

Reinventing the gaming retail experince to deliver outstanding digital revenue and ROI for PlayStation.

We executed a brilliant three-pronged approach to reinvent the game store and drive digital transactions.

Signpost the Digital store

• We directed shoppers to the virtual store via digital ‘billboards’- high impact rich media takeovers and video pre-rolls on the hottest gaming sites.

Reinvent the shop assistant

• Traditionally, game shoppers trusted an assistant’s opinions and recommendations. We leveraged that trust through a blogger outreach programme, empowering PS Plus’s biggest advocates to act as our online shop assistants, including content and free trials for their followers.

Personalise the ‘in-store’ experience

• We tailored every shopper’s experience according to their web browsing behaviour via cutting edge, smart re-targeting. Based on PS3 content consumed and PS3 products viewed or purchased on ecommerce sites, we created 6 game genre-specific cookie pools (e.g. shooter or adventure).

• Using dynamic creative technology to retarget shoppers, we then served ads relevant to each cookie pool, dramatically increasing conversion.

The last 18 months has seen an evolution away from traditional offline retail for console gaming and the industry is under intense pressure from low cost casual gaming threats– with the explosion of apps and social gaming causing many to reassess the money they spend on full price software titles.

Yet, we believe that there is still a market for deep immersive gaming experiences, and in particular the long term value of customers who engage in the world of PlayStation. Our challenge was to understand the economic and technological realities and leverage them.

At the heart of our plan lies PlayStation Plus- the premium online service available to PS3 owners, offering a range of downloadable games, content and services for a modest €50 annual fee.

Our idea was to reinvent the game store for the 21st century, from a cumbersome physical one to a personalised, convenient virtual shopping experience.