Wishing on our stars

Oct 9th 2008 at 16:10 by Tim Ingham

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The last great mountainous obstacle to games PR, that is: the celebrity endorsement.

In days gone by, the protocol was simple: Shell out on fading star willing to have their mug associated with ‘nerdy computer games’, slap their moniker all over your box and get them to attend a signing session with the same bemused face we’d all seen 1,000 times before.

Things have improved slightly in recent years, of course. As games have became more accepted as a viable entertainment medium - more ‘mainstream’ – so their impression amongst the rich and famous improved.

But even with Chris Moyle boorishly guffawing about his Xbox Live experiences or Iain Lee recycling the same gag about Sam Fox’s Strip Poker, we still hadn’t solved the riddle: How could we use celebrities as well as the music, video or books industries? And how could that get us in the papers more often?

The answer, it turned out, was a simple one: Do things completely differently. And casual gaming taught us the lesson.

Whether it’s Ubisoft’s ingenious use of TV’s teeth-n-slight-cleavage-dad-fantasies Holly Willoughby (pause, breathe) and Fearne Cotton; Nintendo’s parading of Captain Kirk shoe-filler Patrick Stewart; or Atari’s employment of mash-mouthed foody Jamie Oliver, the messaging is very clear, and markedly different from what it's ever been before.

Because it’s no longer just about celebrities endorsing these games; it’s about demonstrating how they enjoy them.

Video games is an interactive medium, and so it stands to reason that the audience will want to see their idols getting down and dirty with the products.

By handpicking a celeb your target audience would aspire to be, your consumers no longer only want their jeans, hair and bracelet: they want their DS or 360, too.

It’s a huge leap forward for gaming’s public image – and in an age where celebrity obsession rules all in column-inch Top Trumps, it’s a great time to have realised it.

It’s worked so well, it’s already influenced operations outside of the casual sphere.

Never one to be caught without its ear to the ground, EA Sports' use of Wayne Rooney has already included a full page news story in The Sun.

The yam-faced wunderkind’s wife, Coleen, is apparently upset that FIFA ’09 ‘model’ Wayne spends so much playing on his PS3. And what game keeps ‘our Coleen’s’ bed chilly at night?

As if we really need to tell you.