Xbox Ultimate Game Sale

Skills: campaign direction, asset management and training, illustration, creative direction

Situation:
The Ultimate Game Sale (UGS) is Microsoft’s largest sale of the year for games, consoles, and accessories— Xbox, PC, and beyond. 

As the Associate Creative Director on Microsoft Store Studio focused on gaming campaigns, I worked in tandem with senior marketing teams to align the broad campaign creative with UGS marketing and ROI goals. The campaign stretches across digital placements, both owned and external, and is also international, which requires a ton of flexibility in the campaign creative.

This year-long project resulted in two main deliverables: a brand guide and toolkit of usage, examples, and design guidance for marketing and business teams across the US and internationally, and also a creative direction and asset toolkit for production teams, both in Washington and Singapore.

Action:
My first step was research. I took a look at the broader gaming landscape and noted creative niches Xbox already filled, and could fill. This also included a survey of color, and a proposed palette that included Xbox Green, the trademark color, but also vibrant Day-Glo coloring that was rising in popularity with 90s nostalgia. Additionally, I chose and manipulated a content library of background assets, complete with moveable clipping for different viewports and sizes. Because of the vast diversity of the international gaming audience, I centered on 3 core background concepts— urban, natural, and cosmic. The key element of the campaign was my illustrated abstractions, which came in two versions (both shown here): noodles and pixels. Both directions feel youthful and clean, but inherently whimsical. They invite us to play.

My role as ACD from an interpersonal standpoint meant I had four direct reports— 3 designers, 1 copyrighter. I held biweekly meetings and group reviews to approve campaign creative, both localized for international audiences and US domestic.