Xbox Series X Launch
Product Detail Page
Wunderman Thompson / Seattle / 2020 / Gold & Silver Addy
XBOX’S BIGGEST LAUNCH—YET
The task at hand.
In February of 2020, my team and I were tasked with kicking PlayStation’s marketing butt. We were asked to create a “world-class PMP” (Product Marketing Page for those that don’t speak MSFT) experience to welcome Xbox’s next-generation console, which happened to align with Playstation’s 5th generation console launch. Yup, I played a role in the 2020 Battle of the Consoles, a race for the next-gen gaming crown.
CHALLENGE & AUDIENCE
Given the high profile of the work, details of the device such as audience focus groups, visuals, specs, price, launch date, etc. were not readily available. Never the less we got kicked-off under an NDA and started to ideate, however, as we prepared our office to securely work on this project the pandemic hit hard and the country started to shut down. That extra level of complexity would prove challenging for everyone involved. It was a hell of a ride, one I’m most proud of.
STRATEGY
To excite and delight while controlling the launch narrative. As a team, we worked through every message to carefully craft a story for each audience and showed how they fit in the Xbox ecosystem, how performance will provide them the best experience, and unpacked the larger Xbox story. In the end, the site would be an extension of the consoles, the premise of the Series X experience. I made sure we embedded the strategy and CIA teams in the creative process, working dynamically to answer every question and ensure that every creative detail mapped back to our audiences’ human truths.
The minute I got to see the consoles for the first time, I decided we should embraced its shape to inform our PMP designs.
HOPES AND DREAMS
Concepts.
We wanted to do the devices and the moment justice, our self-assigned-goal was to help you believe Xbox will power your dreams, we wanted to accomplish this by saying less and showing more, we wanted shock you, we wanted to make you feel.
My goal was to make you the hero, turn you into Master Chief and give you a chance to choose your own adventure. We were going to hide secrets in the site’s intro and have you search for them as Jon-117. Then we would take you inside the console to show you it’s bits and pieces to teach you how each of those pieces of technology would enhance your experience. It needed to be dreamy, powerful, and exciting.
The final product.
Needless to say that even though some of our hopes and dreams didn’t see the “light-of-day”, for reasons that only accountants and political figures would understand, I am incredibly proud of what we put together, and on a selfish note; I am over the moon knowing this is the third and fourth console we help Xbox launch and every time the client has asked for “Jj and team” to guide them home.
Every animation on these pages was concepted, designed, and produced by team WT.
I oversaw a team of animators from Seattle and our sisters offices in Argentina and Costa Rica.
This band of rebels created some of the elements of the site I’m most proud of.
Parallax was important for the client. This was music to our ears as parallax is the catnip of designers, however, I wanted it to be subtle and purposeful. In keeping with the theme of the dream, we added a hint of simple fade-ins and fade-outs to the background of panels to create a sense of depth and change, I’m super stoked with the results.
Message & tone.
I wanted our copy to sound more like gamers and less like stakeholders talking to each other. We needed to do right by the people pulling off combos and trashing records, as well as tap into the pop-culture scene, and show why Xbox is indeed cooler than PlayStation.
64% of traffic was coming from mobile devices.
So naturally mobile what a huge deal. I’m not going to tell you “we designed mobile-first” for two reasons, one: what a cliche, and two: MSFT VP review cycles were not going to allow for that process. I welcomed the challenge and manage to stay ahead of the ball by deconstructing in sketch and annotations every design decision we were making on a bigger breakpoint.
One hundred ninety-one percent.
Engagement increased to an average of six minutes spent on-site compared to the two minutes on average from previous launches.
The Xbox Series X sold out in less than 20 minutes.
Making it the of the most successful launches yet for Microsoft and the entire Xbox team. There were so many pieces that needed to coordinate between agencies, partners, clients, and the audience. 2020 brought the world to a halt, but we kept the gamers running and the none gamers found a new love in the digital world.
Xbox is by far my favorite account, is creative, is bold, and it sells an experience.
