Building THE FINALS: A Full-Service Marketing Model That Scaled With the Game

THE FINALS, the free-to-play shooter from Embark Studios set out to redefine the live gaming landscape. To help them on their mission, they needed a partner to outsource their entire marketing operation to: they found that partner with ICHI and Keywords Studios Marketing Services.

The Challenge

The live-service, shooter space is highly competitive with many established titles vying for player attention. THE FINALS offers a unique take on the genre, where players can alter, exploit and even destroy the game arena: Embark Studios would need a marketing strategy that would clearly differentiate THE FINALS from the competition, capture the interest of gamers, and build excitement within the community. To this end, Embark Studios needed a partner with deep experience in the space who could define and a cohesive go-to-market strategy that would ensure THE FINALS would secure a solid foot hold with FPS fans.

Without an in-house marketing team, Embark would also need a partner to creatively execute against that strategy, and who could scale to deliver PR, community management, media planning and other marketing services.

Key Deliverables

Full-Service Marketing Department
Creative Strategy & Production
PR
Community Management

The Solution

To provide Embark Studios with a full, end-to-end marketing solution, ICHI developed a new arm of their business: ICHI Marketing. Through this new unit, ICHI embedded marketing experts within Embark Studio’s team to act as a defacto in-house marketing function. ICHI Marketing then leant on the wider strategic and creative capabilities of the ICHI studio to lead on marketing strategy, creative strategy, production and campaign planning.

By embedding ICHI team members within Embark the team were able to collaborate more actively than the traditional agency model allows, and iterate ideas at pace. And as marketing planning progressed, ICHI were able to lean on the wider Keywords Studios network of marketing agencies to lend specialist expertise to Embark.

Our Community Management team and LA-based agency DMM were brought in to lend their community and social expertise, ICHI collaborated closely with 47 Communications to act as Embark’s PR agency, Waste Creative supported on market research and teams within Fire Without Smoke and Trailer Farm brought game capture expertise to ensure all creative demonstrated the game play experience with authenticity.

This hub and spoke model meant that Embark had dedicated team to collaborate on marketing projects day to day, and an extended team of domain experts, all managed without friction, from a central lead partner.

A masked character wearing a panda-themed hoodie and holding batons, set against a red background from THE FINALS video game

Results

THE FINALS emerged with a distinct voice and aesthetic that set it apart in a crowded market. The game’s strong brand identity made it an immediate standout, and an exciting alternative for players looking for a new FPS experience.

As a Live Ops game, having ICHI Marketing embedded within Embark enabled the team to deliver a consistent stream of content and communication, maintaining interest in the game and keeping players engaged.

Image sources: THE FINALS; Forbes