Over 6 million people play Final Fantasy XIV online and it has a vociferous fanbase.
However since FFXIV is over three years old, interest in the realm of Eorzea is rarely found beyond its community and very specialist gaming and MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online game) sites.
Luckily we have a lot of Final Fantasy fans in the office, so it was with delight that we recently went across to the Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival in Frankfurt with the challenge of getting as much coverage as possible.
How did we do it?
We decided to play on the phenomenon, rather than the game itself, and use the event to generate coverage both within and outside of the standard gaming press.
We positioned FanFest as the chance to see how fanatical gamers are for the franchise and invited 18 journalists and a few YouTube influencers from the UK and the Nordics to come join us.
Chocobos were raced, Cosplay was admired, FFXIV was played, press conferences were attended, Samurais were announced, incredible live music was listened to and, ultimately, coverage was generated.
A lot of it.
Over 70 pieces of coverage in fact (and counting) all with strong FFXIV messaging.
That includes pieces in The Sun, Daily Express, The i paper, 2 videos from Yogscast channel Hat Films, BT, SBTV and a host of others through Press Association. There was also plenty of coverage across the core media such as VG24/7, Eurogamer, IGN, Kotaku, GameReactor and more.
What’s more, most of the team have a Chocobo keyring now. You might need to look that up.
