SkyFest 2024
In 2024, thatgamecompany - the award winning studio behind Sky: Children of the Light, faced a convergence of events that challenged its traditional marketing approach. While the product had a 5th Anniversary rapidly approaching, executive missteps in the Asian market undermined community building efforts, resulting in a stagnating user base and significant loss of brand momentum.
SkyFest 2024 was my answer to this problem. I created a series of flagship events and activations across China and Japan to engage with problematic geos, offering culturally relevant and localized content that delighted and surprised current, lapsed, and potential consumers. Simultaneous product updates, in-game experiences, influencer campaigns, and content marketing initiatives were launched across China, Japan, South Korea, and the United States, creating an industry-first fully-synchronized marketing experience.
The result? 1.3M+ consumers reached, average NPS of +89, $128M ARR, and 236M+ earned UMV.
The flagship activation in Shinjuku welcomed tens of thousands of fans to the heart of Tokyo to celebrate the 5th Anniversary of Sky: Children of the Light.
The Mainstage at Shinjuku hosted exclusive keynotes, featuring the reveal of new content for the animated series The Two Embers and a special appearance by Moomin to announce the Moomin X Sky product collaboration.
An integrated video livestream feature brought the campaign into the game, enabling fans worldwide to engage in real time.
For players in the app, the festival was recreated with exclusive in-game experiences, letting fans enjoy the excitement of the campaign without leaving the game.
Hundreds of thousands of players joined in-game and on stream to celebrate the 5th Anniversary alongside in-person attendees.
To maximize the video streaming integration, past developer conference sessions and deep dives were synchronized into the in-game experience, giving attendees both in-person and online access to content 24/7 throughout the festival period.