The 2016 Game Marketing Awards has announced the winners of its 10th annual contest for the best marketing campaigns in the game industry. The winners say a lot about who is savvy about connecting with gamers, as well as what gamers are interested in when it comes to hearing about their favorite franchises.
The awards will be announced live on Twitter at @PromaxBDA. The awards for marketing team of the year go to Microsoft Xbox, and agency of the year goes to AKQA.
Among the trailers and commercials receiving awards is the Master Chief’s obituary trailer (misleading as it was) for Microsoft’s Halo 5: Guardians. Then there was the the eerie It’s All Over but the Crying song, which ushered in in a new installment of the Fallout saga. Then there was the silly Madden: The Movie Hollywood movie spot spoof featuring Julio Jones, Rob Gronkowski and Colin Kaepernick — all as part of the marketing for Madden NFL 16.
These awards previously accompanied the Game Marketing Summit in past years. But this year, there’s no physical event and the winners are being announced on Twitter. The Game Marketing Summit has changed ownership from IDG to PromaxBDA, and so the event is on hiatus for a year.
Altogether, 39 awards will be announced today. There were nearly 600 entries for the awards, which cover campaigns that ran in 2015. A panel of judges from the industry determined the winners.
“We’ve seen some truly amazing and successful games hit store shelves this past year,” said Stacy La Cotera, general manager and vice president of global awards at PromaxBDA, in a statement. “These games in large part owe their success to the wonderfully talented and creative people behind their promotional campaigns. With the 2016 Game Marketing Awards, we recognize their efforts and give them the distinction they deserve as some of the best examples of great marketing today.”
Here are some of the winners:
BEST USE OF ESPORTS
Heroes of the Dorm
MOST INNOVATIVE PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENT
BEST CG FOR A VIDEO ASSET
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – A Night to Remember
OUTSTANDING OVERALL MARKETING CAMPAIGN – CORE GAMES (Sports, Action, etc.)
Rise of the Tomb Raider
MOST CREATIVE PRE-ORDER PROGRAM
Just Cause 3 – Win an Island
BEST LIMITED EDITION, SPECIAL EDITION OR COLLECTOR’S EDITION
Fallout 4 Pip-Boy Edition
Here’s the Fallout 4 trailer.
And here’s another winner: