A short update to point you in the direction of our new website for ICO Media, our comprehensive PR service.
ICO’s PR activity has grown significantly since we started it in 2009, but we always kept it under the ICO Partners umbrella, mostly as a way to keep things simple. As it has grown significantly lately, we have decided to give it a proper space on the Internet with the launch of our ICO Media website. It’s light, simple and (hopefully) straight to the point:
So please take a few minutes to check it out: www.icomedia.eu
This is as good an opportunity as any other to remind you all that we will again be at gamescom again this year. You can contact usto arrange a meeting – or just drop by our booth to say hi – we are in the Hall 4.1, booth number A014.
https://icopartners.com/newblog/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/ICO-media.png256710Thomas BIDAUXhttps://icopartners.com/newblog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/CRUSHCREATIVE_ICO_BRANDING_LOGO_NavyWhite-01-e1586189748878.pngThomas BIDAUX2013-08-09 10:59:092016-12-23 19:48:45New website for ICO Media
We are very happy to announce that we have released our first market report directly available on the website. This is a very specialised report as we looked into client-based MMORPGs specifically, with a deeper look on how they perform in the largest countries of the region (UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Poland).
Here is the top-level bullet points on what you can find in it:
● General overview of the market: global size of the market, respective size of the key countries, business models popularity.
● Key data for the main countries: market size, preferred payment types, most popular games per language.
● List of the client-based MMORPGs in service Europe.
● Profile for each publisher with estimated revenues.
If you are curious about it, I strongly recommend to have a look at the table of contents of the report, and Joost from SuperData Research (we partnered with them on that report to make the research as complete as possible) has an article with a few key insightsfrom the report:
● The client-based MMO market totalled $1.3 billion across its major markets in 2012.
● Three publishers dominate the space, generating 70% of all revenues.
● Germany is the largest European client-based MMO market with €474MM in 2012 sales, more than double the size of the UK market (€281MM) and France (€222MM).
Since the inception of ICO Partners, it has always been our objective to provide more than our usual bespoke reports that we build for our clients. It took us some time to get to the point where we were able to build that first market report, and Diane has spent all her time for the past few months on it. Now that it has arrived, we have other segments of that market that we really want to dig into. You can expect more content on the Publications section of the website this year.
https://icopartners.com/newblog/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/report_MMORPG.png256710Thomas BIDAUXhttps://icopartners.com/newblog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/CRUSHCREATIVE_ICO_BRANDING_LOGO_NavyWhite-01-e1586189748878.pngThomas BIDAUX2013-02-04 11:09:422014-09-29 09:53:47New report out – Client-based MMORPGs in Europe
Every year, like clockwork, in the early days of November, we fly to Korea to go to Busan, in order to attend the Gstar. We will be there on Thursday and Friday, on our very own booth, as usual.
If you find yourself in the neighbourhood, you should definitely give us a shout and come say hi to Diane and myself (Thomas)
Unsurprising fact of the week (month? year?): the whole team is headed to Cologne next week for GDC Europe and gamescom. Here’s where we’ll be:
Thomas and Diane arrive on Sunday, and will be at GDC on Mon 13th and Tue 14th. They’ll be taking meetings in our B2B booth, located in Hall 4.1, A012, until Fri 17th.
The PR team will be with clients in the business centre, from Wed 15th to Fri 17th:
Jen will be with Riot Games (Hall 4.1, C051) managing press meetings for League of Legends
Nora will be with Hi-Rez Studios (Hall 4.1, B022) managing Tribes: Ascend demo attendance and SMITE match bookings
Kat will be managing the press schedule for Born Ready Games (co-exhibiting with us in Hall 4.1, A012) supporting Strike Suit Zero
Anne-Julie will be a superhero, flying in to assist where she’s needed.
If you’d like to book a meeting or meet up in the evening, please get in touch. See you on the other side…
It’s been an action packed year for the PR team so far — we’ve got great work coming out of our ears (not literally), and as a happy consequence of this, we’re hiring again!
This time, we’re looking for a native English speaker with equal amounts of writing skill, creative flair and love of online video games. Prior PR/marketing experience is a definite plus, but the role could also suit someone with a different background in online communication, like a community or social media manager. If this sounds like you, and you’re interested in joining a small, fun-loving (but hard-working) team based in Brighton, please send your CV to jobs@icopartners.com and/or ping for more info.
Here’s the job spec:
________
Who we are: ICO Partners Ltd., a small but fast-growing online games services consultancy and PR agency based in Brighton, UK. Find out all about us athttps://www.icopartners.com.
Who we need: A flexible, autonomous and motivated communications professional with a passion for online video games
Skills and requirements:
Native English speaker with very strong spoken and written communication skills
Minimum 1 year’s experience in a position involving direct contact with the media
Experience of and enthusiasm for online video games
Proven organisational and planning skills
Self-motivated approach to work; ability to work to short deadlines and under pressure
Sound judgement in dealing with media
Ability to work with and analyse data
Skills and experience in online marketing is a strong plus
Responsibilities:
Managing relationships with journalists across Europe (in English)
Working closely with clients to create and implement PR plans, schedules and communications
Drafting press releases and media alerts
Developing and updating media lists and contact databases
Participating in daily media relations tasks, including media outreach, collection and analysis of press coverage, reporting, organization of events, interviews and promotions
Assisting with market research projects
Participating in product testing as required
Remuneration : To be discussed with the candidate, based on experience
If you have been following our activities, you may be aware that we started up a media relationship management service (also called ‘public relations’/PR) called ICO Media in 2010. We recently added a new section to our website to outline our approach to media relations for online games.
So… ICO Media in 2011 was very interesting for us. We took on more PR clients, and the team had a greater variety of tasks to juggle than in the previous year. We experimented with tools to improve efficiency, learned a lot about what works for us, and streamlined our processes quite a bit.
We had to keep an ever-present eye on our resources in order to keep with the demand from clients, while at the same time maintaining the core elements of our service, which make us unique: we liaise with media throughout Europe; communicate on our clients’ behalf with a long term, sustainable perspective; and work with peripheral media that have a relevant focus in line with our clients’ games. Here come the numbers (a few more than in the last post):
– 8 different clients: 4 short term missions that ended during 2011, and 4 longer term contracts (of six months or more), all of which are currently ongoing. Four longer term contracts is really the limit for the size of our present team.
– 34 high level press releases sent to the media in English, plus 120-some localized versions. We also sent 75 lower level ‘news alerts’ over the course of 2011, which were timed to deliver key info and announcements promptly without becoming spammy.
– We reviewed and collected close to 10 000 articles published by European professional and enthusiast press in connection with the news we distributed.
– 29 reports were submitted to clients. This includes both end-of-mission summaries and the monthly reports we provide to our longer-term clients. Our reports include statistical results, press feedback, analysis and recommendations. A lot of work goes into our reporting, and we feel that’s a huge part of our value to clients.
– 247 press meetings were pre-booked for gamescom (B2B) on behalf of our 4 long-term clients. This is the number that intimidates me the most, because I am not sure we will ever beat it! Unless of course we include all the walk-up appointments we book during this year’s show in our 2012 retrospective.
Really we know that numbers are just numbers, but these particular ones make us happy. Considering that our PR service will be just 2 years old this spring, we’re proud of what the team achieved last year and how far we’ve come in such a short time. Now we’re immersed in this year’s work, and excitedly approaching some new frontiers.
Watch this space!
If you would like to know more about ICO Media and our approach to media relations, please get in touch.
https://icopartners.com/newblog/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/ICO-media001.png256710Thomas BIDAUXhttps://icopartners.com/newblog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/CRUSHCREATIVE_ICO_BRANDING_LOGO_NavyWhite-01-e1586189748878.pngThomas BIDAUX2012-01-24 10:42:052017-01-26 22:09:12Retrospective: ICO Media in 2011
