It’s arduous to imagine it’s been practically a decade since Stefano Petrullo fashioned Renaissance PR.
Petrullo was well-known to the UK video games business again in 2015, primarily for dealing with PR for Ubisoft, which included selling video games like Watch Canine, Murderer’s Creed and Far Cry. He was nicely positioned to make the transition to being impartial, however the rise of Renaissance within the years since has been nothing in need of astounding.
It has had virtually 100 shoppers in that point, starting from giants like Atari, Plaion, Team17 and Tencent, to indie giants comparable to Bulkhead, Curve, and Sq. Enix Collective.
In 2023 alone, it promoted 150 titles by way of conventional PR, producing over 122,000 articles, which reached over 518 billion folks. It additionally labored with content material creators to advertise 23 video games, leading to 3,600 movies and had been considered greater than 38 million instances.
The group now totals 12 staff and has been nominated this month for 2 MCV Awards within the Finest PR Company and Finest Marketing campaign class. In the meantime, again in January it was acquired by international tremendous company 1SP, which permits the enterprise to develop whereas retaining what makes Renaissance distinctive.
“1SP is fabricated from 10 subsidiaries in 29 languages with 300 folks to assist the entire buyer journey,” Petrullo explains. “However we additionally maintain our identification and firm tradition permitting us to organically develop with the assistance of everybody else. This permits shoppers to unfold their danger, prices and ship nice outcomes, measurable from the actually starting.”
There are some things that Petrullo feels makes Renaissance distinctive. There’s the eagerness about what they do – “Typically there’s an excessive amount of,” he says. Then there’s the expertise of the group unfold throughout the US and UK, with everybody having not less than six years behind them.
“I do not converse with Eurogamer, I converse with Chris, Tom, Zoe and so forth”
And there’s the very fact they’re self-proclaimed “information pushed addicts”. The group revealed that it despatched practically 550,000 emails final 12 months, and despatched out over 1,600 evaluation keys to press and creators. The company’s house is in Europe, so it’s no shock that 66% of recreation mentions happen in European nations (with Germany, Italy, UK, Spain and France the largest markets). But it surely has international attain, with 19% of talked about within the US and practically 11% in Latin America.
“Renaissance provides KPIs so what you might be shopping for earlier than signing a contract with us,” Petrullo tells us. “Our KPIs are based mostly on protection related to the attain and being a part of the advertising and marketing cog that may organically increase your wishlist numbers in preparation for a launch.”
However one of many key components behind Renaissance’s rise to the highest, Petrullo says, is how they work with the media and influencers. Particularly, it’s round the concept that they work with folks, not manufacturers.
“We now have three divisions,” he says. “We now have media, we’ve got influencers and we’ve got company communications. I imagine media are extremely essential to set the tone, which influencers than amplify collectively with extra mainstream media to validate. And I imagine one of the best ways to work with them is treating them like human beings. By that I imply, understanding that there’s somebody on the opposite facet of this electronic mail and being humble. To do that job you must be humble and bold on the identical time. I do not converse with Eurogamer, I converse with Chris, Tom, Zoe and so forth and I do know I would like the protection greater than Eurogamer wants me. It’s concerning the story I’ve to inform. One factor I’ve discovered, and I’m by no means too drained to repeat, is we work with folks not manufacturers… Renaissance must make life simpler for media, content material creators and shoppers.”
Though Renaissance has had many high-profile shoppers, it’s simply as lively supporting smaller groups and indie publishers, too. Discoverability stays an enormous problem in video games, and Petrullo has some recommendation for these smaller companies in terms of PR.
“Take heed to your company,” he says. “Decide somebody that is aware of what they do as they will actually make the distinction and — please, please, please — work with somebody you belief and, when you problem them, additionally hear. Pay for experience not for time.
“And cease chasing the enterprise mannequin and information solely. These are unimaginable sources, however they have to be used to assist make selections not make these selections for you.”
One of many greatest challenges in terms of media protection is getting publications to cowl longer-tail and live-service video games, and Petrullo says that’s the place relationships with media are key. Nonetheless, there must be one thing to say, comparable to stay updates or initiatives that the PR group can use to leverage these relationships.
Petrullo provides recommendation like this freely, by way of press articles comparable to this one, and with common talks at occasions throughout the business. So naturally we needed to ask him what he sees as essential to a profitable promotional marketing campaign.
“Create a narrative and do not be a slave of belongings”
“Coordinated campaigns between advertising and marketing, PR, influencers and neighborhood are all equally essential. Begin with your Discord, construct up a neighborhood, interact the PR/Influencers organically… and do correct advertising and marketing spending,” he begins.
“Create a narrative and do not be a slave of belongings. Belongings are what you utilize for example your recreation, however there must be a message behind the. Releasing belongings with out messaging will not provide help to in the long term.
“And control the information. We predict the ‘much less is extra’ strategy is healthier than sending a press launch each week over each little element. As a result of typically this finally ends up being ignored, or dismissed by media who may simply look forward to the evaluation, if in any respect.”
Regardless of Renaissance’s apparent success, Petrullo admits he has “huge and everlasting imposter syndrome”. However his views on the video games enterprise and the place it’s heading has weight and Renaissance’s outcomes converse for itself. And the excellent news is that he stays broadly optimistic about the place the video games enterprise is heading.
“I see a more healthy market coming again and a stronger, but extra selective, business,” he explains. “The massive 2025 problem is GTA, in fact, and I imagine we are going to see a rise in AAA releases. It gained’t be as unhealthy as 2023 however clearly greater than what we’re seeing in 2024. I additionally see a pattern of extra AA video games as a result of reality blockbuster manufacturing is turning into increasingly more unsustainable and massive firm appears to be much less danger opposed.”
Renaissance is up for an MCV Award. You can vote for the PR agency here.