It’s arduous to consider it’s been practically a decade since Stefano Petrullo fashioned Renaissance PR.
Petrullo was well-known to the UK video games trade again in 2015, primarily for dealing with PR for Ubisoft, which included selling video games like Watch Canines, 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 akin to Bulkhead, Curve, and Sq. Enix Collective.
In 2023 alone, it promoted 150 titles through conventional PR, producing over 122,000 articles, which reached over 518 billion individuals. It additionally labored with content material creators to advertise 23 video games, leading to 3,600 movies and had been seen greater than 38 million instances.
The workforce now totals 12 staff and has been nominated this month for 2 MCV Awards within the Greatest PR Company and Greatest Marketing campaign class. In the meantime, again in January it was acquired by world tremendous company 1SP, which permits the enterprise to develop whereas retaining what makes Renaissance distinctive.
“1SP is product of 10 subsidiaries in 29 languages with 300 individuals to help the entire buyer journey,” Petrullo explains. “However we additionally maintain our id and firm tradition permitting us to organically develop with the assistance of everybody else. This permits shoppers to unfold their threat, 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 – “Generally there’s an excessive amount of,” he says. Then there’s the expertise of the workforce unfold throughout the US and UK, with everybody having a minimum of 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 “knowledge pushed addicts”. The workforce revealed that it despatched practically 550,000 emails final yr, 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 most important markets). Nevertheless it has world 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 primarily based on protection linked to the attain and being a part of the advertising cog that may organically increase your wishlist numbers in preparation for a launch.”
However one of many key parts behind Renaissance’s rise to the highest, Petrullo says, is how they work with the media and influencers. Particularly, it’s round the concept they work with individuals, not manufacturers.
“We now have three divisions,” he says. “We now have media, we have now influencers and we have now company communications. I consider media are extremely essential to set the tone, which influencers than amplify collectively with extra mainstream media to validate. And I consider one of the simplest ways to work with them is treating them like human beings. By that I imply, understanding that there’s somebody on the opposite aspect of this e mail and being humble. To do that job it’s important to be humble and bold on the similar 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 in regards to the story I’ve to inform. One factor I’ve realized, and I’m by no means too drained to repeat, is we work with individuals 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 on the subject 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, whilst you problem them, additionally hear. Pay for experience not for time.
“And cease chasing the enterprise mannequin and knowledge solely. These are unimaginable sources, however they should be used to assist make choices not make these choices for you.”
One of many greatest challenges on the subject 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, akin to stay updates or initiatives that the PR workforce can use to leverage these relationships.
Petrullo provides recommendation like this freely, via press articles akin to this one, and with common talks at occasions throughout the trade. 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 property”
“Coordinated campaigns between advertising, PR, influencers and neighborhood are all equally essential. Begin with your Discord, construct up a neighborhood, have interaction the PR/Influencers organically… and do correct advertising spending,” he begins.
“Create a narrative and do not be a slave of property. Property are what you employ for example your recreation, however there must be a message behind the. Releasing property with out messaging will not allow you to in the long term.
“And control the information. We predict the ‘much less is extra’ method is best than sending a press launch each week over each little element. As a result of usually this finally ends up being ignored, or dismissed by media who would possibly simply look ahead 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, trade,” he explains. “The large 2025 problem is GTA, after all, and I consider we are going to see a rise in AAA releases. It received’t be as unhealthy as 2023 however clearly greater than what we’re seeing in 2024. I additionally see a development of extra AA video games because of the truth blockbuster manufacturing is changing into increasingly more unsustainable and large firm appears to be much less threat adversarial.”
Renaissance is up for an MCV Award. You can vote for the PR agency here.