CASE STUDY:
Online Gaming - National Promotion - College Market

College Poker Championships

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Strategy:

Lotus developed an intense campaign to raise awareness for the second annual tournament through a strategic mix of high-profile mainstream media opportunities, worldwide poker publications, both online and in print, and targeted local media placements. Blogs and forums were also leveraged to keep a steady stream of news regarding the tournament circulating online and allow students to discuss the tournament between the matches.

To keep up the excitement and coverage momentum throughout the course of the 30 weekly tournaments, we established a news bureau that posted the weekly results to pique the interest of student newspapers, daily newspapers and broadcast media in key markets around key schools.

Results:

• The media relations efforts and coverage orchestrated by Lotus PR helped fuel a record breaking year for the College Poker Championship with a 150% increase in the number of students that participated from the previous year.
• More than 25,000 students from 55 countries around the world 10 times the number of participants the previous year—played in the semi-final and championship tournament for the title of World’s Best College Poker Player.
• More than 250 articles written about the College Poker Championship throughout the 30 week campaign including national, regional and local publications such as: the Associated Press, Sports Illustrated On Campus, The Washington Post, NPR, Chicago Tribune, Sacramento Bee, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Atlanta Journal -Constitution